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It’s encouraging to see people advocating for MI theory in different sectors. In this recent article on how to create successful digital literacy programs in the workplace, the author urges businesses to bear MI theory in mind when thinking about how to train their employees.
Click here for the full article: https://builtin.com/company-culture/digital-literacy-business
Photo credit Scott Graham on Unsplash
In this recent article from Verywell Health (click here for link), autism advocate Lisa Jo Rudy, suggests several ways that visual tools may be used to help children with autism learn and thrive.
Scientist and activist, Temple Grandin, popularized the idea that people with autism are “visual thinkers” with her book, Thinking in Pictures. Grandin, who has autism, described how she "thinks in pictures" not words. This makes interpersonal skills more challenging, but proves to be an advantage in other areas, such as designing livestock facilities in Grandin’s case. Howard Gardner has said that although children with autism can experience impaired interpersonal intelligence, they may have remarkable other abilities, for example, musical, mechanical, or spatial.
Spatial intelligence is used for navigation, map-reading, visualizing objects from different angles, visual arts, recognizing faces or scenes, and noticing fine details. Brain research has indicated the posterior regions of the right cerebral cortex are most important for spatial processing.
Gardner encourages teaching methods that allow students to use multiple intelligences. The article gives ideas on how to use visual tools which enable children with autism to use their spatial intelligence, especially if they experience challenges in linguistic intelligence.
In a recent article in The Financial Times, Michael Spitzer makes this fascinating claim:
“I would contend that music is perhaps the most mportant thing we (human beings) ever did, if primarily for the simple reason that music evolved before language—in fact, a million years earlier.”
To support this claim, Spitzer daws on evidence that human beings moved rhythmically millions of years ago, engaged in rhythmic activities (like carving stone tools, foraging for plants, making tracks) over a million years ago, created a variety of sounds 700,000 years ago, and were creating and playing flutes at least 40,000 years ago.
Of course, it’s intriguing in its own right that the origins of music go so far back in pre-history. But I’m interested in this claim for another reason. One of the main assumptions of the theory of multiple intelligences is that the various intelligences have different evolutionary histories and, accordingly, different cortical representation. If correct, Spitzer’s claim refutes the widespread belief that musical and linguistic capacities are closely allied, or even that human music piggy backs on human language (a claim that would be surprising to song birds!)
The article “The singing ape: how music made us human” is available at: www.ft.com/content/523b245c-d818-4921-b795-2b81f4bd44ba).
Photo by Spencer Imbrockon Unsplash
Howard Gardner was recently interviewed by Tekman Education in Spain. For our Spanish speakers, the interview appears here in Spanish.
Below is the Q&A in English on which the published interview is based. Gardner answered questions ranging from neuroscience, global competence, and MI Theory, to his work on The GoodProject. For more on The GoodProject, please visit the website here.
The neuroeducational perspective calls into question some aspects of multiple intelligences theory. Do you think that the theory is compatible with neuroscience or should it be understood as a didactic strategy? Why do you think it has been so successful in education?
Howard Gardner:
“MI theory” was developed in part on the basis of neurological evidence available in 1980. This was an important empirical basis for the theory; but of course we know much more about the brain now than we did forty years ago.
The theory now has an independent life, apart from the original research basis. And it has been applied in places—like schools—where it has been useful, even if the supportive research basis today would be more complete—and somewhat different—than it was in 1980.
Which information data collection methods do you recommend for the evaluation of a student's multiple intelligences? How can teachers know if they are doing it right?
Howard Gardner:
Careful observation of the child in diverse settings—especially to be recommended are children’s museums—along with observations from parents, relatives, and others who are close to the child. I value that first-hand evidence more than evidence from paper-and-pencil tests which are not well suited to measure most of the intelligences, (they are essentially language-logic instruments.)
In your view, what does global competence mean and how can teachers develop it in schools? How can we develop it in such a changing social, cultural and economic situation? How do you connect it with multiple intelligences?
Howard Gardner:
We evolved to live in small communities, largely with kinsmen. But as the pandemic reminds us, we are now interlocked with individuals from all over the world and, of course, transportation, commerce, mass media, and social media underscore that point. Any good education—from preschool to university—needs to be cognizant of this state of affairs and to prepare young people to negotiate life on the planet in the 21st century. This is not a point particularly about “MI” but if good education takes advantages of different cognitive profiles and different ways of teaching, then of course global education and global competence should take advantage of it as well.
Let’s talk about “Good Work” where you discuss how to get good work done that is both specialized and socially responsible. You recently said: "a bad person never becomes a good professional.” Does that mean that a good person is more likely to succeed? How do you suggest we promote being a good person in such a competitive world?
Howard Gardner:
Being a good person and being a good professional are NOT identical. You can be an excellent doctor or journalist and a lousy parent or spouse. Or you can be an exemplary parent or spouse and a poorly performing physician or reporter. But of course, it’s best if you are BOTH a good person AND a good professional.
While we don’t have “data” on the correlation, I suspect that if you are a good spouse and parent, you are more likely to be a good physician or journalist; and if you perform poorly in one role, you will probably perform poorly in the other role. But there will be exceptions, and we all know people who are better at one role than they are at the other.
The role of schools is quite clear at all levels in “Good Work.” You even provide an extensive guide “The Good Work Toolkit” for educators on your website. We are aware of the great influence that families have on their children. What then should be the role of parents in the development of this good work? How can they help?
Howard Gardner:
You are right. Parents, older siblings, and close relatives have tremendous influence on the behavior, attitudes, and understandings of children. Optimally, the stances taken by these individuals “near by” will be similar to those provided by teachers, religious leaders, and others in the broader community, not to mention messages on the powerful media!
But if the models provided outside the home are different from those provided in the home, then there is a special obligation on the part of the immediate family to indicate what is acceptable behavior and what is not.
Of course, there will be cases where the family itself is pathological or provides bad models. And then we have to depend on the broader society to provide alternative, powerful, and healthier models. The society has to challenge the adage that “the apple does not fall far from the tree.”
Do you think schools must dedicate a specific space and time to teach “good work” with specialized teachers, or should it be integrated in a transversal way in the educational culture of the school? Do you think that teachers are trained enough to do this job? To develop excellent, ethical and committed citizens is a great responsibility.
Howard Gardner:
Good question. It’s fine to have classes or spaces devoted to “good work.” In fact we have developed curricula devoted to this goal. (You can download them here.)
But far more important are the role models provided every day by the visible models—teachers, supervisors, coaches, and older peers. A teacher who is not a “good worker” will not be able to teach “good work” convincingly. And a teacher who is a “good worker” is teaching students every day, indeed every hour, about good work.
Teachers were once children—as were we all! And whether teachers are themselves good workers depends largely on the influences around them in their own childhood—see my answer above. Of course, it is possible to overcome pathological role models in one’s own life—the Bible and biographies of heroic figures are filled with examples of individuals who “straighten themselves out.” But it’s much easier and better to have a healthy start from early childhood.
UK Member of Parliament and Paymaster General, Penny Mordaunt, writes in this article of her recent dyslexia diagnosis. She refers in the article to Gardner’s book, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
Howard Gardner first put forward the idea of multiple intelligences in his 1983 book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. He pointed out that talent is hard to find, but we make it harder still by deciding that it only comes in one form and then by discriminating against those that don’t conform to the model.
Mordaunt describes the difficulties she faced in school and her struggles with reading, experiences which made her feel “stupid” and “lazy.” Her school actively discouraged her from having ambitions. She was ignored, spoken over, and teased. With determination and resilience, however, Moradunt went to university and earned a degree, and has enjoyed a successful and varied career. Mordaunt says her diagnosis of dyslexia at aged 47 is a relief.
Penny Mordaunt’s school clearly failed her. Her story illustrates the need to recognize that people have many different strengths. Teaching in different ways that allow students to make use of their multiple intelligences is key. As Gardner says,
We should spend less time ranking children and more time helping them to identify their natural competencies and gifts and cultivate these. There are hundreds and hundreds of ways to succeed and many, many different abilities that will help you get there.
