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Multiple Intelligences
in the Classroom
Jo Budden, British Council, Barcelona
Have you ever thought about why your students react in different ways to the activities you do in the class? Or even why different groups react differently to the same activity? Why do some students really enjoy working in groups while others are much more productive working alone? Why do some learners draw pictures in their vocabulary books while others seem to need to just hear a word to be able to use it themselves? ...
Types of intelligence
American psychologist, Howard Gardner developed a theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983) which can go some way towards explaining different learner styles. According to Gardener, there are eight different types of intelligences. These eight intelligences are:
In the Classroom
Now you may be wondering what all this has got to do with your classes, well, although not impossible, it would be quite a real undertaking to give all your students a test to see which of the intelligences is most prominent, and then tailor make each of your classes to suit every individual student!
Linking Learners to Activity Types
Below is a table of learner
types and some suggested activities for each type. It is adapted from Jeremy
Harmer's book The Practice of English Language Teaching but was
originally taken from 'How to use Gardner's
intelligences in a class program' by M Loon for the University of Canberra.
Learner type |
Is good at |
Learns best by |
Activities |
Linguistic |
Reading, writing and stories |
Saying, hearing and seeing words |
Memory
games |
Logical / mathematical |
Solving puzzles, exploring patterns, reasoning and logic |
Asking questions, categorizing and working with patterns |
Puzzles |
Visual / Spatial |
Drawing, building, arts and crafts |
Visualizing, using the mind's eye |
Flashcards |
Musical |
Singing, listening to music and playing instruments |
Using rhythm, with music on |
Using
songs |
Bodily / Kinesthetic |
Moving around, touching things and body language |
Moving, touching and doing |
TPR activities |
Interpersonal |
Mixing with others, leading groups, understanding others and mediating |
Co-operating, working in groups and sharing |
Mingle activities |
Intrapersonal |
Working alone and pursuing own interests |
Working alone |
Working individually on personalized projects |
Naturalistic |
Nature |
Working outside and observing nature |
Environmental projects. |
Although you can't please all the students all the time, it's just good to bear in mind that there are many different ways of learning.