Theory of Multiple

Intelligence
How smart are you?

How
are you
smart?
 Who is the smartest? How is Intelligence Defined?
 Ghandi  Einstein  IQ  Piaget
 Andrew Lloyd  Frank Lloyd  Information  Symbol Systems
Weber Wright Processing
   Bill Gates

Central Processing Unit

Poetry Appreciating M usic Learning a Com puter Program A Friend in Need

Poetry

Appreciating Music

Learning a Computer Program

A Friend in Need
M.I.: Suggests it’s time to consider the direct
connection between cognitive abilities and the
development of the nervous system.

Genetics – First consideration in the biology of intelligence.

» If DNA really does contain the code of everything we can and shall become,
then shouldn’t our cognitive abilities be contained there as well?

» Although genetics can help to determine eye and hair color, it is less reliable
when asked to determine more abstract traits.

» Genetics can be used to determine “at-risk” potentials for disease.

» If it can determine at risk potentials, it should lead us toward “at promise”

potentials as well.

» But in its current state genetics can tell us this but no more.
 Development of the nervous system offers
us our most reliable form of information.

The first question to consider in

the neurological perspective is:
Does the nervous system develop in a static pre-
determined form, or is all or part placid in its
development?

Canalazation Plasticity

Strict genetically Adaptability is only possible at

programmable sequence certain stages in development
 5 Principles of Plasticity
 Maximum effect is in early life - Meaningful effects:only available from first days to
first few years.
 Presence of critical periods - Intervention: only successful during critical periods.

 Flexibility varies across different regions - Regions such as the frontal lobes are more
of the brain malleable than the sensory cortex which develops
during the first days of life. An entire hemisphere
of the brain can be destroyed and the individual
will still learn to speak. Suggests that large areas
of the brain remain uncommitted and available for
diverse use during early childhood.

 Factors that mediate development - An organism will fail to develop normally unless it
undergoes certain experiences.

 Long-term effects of injury or - Injury to the frontal lobes may not be visible for
intervention sometimes does not show several years.
up until later life.
 Other Biological Factors Worth
Considering
Size
• Size of the brain in rats can be increased
through stimulation.
• Specific stimulation can cause growth in
isolated areas.
• Environmental situation can increase the
size of nerve cells & the quality of
synoptic connections.
 Other Biological Factors Worth
Considering
Bigger – Not always better
• During certain periods of development
the brain produces excess cells while
the neurons are creating synoptic
connections.
• Total excess cells are between 15% and
85%
• Possible period of plasticity
• May be the time when a child is
accomplishing the feat of learning
language.
 Other Biological Factors Worth
Considering

Important to recognize that learning occurs by the brain

selecting pre-existing pathways to synoptic connections.
Experiences with the environment and learning can exploit
those pathways and lead to new ways of behavior

How is the brain organized?

• Modular
• Molecular
Biological considerations lead to the choice
between the two paradigms of intelligence

Central Processing Unit

Poetry Appreciating M usic Learning a Com puter Program A Friend in Need

Poetry

Appreciating Music

Learning a Computer Program

A Friend in Need
What constitutes an intelligence in M.I.
Theory?
Criteria of an Intelligence

Potential
Isolation by
Brain
Damage

The extent to which a

particular faculty can be
destroyed or spared in its
relative autonomy.
Criteria of an Intelligence

The
Existence of
Idiot
Savants,
Prodigies or
other
Exceptional
Individuals
The extent to which their skills
or disabilities are out of
proportion to other abilities.
Criteria of an Intelligence

An Identifiable Core Operation

or Set of Operations
Can the basic
information
processing
function be
isolated and
identified in
their
neurological
form?
Criteria of an Intelligence

A Distinctive
Developmental
History Along
with a
Definable Set
of Expert “End-
State” Can degrees of
Performances expertise be
identified throughout
a developmental
timeline?
Criteria of an Intelligence

An Evolutionary
History and
Evolutionary
Plausibility An intelligence
becomes more
plausible if it
can be traced
to its
evolutionary
antecedents.
Criteria of an Intelligence

The extent to a cognitive test

can isolate the ability.

Support From
Experimental
Psychological
Tasks
Criteria of an Intelligence

Support From
Psychometric
Findings

The extent to which a

specifically designed test can
support a domain of
intelligence.
Criteria of an Intelligence

Susceptibility
to Encoding
in a Symbol
System

Has a culture been able to

harness the raw capacities to
be exploited in a symbolic
system?
How are you smart?

The Multiple Intelligence Profile

 Musical
Intelligence
The ability to discern meaning
and importance in sets of
pitches rhythmically arranged.
 Development of musical competence

 Pitch – (melody)
 Rhythm – (beat)
 Timbre – (quality of a note)

Although musical intelligence It is the variation of the core

can be broken down into these components that a physiological
components, they are useless response is created that
without an emotional quality communicates the emotion.
 The composer exemplifies Musical
Intelligence

 Composer can be identified by the fact that they

constantly hear tones in their head.
 The idea seizes the attention and imagination and the
composer begins to work on it.
 The basic idea is always the same, the composer only
modifies it. (It is received in its complete form)
 Tonal experience is combined with emotion to meld
together in the creation.
 The end result is an expressed emotion that is beyond
words.
 The brain and musical intelligence

Evidence shows that music and language are

processed in separate areas of the brain.

Music in the right and language in the left.

Music has the ability to be recognized within human

beings in a variety of ways. This bolsters the idea
that the nervous system offers multiple ways of
exploiting music (singing, playing instruments,
dancing, listening).
 Two contrasting ways of processing
music

 Figural Approach –  Formal Mode – Can

The child attends chiefly
to the global features of
music (soft, hard, fast,
slow). The approach is
strictly intuitive.
conceptualize the
musical experience in a
principled manner. Can
understand music on a
measure-by-measure
basis.
Crisis points in musical competence

• The transfer from Figural to

Formal can temporally wipe out
any intuitive sense of music.
• By adolescence the youth must
choose to devote themselves.
Logical Mathematical
Intelligence
The roots of the highest regions
of logical mathematical thought
can be found in the actions of
young children upon objects in
their material world.
 Development of logical
mathematical thought
Stage # 1 (Infant) - Objects only exist if they are present.

Stage # 2 (Pre-school) - Objects can be arranged in groupings.

Stage # 3 (School Age)
Stage # 4 (Early Adolescence)
Cannot recognize specific number in
group. Reciting numbers is a linguistic
skill.
- Can look at two sets of objects and can
make a quantifiable comparison.
- Can substitute mental pictures of sets with
the use of symbols and words. Algebra
and logical reasoning.
 Math enters abstraction

 Mastery of words and symbols gives way to abstraction.

 The mathematician is primarily interested in the use of
numbers in the abstract sense, not in the discoveries of the
physical world.
 The gifted mathematician is more interested in the
reasoning of an equation than the sequence of numbers.
 Is guided by intuition.
 Senses a line of reasoning and then sets off to prove it.
 The scientist and math

 The scientists is motivated to explain physical reality.

 To use reasoning to explain how things work.
 Also guided by intuition.
 Must be willing to withstand the pressure to go against
traditional thought.
 May have been captivated by a physical object as a small
child.
 Math and the brain

Activity can be found in both hemispheres.

Great deal of flexibility where functions are carried out.

Presence of calculating idiot savants.

Isolation in specific areas of the brain is less defined

than in other intelligences.
 Cultural Pressure on Logical
Mathematical Intelligence

Western society is
based on
challenging
statements made Although this form
without proof of thought is highly
rewarded, it is
done at a cost to
the personal
intelligences.
Spatial Intelligence
The ability to manipulate
objects in space.
 More detailed definitions
include:

 The ability to recognize an object when viewed from

different directions.
 The ability to image movement of an object.
 The ability to sense and retain geometric form.
 The ability to distinguish between two and three
dimensional forms.
 The ability to perceive balance or tension in a piece of art.
 Development of spatial
intelligence
Sensory Motor - An infant’s ability to move around in space.

Concrete Operational - Ability to manipulate an object.

Formal Operational - The adolescent’s ability to understand

geometry.
 The brain and spatial
intelligence

Located in the posterior portions of the right

hemisphere.

Important to note that the properties of spatial

intelligence are not limited to a visual experience.
 The Chess Master and
The Artist
Chess Master
• The advanced player is
stimulated by patterns.
• Has memorized thousands of
patterns.
• Draws on memory of positions
together with intuition to make
the next move.
• Cannot remember the positions
of pieces that are out of place.
• Individual positions contain
strategies of past games.
• The chess master can play
multiple games while blindfolded.
Artist
• The artist must possess a keen
understanding of the outside
world.
• A driving motivation to master
every aspect of physical form.
• Can remember and make use of
the works of others.
• Needs a vast storehouse of
memorized form in order to
create.
• Creation comes from the melding
of memorized form and access to
feelings needed to be expressed.
Body-Kinesthic
Intelligence
Control of one’s bodily motions
and capacity to handle objects.
 Linguistic
Intelligence
Linguistic intelligence is the
most shared intellectual domain
across the human species.
  The ability to visualize and then re-create
Examples: movement.
•Dancers  To know what is coming next so that the
•Athletes movement seems effortless.
•Artists  The combination of fundamentals of skill
•Instrumentalists and emotion to generate high
achievement or art.
•Mechanics
 The individual must practice and be
•Surgeons proficient at creating a movement, but
•Actors the great ones can communicate a
personal message through their actions.
•Comedians
 If I could have told you what it was, I
would not have danced it. Martha Grahm

 Similar to music, actions created in dance and sports can activate

signals in the brain that communicate emotion.
 Bodily-Kinesthic Intelligence may be based on an involuntary response
to mimic like the sour taste reaction one feels after watching another
bite into a lemon.
 Architecture can be felt in the body when observing a building that is
supported by a weak base.
 Mimicking is the gift of the comedian. Considered a low priority in
western culture. People who learn this way are considered arrogant or
a class clown.
 Poetry Exemplifies Linguistic
Intelligence

 The poet must be superlatively sensitive to the meaning of

words.
 The sense of a word in one line can not upset the balance
of words with similar meaning within the poem.
 The words must combine to capture the emotion or image
that the writer is trying to convey.
 Linguistic intelligence is measured
in one’s command of:

 Phonology -
 Syntax -
 Semantics
 Pragmatics -
 The major uses of language

 Rhetorical - The ability to use language to convince others

of your point of view.
 Monic Potential - The ability to use language to remember
vast amounts of information.
 Explanation - Using language to pass on information.
 Meta-linguistic - Using language to describe language.
 The development of the writer

 First masters the technical skills of language using the

rules of Phonlogy, Syntax, Semantics & Pragmatics.
 Develops the ability to store a vast amount of human
experience to memory.
 Set out to master the style of other accomplished writers.
 Comes to intuitively know the proper use of form.
 Combines the learned technical skills with the store-house
of human experience in memory to create the desired
outcome.
 Culture and language…who
benefits from its command?

 Pre-literate society - Language is used as a way to

remember. Those who master this skill were rewarded.
 The Greeks - Power was given to those who could orally
recite verse.
 Traditional cultures place an emphasis on rhetoric, oral
language and word play.
 Western culture is concerned more with writing and
gleaming information from reading.
 Personal
Intelligence
Interpersonal – The ability to
notice and make sense of the
actions of others.
Intrapersonal – Access to one’s
own feelings.
 Development of personal
intelligence
Infant - Tie to caregiver is critical.
- First realizes separate identity.
- Effected by others’ emotions.
Age 2-5 years - Starts to master symbol systems.
- Engaged in role play.
- Striving for autonomy.
- Needs commonly to establish identity.
School aged - Fully socialized, can tell right from wrong.
- Forms friends on their own.
- Rates themselves by what they can do.
 Development of personal
intelligence
Middle childhood - Recognizes the motivations of others.
- Deeply interested in friendships.
- Cliques for boys can be primate hierarchy
structured.
- Premature self-judgment is a risk.
- Inability to relate to others can be viewed
as a failure.
Adolescent - Sensitive to the motivation of others.
- Looks to others for support.
- Point at which inter and intra combine to
create the self.
- Pressures surrounding this action are
less acute in societies that offer fewer
choices.
 Development of personal
intelligence
Adult - Self actualized individual who knows their
own frailties while retaining the ability to
inspire others
- Capacity to recognize how their presence
reacts with the world.
 The self in different societies

Particle Society

Field Society
Exercise # 1
 Application
of the theory
 How Does Culture
Effect An Individual’s
Profile of Intelligence?
The notational symbol
systems a society
chooses to emphasize
shapes the intellectual
profile of its citizens
 Musical Intelligence Not
Supported By Culture

180
160
140
120 Linguistic
100 Musical
80 Math
60 Persoanl
40 Spatial
20 Bodily
0
Birth Pre- School Adult
school Aged Based on western
100 = Average of culture emphasizing
population Linguistic & Logical
intelligence’s.
 Musical Intelligence
Supported By Culture

200
180
160
140 Linguistic
120 Musical
100 Math
80
Persoanl
60
Spatial
40
20 Bodily
0
Birth Pre- School Adult
Musical intelligence
school Aged
100 = Average of supported by curriculum
or mentor
population
 individual in different cultures
as an adult
Less is more
200
180
160
140
120 Linguistic
100 Musical
80 Math
60
40 Persoanl
20 Spatial
0 Bodily
Supported

Supported
Not

Which profile is capable of

100 = Average of contributing more to
population society?
Can culture intervene
to modify the
intelligence profile?
“Remember Plasticity”
 5 Principles of Plasticity
 Maximum effect is in early life - Meaningful effects:only available from first days to
first few years.
 Presence of critical periods - Intervention: only successful during critical periods.

 Flexibility varies across different regions - Regions such as the frontal lobes are more
of the brain malleable than the sensory cortex which develops
during the first days of life. An entire hemisphere
of the brain can be destroyed and the individual
will still learn to speak. Suggests that large areas
of the brain remain uncommitted and available for
diverse use during early childhood.

 Factors that mediate development - An organism will fail to develop normally unless it
undergoes certain experiences.

 Long-term effects of injury or - Injury to the frontal lobes may not be visible for
intervention sometimes does not show several years.
up until later life.
 Function of Plasticity
Suzuki Model for Teaching Music
200
180
160
140 Linguistic
120 Musical
100 Math
80 Persoanl
60 Spatial
40 Bodily
20
0
Birth 3 years

Plasticity Periods Taking advantage of

“Plasticity Period” in both
Musical and Personal
intelligence
Choices for the school of the
future
Uniform School
 Basic set of competencies
 Core body of knowledge
 Greatest number of people
achieve knowledge
 Same Curriculum for all
 Same methods of teaching
 Standardized assessments
 Based on IQ thinking
Individual-center school
 Recognizes individual
differences in profiles
 Committed to several core
disciplines
 Learning tasks focused on
relevant topics
 Guided choice in electives
 Assessments are individual
 Apprentice relationships are
supported
New roles in the “Individual-
centered school”

Assessment Specialist

Student-curriculum broker

School-community broker
 Sources for an alterative approach to testing

 The necessity for a developmental perspective.

 The emergence of a symbol-system perspective.
 Evidence for the existence of multiple intelligence.
 A search for creative capacities.
 The desirability of assessing learning in context.
 Locating skill and competence outside the head of the individual.
 General Features of a new approach to
assessment

 Emphasis on assessment other than testing.

 Assessment as simple, not oral, and occurring on a reliable schedule.
 Ecological validity.
 Instruments that are “intelligence-fair”.
 Uses of multiple measures.
 Sensitivity to individual differences, developmental levels, and forms of expertise.
 Application of assessment for the student’s benefit.
 Five Doorways For Learning

The Narrational Doorway

Presenting a story or narrative account
about the concept in question
 Logical-quantitative Doorway

Approaching the concept with numerical

considerations or deductive and
inductive reasoning process
 Foundational Doorway

Explores the philosophical and

terminological facets of a concept
 Esthetic Doorway

Emphasizing sensory features that appeal

to learners who favor an artistic stance.
 Experiential Doorway

Hands on approach that deal directly with

the materials the embody or convey the
concept.
 Project-centered curriculum

•Projects are designed that incorporate a variety of

thinking styles
•Assessments are made on a continuous basis
•A “processfolio” is kept on each student to monitor
progress and changes in thinking throughout the
program
•Students are encouraged to swap roles
•Final assessment is based on ability to “perform or
demonstrate” concepts within relevant context
 Final exercise
Designing individual-centered
project curriculum