How are you smart?

Intro to Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence

www.davidlazeargroup.com/ with Ms. Bruce

at George Washington Academy, 2014
 Think to yourself...

• Who is the smartest person you know?

How do you define intelligence?

• Who came to mind first?

• Why?
• Do you think you are “smart”? Why?
How?
Did any of these names come to mind?

• Lionel Messi (Body Smart)

• Bob Marley (Music Smart)
• Ellen Digeneris (Person Smart)
• Timothy John Berners-Lee (Science
Smart)
7 kinds of intelligence
ImageSmart

LogicSmart

BodySmart

NatureSmart
SoundSmart

WordSmart

PeopleSmart

SelfSmart
Howard Gardner’s Theory
• We are all smart in different ways.
• It is the unique combination of these
that can give us insights into what
careers we could be successful at.
• We can identify our weaknesses and
explore creative ways to strengthen
them.
as well as the ability to communicate,
People Smart
verbally and non-verbally, with other
people. It builds on the capacity to
notice distinctions among others, for
example, contrasts in moods,
temperament, motivations, and
intentions. In the more advanced forms
of this intelligence one can literally
“pass over” into another person's life
context (that is, stand in their shoes, so
to speak) and experience their
intentions and desires. One can have
genuine empathy for another’s
feelings, fears, anticipations, and
beliefs.
 People Smart
People Smart
interpersonal intelligence
Uses person-to-person relating, communication, teamwork, and
collaboration with others.

BENEFITS of developing PeopleSmarts

• Developing the ability to understand other people, their perspectives,
and their motivations
• Having deeper and more satisfying relationships with others
• Gaining a genuine empathy for others
• Enhanced leadership skills, including becoming a better communicator
• Enhanced quality of the time you spend and relationship you have
with your family
the self such as knowledge of feelings,
the range of emotional responses,
SelfSmart
thinking processes, self-reflection, and
a sense of or intuition about spiritual
realities. Intrapersonal intelligence
allows us to be conscious of our
consciousness; that is, to step back
from ourselves and watch ourselves as
an outside observer does. Our self-
identity and the ability to transcend the
self are part of the functioning of this
intelligence. SelfSmart is the most
private and requires all other
intelligence forms to express itself,
such as language, art, music, dance,
 SelfSmart

SelfSmart
intrapersonal intelligence
The knowing which comes from introspection, self-reflection, and raising
questions about life’s meaning and purpose.

BENEFITS of developing SelfSmarts

• Clarity about your life and where you are headed
• Control of your destiny and the directions in which you want your life to
move
• Improved self-confidence and self-esteem
• A deeper understanding of your core values and how to make them the
center of all you do
• Getting in touch with your "inner self" and learning how to trust it
 WordSmart
• (verbal-linguistic intelligence) is
responsible for the production of
language and all the complex
possibilities that follow, including poetry,
humor, grammar, metaphors, similes,
abstract reasoning, symbolic thinking,
and of course, the written word. Verbal-
linguistic intelligence is awakened by
the spoken word; by reading someone's
ideas or poetry; and by writing one's
own ideas, thoughts, or poetry.
• Career Smarts
Professionals strong in verbal-linguistic intelligence include poets, public
speakers, journalists, writers (authors, advertising, script and speech
writers), speech pathologists, lawyers, secretaries, editors, proofreaders,
WordSmart

WordSmart
verbal-linguistic intelligence
Occurs through written and spoken words, such as essays, speeches, books,
informal conversation, debates, and jokes.

BENEFITS when you strengthen your WordSmarts 

• Enhanced capacities for communicating ideas, thoughts, and feelings
• A greater appreciation of humor based on words, such as puns, jokes, and
limericks
• Improved abilities and confidence for expressing yourself through any kind of
writing
• New abilities for persuading others to take a certain course of action
• Stronger skills for leading meetings
• (bodily-kinesthetic intelligence) is the
ability to use the body to express
BodySmart
emotion, to play a game, to
communicate with others using "body
language", or to create a new product.
Our bodies are very wise. They know
things our conscious minds don't and
can't know in any other way. For
example, if you had to lay out the
keyboard of a computer on a piece of
paper without moving your fingers,
could you do it? Probably not. But your
fingers know the keyboard without even
pausing.
• Career Smarts
 BodySmart
BodySmart
bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
Uses physical movement and performance (a.k.a. learning by doing) to
understand.

BENEFITS when you strengthen BodySmarts

• Improving over-all functioning of your body and your physical movements
• Strengthening connections between the mind and body - They profoundly
affect each other
• Gaining greater awareness of your "body language" and how to use your body
to become a better communicator
• Discovering the innate abilities to train the body to "multi-track" or to
perform a variety of tasks at the same time
• Gaining an awareness of how to reduce stress in various regions of the body
 fauna, and our knowledge of and
communion with the natural world. You
NatureSmart
can see the naturalist intelligence when
you find yourself drawn to and
fascinated by animals and their
behaviors. You see it when you notice
the effect on your mood and sense of
well-being when someone brings plants
and-or cut flowers into an otherwise
sterile, humanly-created environment.
Think how often we head for nature
when we want to relax, “unwind” or find
inner renewal!
• Professionals who use a lot of the
naturalist intelligence include forest
 NatureSmart
NatureSmart
naturalist intelligence
The knowing that occurs in encounters with animals, plants, physical features, and
weather conditions of the natural world.

BENEFITS of developing and strengthening NatureSmarts 

• Gaining an awareness of how nature influences and shapes who you are as a
person
• Developing a respect for other creatures which inhabit our world
• Acquiring a greater sensitivity to larger patterns in the environment, such as the
weather, changing seasons, phases of the moon, etc.
• Nurturing the ability to grow things
• Caring for and conserving the natural environment
 such activities as painting, drawing, and
sculpture; navigation, mapmaking and
ImageSmart
architecture, and games such as chess
(which requires the ability to visualize
objects from different perspectives and
angles). The key sensory base of this
intelligence is the sense of sight, but it
also involves the ability to form images
and pictures in the mind. Our childhood
daydreaming, when we pretended we
could fly or that we were magical
beings, or maybe that we were heroes-
heroines in fabulous adventure stories
used this intelligence to the hilt!
• Career Smarts
 ImageSmart

ImageSmart
visual-spatial intelligence
Uses the sense of sight and ability to imagine and visualize an object,
including making mental images inside our heads.

BENEFITS of strengthening your ImageSmarts

• Being able to visualize what you want in your life and make it happen
• Gaining the ability to express your ideas and make them clearer through
visual representation
• Discovering powerful aids to memory - Our brains naturally think in images
and pictures before we have words
• Teaching yourself to "think outside the box"
• Accessing your own deep sources of inner wisdom and guidance
the recognition and use of rhythmic and
tonal patterns, and sensitivity to sounds
SoundSmart
from the environment, the human voice,
and musical instruments. Many of us
learned the alphabet through this
intelligence and the “A-B-C song.” Of all
forms of intelligence identified, the
“consciousness altering” effect of music
and rhythm on the brain is the greatest.
Just think of how music can calm you
when you are stressed, stimulate you
when you're bored, and help you attain
a steady rhythm in such things as
typing and exercising. It has been used
to inspire our religious beliefs, intensify
national loyalties, and to express great
 SoundSmart
SoundSmart
musical-rhythmic intelligence
Learns through sounds, rhythms, tones, beats, music produced by other
people or present in the environment.

BENEFITS of developing and enhancing your SoundSmarts

• Knowledge of how to lower stress through music and rhythm
• Enhanced abilities to promote greater creativity in yourself and others
• Discovering your hidden capacities for learning and remembering
information, peoples names, a shopping list, etc.
• Discovering how to use music, rhythm, and sound to shift moods to more
optimal states of being
• Knowledge of how to use music and sound to deepen personal relationships
with others
 • (logical-mathematical intelligence) is
most often associated with what we call
LogicSmart
“scientific thinking.” Logical-
mathematical intelligence is activated in
situations requiring problem-solving or
meeting a new challenge. This
intelligence likewise involves the
capacity to recognize patterns, to work
with abstract symbols such as numbers
and geometric shapes, and to discern
relationships and-or see connections
between separate and distinct pieces of
information.
• Career Smarts
Professionals who use a lot of logical-mathematical intelligence include
 LogicSmart
• LogicSmart
logical-mathematical intelligence
Uses numbers, logic, scientific
reasoning, and calculating to help
solve problems and meet challenges.
BENEFITS of developing LogicSmarts
• Becoming a better problem-solver
• Increasing organization and clarity of your thoughts and  ideas
• Learning to apply different thinking methods to different situations
• Gaining enhanced skills for seeing how to apply or use information read
and/or learned
• Becoming better at reasoning and figuring out solutions for life's
challenges