Multiple Intelligences: Thoughts and Reflections

Mutliple Intelligences. . . . . I am hearing this everywhere in my teaching and learning classes. Obviously that must mean it is an important topic that requires some investigation. So I have done a simple MI inventory and discovered my personal preferences, and I want to share my thoughts and reflections on this new information.

I am a very strong visual learner. Visual learners tend to have great spatial awareness, strong imaginations, and visual acuity. In other words, we like to picture and "see" material in our heads before acting. We also enjoy being able to manipulate our environment and understand how to complete a task better after seeing it done. I would therefore like to make my classroom visually stimulating, by decorating the walls and making the classroom a fun place to be. Letting the students move around and interact with the classroom is another objective I now have. Making a conscious effort to use videos, drawings, pictures, and demonstrations to communicate material is also a high priority for me.

My next strongest area would be kinesthetic. Kinesthetic learners are also quite sensory driven. However, they also show good coordination and are tactile (show good motor skills). Expressions are made through the body more often by kinesthetic learners too. Alot of comparisons can be made to visual learners; kinesthetic learners like working with the environment, and prefer hands-on learning activities. These learners will stay focused on a task for extended periods of time too, as they will try to master material that they understand. Integrating this information into the classroom involves providing an abundance of hands-on activities such as physical constructions and demonstrations of the material. Incorporating rhythm and music into learning is another goal of mine to target kinesthetic learners.

My last real strong intelligence would be logical. Therefore, I prefer linear and concrete reasoning. I tend to break down concepts to its specific components and piece it together in a way that flows and makes logical sense. Logical learners also seem to enjoy working on complex tasks, as it stimulates scientific thinking and producing a logical response. Logical learners tend to seek order in everything they observe and do; there has to be reason behind everything. They also reason through problems very scientifically, and enjoy manipulating functions. In order to target the logical thinkers it will be important to present some beginning criteria in order to provide some structure for them to base their work off of. Setting achievable short-term goals will cause these learners to understand why they are working on this because there is an end point that must be reached. Encouraging debate is another way of stimulating the logical learners, as they will be forced to express their thoughts aloud.

Well there you have it! These would be my three strongest intelligences and my relections and thoughts about them. I realize I have only talked about adjusting the classroom for these intelligences, and I want to make sure that I will not only tailor to my intelligences as this would obviously leave other learners out. Instead, I plan on reviewing the information on MI's much more so as to be prepared to teach to all types of learners.

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think.