“It is of the utmost importance that we recognize and nurture all the varied human intelligences and all of the combinations of intelligences.  We are all so different largely because we all have different combinations of intelligences.  If we recognize this, I think we will have at least a better chance of dealing appropriately with the many problems that we face in the world.”

Howard Gardner (1987)

In his 1983 book Frames of Mind, Howard Gardner attempted to broaden the scope of human potential beyond simple IQ scores.

Gardner suggested that intelligence had more to do with the capacity for (1) solving problems and (2) fashioning products in a context-rich and naturalistic setting, than with a single IQ measurement.

Gardner used eight “tests” that an intelligence must meet in order to be considered a full-fledged intelligence and not just a talent, skill or aptitude.

Linguistic Logical-MathematicalSpatialBodily-KinestheticMusical Interpersonal Intrapersonal

The capacity to use words effectively, whether orally or in writing.

High-End Example: Virginia Woolf

The capacity to use numbers effectively and to reason well.

High-End Example: Blaise Pascal

The ability to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately and to perform transformations upon those perceptions.

High-End Example: I.M. Pei

Expertise in using one’s whole body to express ideas and feelings and facility in using one’s hands to produce or transform thing.

High-End Example: Rudolf Nureyev

The capacity to perceive, discriminate, transform, and express musical forms.

High-End Example: Stevie Wonder

The ability to perceive and make distinctions in the moods, intentions, motivations, and feelings of other people.

High-End Example: Nelson Mandela

Self-knowledge and the ability to act adaptively on the basis of that knowledge.

High-End Example: Buddha

Each person possesses all seven intelligences

Most people can develop each intelligence to an adequate level of competence

Intelligences usually work together in complex ways

There are many ways to be intelligent within each category

There might be additional intelligences(i.e. Naturalist)

Because of individual differences among students, teachers are best advised to use a broad range of teaching strategies with their students.

Because many of the teaching strategies for teaching to MI are context-specific, the assessments should likewise be non-standard (therefore more “authentic”)

Frames of Mind (1983), Howard Gardner

Gardner’s Project Zerohttp://www.pz.harvard.edu/index.cfm

Thomas Armstrong’s Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom (1994)