Gardner's Multiple Intelligences and How They Work in Course Design
Here are the 8 Intelligences:
Linguistic Intelligence
The ability to read , write and communicate with words. Authors, journalists, poets, orators and comedians are obvious examples of people with linguistic intelligence.
Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
The ability to reason and calculate, to think things through in a logical, systematic manner. These are the kinds of skills highly developed in engineers, scientists, economists, accountants, detectives and members of the legal profession.
Visual-Spatial Intelligence
The ability to think in pictures, visualize a future result. To imagine things in your mind's eye. Architects, sculptors, sailors, photographers and strategic planners. You use it when you have a sense of direction, when you navigate or draw.
Famous examples: Picasso, Frank Lloyd Wright.
Musical Intelligence
The ability to make or compose music, to sing well, or understand and appreciate music. To keep rhythm. It's a talent obviously enjoyed by musicians, composers, and recording engineers. But most of us have a musical intelligence which can be developed. Think of how helpful it is to learn with a jingle or rhyme (e.g. "Thirty days has September...").
Famous examples: Mozart, Leonard Bernstein, Ray Charles.
Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence
The ability to use your body skillfully to solve problems, create products or present ideas and emotions. An ability obviously displayed for athletic pursuits, dancing, acting, artistically, or in building and construction. You can include surgeons in this category but many people who are physically talented–"good with their hands"–don't recognize that this form of intelligence is of equal value to the other intelligences.
Famous examples: Charlie Chaplin, Michael Jordan.
Interpersonal (Social) Intelligence
The ability to work effectively with others, to relate to other people, and display empathy and understanding, to notice their motivations and goals. This is a vital human intelligence displayed by good teachers, facilitators, therapists, politicians, religious leaders and sales people.
Famous examples: Ronald Reagan, Terry Fox, Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Springsteen
Intrapersonal Intelligence
The ability for self-analysis and reflection–to be able to quietly contemplate and assess one's accomplishments, to review one's behavior and innermost feelings, to make plans and set goals, the capacity to know oneself. Philosophers, counselors, and many peak performers in all fields of endeavor have this form of intelligence.
Famous examples: Freud, Eleanor Roosevelt, Plato.
In 1996, Gardner decided to add an eighth intelligence (Naturalist) and in spite of much speculation resisted the temptation to add a ninth–Spiritualist Intelligence.
Naturalist Intelligence
The ability to recognize flora and fauna, to make other consequential distinctions in the natural world and to use this ability productively–for example in hunting, farming, or biological science. Farmers, botanists, conservationists, biologists, environmentalists would all display aspects of the intelligence.
What Does this Mean in Course Design?
Click here to read how these multiple intelligences are used in course design.