Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
Self-Rating
The following pages checklist Gardner’s 8 Intelligences and their associated attributes in a matrix format to provide a simple self-assessment tool. Use a 1 (not like at all ) to 10 (very, very like) scale rate yourself against each of the descriptions of the intelligences. There are no right or wrong answers, so please observe the integrity of the process. Most people have strengths across a range of intelligences but often have a preference for one or two intelligences.
Gardner has not yet confirmed the existence of a 9th Intelligence – Existentialism.
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Michael Meere. In the layout and design of this checklist.
Howard Gardner
(1943- )
Holles Professor of Cognition & Education.
HarvardGraduateSchool of Education.
1
Michael Meere. In the layout and design of this checklist.
1
Michael Meere. In the layout and design of this checklist.
‘In the heyday of the psychometric and behaviourist eras, it was generally believed that intelligence was a single entity that was inherited; and that human beings - initially a blank slate - could be trained to learn anything, provided that it was presented in an appropriate way. Nowadays an increasing number of researchers believe precisely the opposite; that there exists a multitude of intelligences, quite independent of each other; that each intelligence has its own strengths and constraints; that the mind is far from unencumbered at birth; and that it is unexpectedly difficult to teach things that go against early 'naive' theories of that challenge the natural lines of force within an intelligence and its matching domains’. (Gardner 1993: xxiii)
Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences challenges the traditional view of intelligence as a unitary capacity that can be adequately measured by IQ tests. Instead, this theory defines intelligence as an ability to solve problems or create products that are valued in at least one culture.
Drawing upon findings from evolutionary biology, anthropology, developmental and cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, and psychometrics, Gardner uses eight different criteria to judge whether a candidate’s ability can be counted as an intelligence
1. potential isolation by brain damage
2. existence of savants, prodigies, and other exceptional individuals
3. an identifiable core set of operations--basic kind of information-processing operations or mechanisms that deal with one specific kind of input
4. a distinctive developmental history, along with a definite set of "end-state" performances
5. an evolutionary history and evolutionary plausibility
6. support from experimental and psychological tasks
7. support from psychometric findings
8. susceptibility to encoding from a symbol system
In Gardner's theory, the word intelligence is used in two senses. Intelligence can denote a species-specific characteristic; homo sapiens is that species which can exercise these eight intelligences. Intelligence can also denote an individual difference. While all humans possess the eight intelligences, each person has his/her own particular blend or amalgam of the intelligences.
Gardiner’s Intelligences
"Intelligence is a biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture" (Gardner 1999 p.34).
Gardner’s 9 Multiple / Description / Self -Rating / Comments andIntelligencies / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / Improvement Suggestions
Verbal/Linguistic-- / Deals with abilities in the complex acquisition, formation and processing of language. Thinking symbolically and reasoning abstractly fall under this category, as does the ability to create conceptual verbal patterns. Reading, writing, the development of symbolic writing and language skills--anagrams, palindromes, metaphors, similes, puns, and analogies come under this heading. These individuals love words, both spoken and written, and often think in words. They learn by verbalization, by seeing and hearing words and usually enjoy word games.
Logical/mathematical-- / Deals with the ability to think logically; inductively, and to some degree deductively; categorically; to recognize patterns, both geometric and numerical; as well as the ability to see and work with abstract concepts. These individuals may be constant questioners; they may easily sophisticated strategies and like testing ideas though logic and reasoning abilities.
Spatial/Visual Intelligence- / Deals with the ability to visualize and perceive images. These people children think in images have great powers of visual recall. They notice change and rearrangement. They have an early sense of proportion and perspective. They are also good at reading and constructing maps and discerning objects as they might appear in three dimensional space. They often daydream.
Intelligence / Description / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10
Musical/Auditory/Rhythmic Intelligence / Deals with the ability to create or interpret music. These people can keenly distinguish sounds and subtle nuances in music and their environments. They can be excellent mimics and easily discern differences in speech patterns or accents.
Bodily/Kinaesthetic-- / Deals with both the fine and large muscle systems/motor skills and physical movement. These people are adept at reading body language. They may even need to enter the personal space and/or touch others while communicating. They learn by acting and moving, to learn by haptic experiences.
Interpersonal/synergistic personal. / Deals with the ability to understand and communicate with others and to facilitate relationships and group processes. These people are highly empathetic, and they can arbitrate differences between people or groups. They can easily pick up on the vibrations, the feelings of others. They enjoy cooperative learning experiences and learn best in cooperative settings.
Intrapersonal/synergistic-natural -- / Deals with the ability to be somewhat insulated from ones peers; to have a strong sense of self; with an immunity from peer pressure. They have leadership ability to make independent decisions. These "loners" have gifts strong intuitive feelings, a sense of inner wisdom, or precognition. They learn though experiences which focus on their inner being and activities that allow them to work by themselves on material and projects of their own choosing.
Intelligence / Description / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10
Naturalist intelligence (1999) / Deals with sensing patterns in and making connections to elements in nature, other species and the environment.
These ‘nature smart’ people are very aware of their surroundings and even subtle/minute changes in their environment,
They enjoy subjects, like biology, zoology, botany, geology, meteorology, palaeontology, or astronomy.
Existential/Spiritual Intelligence (2000-2005)Gardner has not yet agreed to the actual existence of this intelligence. / Deals with the ability to pose and ponder questions about life,death and ultimate reality’“Existential intelligence denotes our capacity to ask very big questions about the meaning of life and death. We know that people all over the world ask these questions, and art, religion, philosophy, mythology are all efforts to deal with them. Most of the intelligences are linked to tangibles like objects or other people, but existential intelligence deals with intangibles.” ‘
References
Gardner, H. Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences.1983 Basic Books. New York:
Gardner, H. Multiple intelligences: the theory in practice- a reader. 1993 Basic Books. New York:
Gardner, H. Intelligence reframed: multiple intelligences for the 21st century.:1999. Basic Books. New York
Gardner, H. Multiple Intelligence After 20 Years 2003.
Gardner, H. Changing Minds. The Art and Science of Changing our own & other peoples minds. 2004 HarvardBusinessSchool Press. Boston
Samples, B) Wholemind/Openmind.1987 Jalmar Press Rollinghills Estates, CA
HOWARD GARDNER:I don't believe behavior change lasts unless people's minds change voluntarily.
Gardner's Seven Levers of Mind Change
1. Reason
2. Research
3. Resonance
4. Representational Rediscriptions
5. Resources and Rewards
6. Real World Events
7. Resistances
“What are the most important of your mind-changing levers?
It all depends on the situation, on whether you're talking about employees in a company or lovers or antagonists or your own mind.
But there are at least two things whose importance is underestimated. One is the lever of what I call representational redescriptions. Get the message out in lots and lots of different ways, lots of different symbol systems, lots of different intelligences and lots of different embodiments. The notion that you say it once and it gets through is just wrong. So is the notion that you can simply repeat yourself. You have to be extremely resourceful in finding diverse ways to get the same desired mind-change across.
The second [most important] thing is that people underestimate just how powerful resistances are. There are three factors involved in resistances: age, emotion and public stance. First of all, the longer your neural networks have been running one way, the harder it is to rewire them. Unfortunately, that's just a fact of life. Number two, the things that you feel very strongly about emotionally are the hardest to change your mind about. And three, particularly for people who are in public life, are things on which you've taken a public stand. That's hard to reverse”
CEO Magazine 1st April 2004
1
Michael Meere. In the layout and design of this checklist.