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The Multiple Intelligences (MI) model

Howard Gardner was working at the Boston Veterans Administration Medical Center when he became aware that brain-damaged patients lost different abilities depending upon the location of the injury in the brain. For example, damage to the frontal lobe results in difficulty producing speech that is grammatical, although it does not affect the ability to understand what has been said. In Frames Of Mind (1983), Gardner says, “Other, even more specific linguistic disorders turn out to be linked to particular regions in the brain: these include selective difficulties in repetition, naming, reading, and writing” (p. 51). He notes that some individuals who have experienced significant aphasia (a loss of language) from brain damage can maintain their musical abilities while, conversely, others become disabled musically yet keep basic language skills (p. 118). To Gardner, this suggests a biological basis for specialized intelligences. Working from the definition that intelligence is the ability to solve a problem or create a product that is valued in a culture, Gardner developed a set of criteria to determine what set of skills comprise an intelligence. These criteria are focused on solving problems and creating products; they are based on biological foundations and psychological aspects of intelligence.

The definition of intelligence that is supported by these criteria – the ability to solve a problem or create a product that is valued in a society – is very different than the definition implicit in standardized I.Q. and aptitude tests (one based on verbal fluency, wide vocabulary, and computational skills). While the traditional definition of intelligence focuses on inert knowledge and skills that are especially valuable in school, Gardner’s definition is far wider. “Creating a product” could encompass transforming a blank canvas into a picture that evokes emotion or it might mean forming and leading a productive team from a group that couldn’t agree on anything. The definition of “solving a problem or creating a product” is a pragmatic one, focusing on using an ability in a real-life situation. Applying his criteria resulted in Gardner asserting that there are more intelligences than those relied upon in I.Q. tests and typically valued in school.


Intelligence 

Definition

Examples of people who evidence this intelligence


linguistic    

sensitivity to the meaning and order of words Mario Cuomo
Barbara Jordan
Tom Brokaw


logical-mathematical   

 

the ability to handle chains of reasoning and to recognize patterns and order     Benjamin Banneker
Bill Gates
Stephen Jay Gould

musical

sensitivity to pitch, melody, rhythm and tone     Louis Armstrong
George Gershwin
Yo Yo Ma

bodily-kinesthetic

the ability to use the body skillfully and handle objects adroitly     Mia Hamm
Harry Houdini
Michael Jordan

spatial   

the ability to perceive the world accurately and to recreate or transform aspects of that world    Maya Lin
Peter Max
Frank Lloyd Wright

naturalist

the ability to recognize and classify the numerous species, the flora and fauna, of an environment Charles Darwin
Jane Goodall
John Muir

interpersonal

the ability to understand people and relationships     Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ronald Reagan
Oprah Winfrey

intrapersonal

access to one's emotional life as a means to understand oneself and others     Bill Cosby
Anne Frank
Eleanor Roosevelt

From Becoming A Multiple Intelligences School (ASCD Press, 2000) by Thomas R. Hoerr, Ph.D.



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