Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Multiple Intelligence

Woohoo! for Multiple Intelligence (MI)!

This is actually a contemporary theory in pedagogy (the science of learning) that was founded by Dr. Howard Gardner. It explains that every individual has a unique learning style, which means that when it comes to intelligence and the ability to understand others and the world around us, some people are good at one thing and not at others. Also, a person's intelligence can be perceived in many different areas and not just one or two. And also that different learners learn in different ways, according to their area of Intelligence. Dr. Gardner has identified seven different areas of Intelligence:-

Kinaesthetic - Body Smart
Linguistic - Word Smart
Logical - Number Smart
Interpersonal - People Smart
Intrapersonal - Myself Smart
Musical - Music Smart
Visual/Spatial - Picture Smart
Naturalistic - Nature Smart


The theory would considerably pose a strong criticism on the traditional teaching and evaluating system that requires learners to be tested on certain sets of knowledge that are pre-determined by a set of academic syllabus that may or may not fall within the circle of a learner's area of intelligence. The testing style may also be very limiting and extremely ineffective in determining the learner's true ability and intelligence. Furthermore, the results then would be used to determine the learner's intelligence within the schema of a particular education system that again may or may not allow the opportunity for the learner's area of intelligence to be emphasized.
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Very much like our UPSR, all the way to STPM.. You know, if you fail Maths, BM or English & dont get the above average results in certain subjects, don't dream of going to public U kind of thing, not to mention the parents' "stare-of -death" aka "omygod-my-kid-is-a-goner-now" and relatives & friends' "oh-this-is-the-stupid-one-in-the-family" look, etc.
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So, don't ever feel bad if you did not do well in a particular subject or exams right. You ARE smart and you are smart at something that others may be lousy at. Be proud of who you are!!
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Want to know more about your intelligence? Actually, if you over 15 or 16, you probably would be able to guess it. Anyways, check out this link for brief intro and self-test:-
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BTW, the test shows that my intelligence area are Language & Intrapersonal and my worst are Kinaesthetic & Logical. Mmmh...i was the happiest person on the planet when I got C6 (barely passed) in my maths in SPM-after much genuine hard work & my PE teacher only allowed me to pick up the sports stuffs from the store & nothing more.. :p