The following is a response to Concept to Classroom: Multiple Intelligences, a workshop on understanding and using the theory of Multiple Intelligences to improve classroom teaching.
No debate here. I've seen it in action too many times, that need to explain things in more than one way before everyone in the room understands what you're trying to say. I understand my own issues with it very well, I am generally a visual learner and understand things best when I see them, which includes preferring the written word over verbalized communication. In college it was very important to me to copy anything the professors wrote on the board, especially drawings, add drawings to my own notes on topics that were being discussed to help me remember what I visualized at the time of the discussion and copy down as much of the lecture as I could, since it would be remembered and learned in the very act of writing it, where listening went "in one ear and out the other."
Implementing it in the classroom is much tougher. You have a limited amount of time, and in our current educational system, too much to teach to get the students to pass the test. The effort to address each topic from a variety of perspectives in order to reach students of all learning styles is difficult, at best. But certainly not impossible, and definitely an effort that pays off and is necessary if you want to reach everyone and give them the best possible chance to learn the material.
For science, there are many ways to implement techniques for teaching to multiple intelligences. Most topics in a science class lend themselves to either the traditional written or multiple choice tests or for experimentation and presentation as ways to evaluate learning. Interpersonal and Intrapersonal intelligences are stimulated through lab work (generally a group activity) or report writing (an individual activity). Reading and discussion aids the verbal and linguistic intelligences, while diagramming a cell or the process of respiration brings home the message for the visual intelligences. What I love about science is the way it brings together so many subjects and can be a gathering point for people of many intelligences.
Learning centers are a common way of addressing the needs of multiple intelligences in a classroom. They are most popular in elementary and middle school; however, as a future high school science teacher, I can still consider ways that they can enrich learning in my own classroom. In a science classroom these can be places where various long-term experiments are taking place, where related research from other sources are available, where related experiments can be done by individuals or groups and conclusions can be drawn. Lab work is a common idea here, where the jobs of data collection, note taking, mechanical operations for the experiment, observation and discussion can be shared in a group, with each student taking the role that fits their intelligences best, but then in sharing the work and the results they all can learn from the experience.
Presentations are another great tool, and one that can be used for assessment. Here, students are motivated to learn the material because they know the test of the material will be on their own terms. The more visual or musically inclined will include those types of elements in their presentation. For the verbal intelligences, you may see more of a lecture-type presentation. Whatever they use to present the material, there's probably been a greater amount of research, work and effort made then there would be in preparation for a traditional test.
The way information is presented by the instructor (me) should also follow those ideas. A basic and traditional lecture won't be received by all students the same way. Using elements of each of the intelligences, even in a limited way, will help to trigger the learning process for each student and draw them into the topic, even if not all material is presented in the way that is best for them. This is part of the multiple intelligences theory, that we all contain the ability to learn through each way, we just have tendencies toward faster development in certain areas. Using those ideas to draw them into the topic, then stimulating another aspect of their intelligence is a way to further their all around growth.
In teaching to multiple intelligences, we risk not having taught students the skills and information they need to pass the standardized tests that are now mandatory in our classrooms. This is one of the fears and, along with the time-consumption involved in finding multiple ways to reinforce material, it's sure to be raise alarms with classroom teachers and critics alike. However, the ways that people minds function are certainly different, and the expansion of learning options that come from increasing technology and access to Internet and vast stores of knowledge means that we can't continue to ignore the obvious fact that some students will learn faster in some ways then others. The educational system needs at least some revision from the bottom up in order to make it possible to fully explore the options of teaching to multiple intelligences, so that the assessments and requirements are also fair to all, giving all students the opportunities they will most benefit from (not, "all the same opportunities"!) before they enter our ever-evolving society.
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