Using Multiple Intelligences as Planning Tools in Secondary Education
Karen McCay
As my students began their recent creative writing unit in secondary English, I wanted to change the way they approached their goal-setting and self-assessment activities at the end of the unit, especially because they have recently undergone extensive state testing. Because of the recent concern expressed by experts in multiple fields about teachers using learning styles to plan instruction for their students and the growing concern about whether or not Multiple Intelligences fit under that category, I determined that informing my students of the recent controversy and intentionally using just such an inventory would be ideal for self-reflection and goal-setting for a creative writing unit during which students will try to know themselves as well as possible.
I found a user-friendly assessment for secondary students, which provides immediate results to students in both a pie chart and bar graph as soon as they complete 70 likert survey items, which take less than ten minutes to answer. The assessment also provides students with a table explaining each of the multiple intelligences. One of the drawbacks of this assessment is that it excludes existential intelligence from the survey, but I intentionally chose it for that purpose and avoided existentialism entirely during this unit for the benefit of my gifted students because of a greater need at my specific school. Pueblo has documented 42 suicide attempts since January 1, 2017, and we have had 8 suicides since that time in our teenage population. Existential depression among our gifted teen population is literally an epidemic, and because of the greater need to address that issue, I am not addressing existential intelligence for any reason in my general education classroom at this time (Prober, 2016).
To prepare my students for their surveys, I informed them of experts’ recent admonition that teachers should not use learning style inventories to plan instruction, but instead, should plan instruction based on using a complete learning “cycle of instruction” using as varied methods of instruction as possible, which are all based on research (Finley, 2015). I also told my students openly that Gardner was a respected Psychologist, who did not consider his Multiple Intelligences learning styles at all, and did not recommend that teachers use learning styles in any way to limit students’ potential or define how they learn; Gardner even admonishes teachers to “drop the term ‘syles’” (Strauss, 2013). When my students completed their surveys, they were pleasantly surprised with the accuracy of their results. A student, who has travelling to London this summer on a musical scholarship, scored high in the musical category.
Figure 1: Pie Chart of Student 1 Results
Karen McCay
As my students began their recent creative writing unit in secondary English, I wanted to change the way they approached their goal-setting and self-assessment activities at the end of the unit, especially because they have recently undergone extensive state testing. Because of the recent concern expressed by experts in multiple fields about teachers using learning styles to plan instruction for their students and the growing concern about whether or not Multiple Intelligences fit under that category, I determined that informing my students of the recent controversy and intentionally using just such an inventory would be ideal for self-reflection and goal-setting for a creative writing unit during which students will try to know themselves as well as possible.
I found a user-friendly assessment for secondary students, which provides immediate results to students in both a pie chart and bar graph as soon as they complete 70 likert survey items, which take less than ten minutes to answer. The assessment also provides students with a table explaining each of the multiple intelligences. One of the drawbacks of this assessment is that it excludes existential intelligence from the survey, but I intentionally chose it for that purpose and avoided existentialism entirely during this unit for the benefit of my gifted students because of a greater need at my specific school. Pueblo has documented 42 suicide attempts since January 1, 2017, and we have had 8 suicides since that time in our teenage population. Existential depression among our gifted teen population is literally an epidemic, and because of the greater need to address that issue, I am not addressing existential intelligence for any reason in my general education classroom at this time (Prober, 2016).
To prepare my students for their surveys, I informed them of experts’ recent admonition that teachers should not use learning style inventories to plan instruction, but instead, should plan instruction based on using a complete learning “cycle of instruction” using as varied methods of instruction as possible, which are all based on research (Finley, 2015). I also told my students openly that Gardner was a respected Psychologist, who did not consider his Multiple Intelligences learning styles at all, and did not recommend that teachers use learning styles in any way to limit students’ potential or define how they learn; Gardner even admonishes teachers to “drop the term ‘syles’” (Strauss, 2013). When my students completed their surveys, they were pleasantly surprised with the accuracy of their results. A student, who has travelling to London this summer on a musical scholarship, scored high in the musical category.
Figure 1: Pie Chart of Student 1 Results
Another student, who has qualified for state in three sports, scored in the thirtieth percentile in bodily-kinesthetic.
Figure 2: Pie Chart of Student 2 Results
Figure 2: Pie Chart of Student 2 Results
Both of these students found their strengths to be truly accurate representations--and very validating experiences they could build upon during their creating writing unit.
To allow students a chance to develop their own student-driven data wall with their individual results, I assigned each class a Google Sheet through Google Classroom, which all students could edit. Students entered their individual percentile scores in the Multiple Intelligences, and we could sort their data using multiple methods.
Figure 3: Student Data Table with Names Hidden
To allow students a chance to develop their own student-driven data wall with their individual results, I assigned each class a Google Sheet through Google Classroom, which all students could edit. Students entered their individual percentile scores in the Multiple Intelligences, and we could sort their data using multiple methods.
Figure 3: Student Data Table with Names Hidden
In a unique class I teach, comprised of 16 gifted students, who will all enter the health industries when they graduate, students were very surprised to find their scores were so well-rounded in the Multiple Intelligences. Their bar graph, as a class, was surprisingly stable, and only showed spikes in kinesthetic intelligence and interpersonal intelligence.
Figure 4: Health Academy Whole-Class Results
Figure 4: Health Academy Whole-Class Results
The highest category, however, was only four percentile points above the group’s lowest category, which was spatial. I have looped with this group of students and will continue to do so until they graduate; after having worked with them for nearly two years, I was not remotely surprised by their results. They are the most well-rounded students I have ever worked with, and if I had any succinct description of them, it would be that they have no weaknesses at all. If I were to use their group results to plan their instruction, I would continue to plan diverse learning opportunities, which allow them to work in collaborative groups, during which they are able to talk, stand, move about the room, and interact with one another as they write team learning goals, which help their teams individualize their unit learning goals in order to increase their level of challenge in each unit to ensure mastery learning. According to Gardner, individualizing students’ learning ensures they will continue to grow and pluralizing their modalities of interaction will ensure mastery (Strauss, 2013).
Luckily, using Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences in this manner is not remotely controversial because it coincides with scientifically-based best practices, which recommend the same things--to group students into cooperative learning teams with specific norms and goals, to have them take part on their own goal-writing so they have a higher level of motivation, and then give them a level of autonomy and group interdependence, which promotes social development as well as challenge (Goodwin & Hubbell, 2013, p. 30). The teacher as facilitator can manage behavior and ensure that students have the technology they need to access content. They will definitely master their learning goals in such an environment. Being made aware of their Multiple Intelligences at the beginning of the unit as growth points cannot have been any more detrimental than any other learning inventory would be if it were presented as a fixed reality. If it’s presented as a starting point from which students can grow, then it’s just like any other goal for the beginning of a unit.
Larger Conclusions
Because my students’ results only confirmed when I already knew about them, their inventories will not change my practices at the end of the school year. I have a group of passionate students, who came into this unit with some very specific ideas about what they already wanted to do for their creative writing projects at the end of the year, and they aren’t changing for anybody. We’re going to have a professional-quality movie about the Black Dahlia murder produced in our school studio, a personal documentary about leaving religion behind using IMOVIE, and we’re going to have a children’s book about Snoop Dogg teaching boys how to rap using Google Slides (the student found a post on Pinterest about using the program for this specific application). One student has been writing and submitting her novel since Christmas, which she’s been publishing online for fans as a serial test since that time, as well. These students’ goals aren’t changing, either, because their goals were planned months ago. Their results have confirmed for me, however, that Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences still provide relevant information, especially self-assessment information, for students on the secondary level, and using a Multiple Intelligences inventory at the beginning of the year would be an excellent way to begin conversations with students about their passions and interests. I already know my students this year because it’s April, so the assessment only confirmed what I knew to be true, but next year it would provide me with quick information about students I won’t know at all, so I look forward to using it again with the hope that it will, indeed help me know my students better, and therefore, help me plan stronger instruction for their benefit.
Other Pre-Assessment Tools:
3 Practical Pre-Assessment Strategies
Goal-Setting
Unpacking Standards
Materials
Student Spreadsheet
Multiple Intelligences Inventory
References
Chislett, V., & Chapman, A. (2005). Multiple Intelligences Test- Based on Howard Gardner's MI Model[Google Sheets].
Finley, T. (2015, September 22). Are Learning Styles Real--And Useful? (Edutopia) Retrieved April 20, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/learning-styles-real-and-useful-todd-finley
Goodwin, B., & Hubbell, E. R. (2013). The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching: A Checklist for Staying Focused Every Day. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Prober, P. (2016, May 19). Existential Depression in Gifted Teens (Rainforest Mind). Retrieved January 17,
2017, from https://rainforestmind.wordpress.com/2016/05/19/existential-depression-in-gifted-teens/
Strauss, V. (2013, October 16). Howard Gardner: Multiple Intelligences are not Learning Styles (Washington
Post). Retrieved April 20, 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/16/howard-gardner-multiple-intelligences-are
-not-learning-styles/?utm_term=.e5e91c428142
Weale, S. (2017, March 12). Teachers Must Ditch 'Neuromyth' of Learning Styles, Say Scientists (Guardian).
Retrieved March 21, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/mar/13/teachers-neuromyth-learning-styles-scientists-neuroscienc
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