Many schools have conventionally favored students who excel in the linguistic and analytical fields because these skills are extremely esteemed in our culture. However, this traditional approach put some students behind to stumble blindly through an educational system which disregards their unique abilities.

This does not entail that development of linguistic and analytical skills be abandoned in favor of nontraditional approaches to education. What this says is that nontraditional approaches should be joined to create a method of education best suited to the students who occupy our classrooms.

Howard Gardner, the psychologist who developed the theory of multiple intelligences posits that there is a balance which teaches students what they need to know to be successful in a manner that compliments the unique abilities that each individual possesses.

So, how does one implements the multiple intelligences into the classroom? Much has been done in the name of multiple intelligences without actually invigorating any part of a child’s brain. For instance, running around a classroom aimlessly cannot be said to address the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence if not an extra component of the activity triggers thought on the part of the student. But a student who creates a dance out of a work of literature and communes the essence of that work to an audience is evidently signifying the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. 

Here is one idea of a lesson targeting a range of intelligences:
Think of a scenario, controversial one works best. The scenario will relate to your content and ask your students to discuss it. First, read the scenarios out loud to your students then ask them to work in groups to answer questions about the scenario. The groups will come up with a consensus of their opinions and would later share what they have discussed among themselves in the class.

The thinking process and the discussion of the scenario enable them to exercise their interpersonal skills to defend their positions with their group members and then with the class. The students’ intrapersonal intelligences are motivated as well since the emotional level of this discussion entails them to use their sense of self-awareness and self-understanding. Finally, they use their logical-mathematical and verbal-linguistic intelligences in alayzing and their verbal-linguistic intelligence for communicating. 

By: BERNARDITO B. CADATAL | Teacher II | Sta. Rosa Elementary School | Sta. Rosa, Pilar, Bataan