Types Of Intelligence
What are the types of intelligence?
There are many ways to be smart, and there are multiple intelligences. Howard Gardner put forth this theory, and it seems to hold water, that people can be intelligent in many different ways. To be intelligent musically, for example, you still need to practice things, remember things, compare things, new skills to ones that you already know. That would be in a musical sense. A kinesthetic learner, or a kinesthetic intelligence would involve movement: dance movements, athletic movements. Still, we need to practice. We need to compare new information to old information. And in all the areas that people are smart. Verbal-linguistic ability, logical-mathematical ability, interpersonal intelligence. All of these are ways that we can become very bright by practicing, and by organizing the new information that we find. You know, I like to freak out my classes sometimes, I go in there and I go "You're going to learn this semester that everyone learns the same." And they go "Oh, that's like sacrilege!" And then I go "Everyone's got to practice things." It doesn't matter what your intelligence, if you're a visual learner, you're an auditory learner. We all learn the same process. We commit things to memory, we compare it to things we already know, we make analogies. Without that you can't be a great athlete, you can't be a great musician. And that's what Garnder was saying, but people misinterpret him all the time.
What is "verbal-linguistic" intelligence?
Verbal-linguistic intelligence is the ability to understand the spoken and written language and also to express oneself with that written and spoken language. We all know people who are skilled verbally and linguistically; these are people that hold court very well, we tend to listen to, we tend to remember things that they have spoken about and told us, said, or written, and they also end up being pretty good listeners as well, because they're always interested in what other people have to say and what other people have written.
What is "logical-mathematical" intelligence?
Logical-mathematical ability is the ability to understand concepts of quantity, numbers, and the relationship between concepts and ideas. So someone with logical-mathematical ability will be able to accurately plan tasks, predict outcomes from a certain order of events that may occur. And of course, these type of thinkers usually show pretty good skill at math, algebra and tasks like that.
What is "visual-spatial" intelligence?
Visual-spatial intelligence is the ability to organize information that we receive through visual stimuli. The brain makes representations of things that we see. The ability for us to look at a picture, for example, of a three-dimensional object, which the picture is really a two-dimensional object, but we're still able to count how many faces are on a pyramid, for example, or a cube, because we can mentally represent those shapes and those forms. The ability to do this is referred to as visual-spatial ability.
What is "musical-rhythmic" intelligence?
Musical and rhythmic intelligence is the ability to perceive relationships and to organize information that we receive through music and rhythm. It manifests itself in the ability of that learner to express themselves musically, to create patterns, rhythms, and at its highest level to synthesize new pieces of music, new works, to write music.
What is "bodily-kinesthetic" intelligence?
Bodily-kinestic intelligence is the ability to perceive and then to duplicate or reproduce a series of acrid movements of the body, used in dance or in athletic activities. I think it's important to also understand that people who are not necessarily dancers or athletes also can certainly have a very high bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, in the way that they move and the way that they hold themselves, posture, just basically being aware of our body in space.
What is "intrapersonal" intelligence?
Intrapersonal intelligence refers to self knowledge. In the sense of being accurate about who we are, what our implicit beliefs about things are, and how we relate to our environment and the people around us.
What is "interpersonal" intelligence?
Interpersonal intelligence refers to our ability to accurately perceive others' emotions, motivations and feelings. Interpersonal intelligence allows us to act accordingly to seek to understand others. People who are very good at interpersonal intelligence make very good leaders in business, good teachers and people who work with other people.
Are students stronger in some areas of intelligence than others?
All learners are stronger at some areas of intelligence and learning than others. So, the answer would be yes. There are some areas that we all are more talented or more rehearsed at than others. The goal is schooling and education should be a well rounded learner whose good at all of the 7 different areas or more of intelligence. Interestingly, it really becomes, which came first the chicken or the egg question. Because, in order to get good at something we have to practice it over and over. But in order to be motivated to practice something over and over, we have to be fairly good at it with a good chance at success. So, this is one of the wonderful parts about learning and schooling is that we get a chance to do that.
Can students increase their intelligence in specific areas?
Students can absolutely increase their intelligence in certain areas. It's a teacher's job to help them to do that. Any area that we practice and rehearse and apply ourselves to, attend, pay attention to and are motivated to exert some effort, we will improve in intelligence. There is no doubt about that. I believe that one of the goals of schooling is to teach that lesson to students: the reward that you'll get is really related to the effort you put into a task.
