Shalini-Week 2 Reflections

I want to explore Howard Garner’s multiple intelligences in designing alternative assessments so that students will be allowed to tap on and develop their intelligences. Rather than the mundane, limiting task that teachers sometimes slip into setting for students, I want to find out how I can really challenge and nurture students holistically. 

The article, “Research on Multiple Intelligences Teaching and Assessment” by Jingchen Xie and Ruilin Lin, talks about the implications of multiple intelligences in teaching but more specifically what it means for assessment. In the classroom, there will be numerous students who have different learning preferences and thus, the article states that the teacher needs to “allow students to choose means of expression based on their learning experience and preferences and fully demonstrate their academic strengths”. Therefore, what this means is that students should be given the freedom to choose the how they wish to convey/ deliver the tasks assigned to them and be allowed to do a wide array of tasks that tap on various intelligences. I like this point as it ensures fairness in testing as students can do what they are good at. I would like to use this to the analogy: setting a test to determine who climbs a tree the fastest. This would only be fair if all participants were monkeys and not a mixture of fish, snakes, dogs who are not as capable as climbing a tree as the monkey, having other niche’s like swimming etc. These different animals are our students in the class. Testing students only on one intelligence will be unfair to other students who may be better at the other intelligences, and so like only the monkey aces the test, a particular group of student does well and  the rest not quite so. Thus, testing using only one area would indirectly be advantageous to a certain group of students and hence we need to factor in the other intelligences as well.

The article points out eight forms of multiple intelligences assessment -oral reports, writing presentations for linguistic intelligence, problem solving, cause-effect inference for logical-mathematical intelligence,  use of charts, photographs and slideshows for  visual-spatial intelligence, record of introspecting one’s own learning for intrapersonal intelligence, music appreciation, musical performances for musical intelligence, collaborative and peer reviews for interpersonal intelligence , making of observations of classification reports for  Naturalist intelligence and acting or dancing for Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. I find this breakdown very useful when we want to think of assessment for the varied learners in the classroom. In attempting to strike a balance between the testing of different intelligences, perhaps as teachers we can create a “multiple intelligences portfolio” whereby students are given assignments for each of the intelligences. Students may feel more involved learning if they can express their knowledge through pleasurable means or when they help their classmates in their expertise area. This idea is quite viable, but there must be curriculum differentiation to begin with. The teaching itself will have to be carried out such that teachers are “constantly stimulating students’ dominant intelligences” and exploring the different intelligences within the curriculum. 

 Therefore, as the article states, “teachers involved in multiple intelligences teaching should pay equal attention to students displaying gifts in different intelligences and allow them a variety of ways to express themselves.”

Works Cited

 Xie, J C, and  R L Lin. "Research on Multiple Intelligences Teaching and Assessment." Asian Journal of Management and Humanity Sciences 4.2-3 (2009): 106-124. Print.