The following summary of multiple intelligences and the MI theory is adapted from Tina Blythe's and Howard Gardner's article A School for All Intelligences.
The theory of multiple intelligences (MI theory) is based on Gardner's work with gifted children, and brain injured adults.
According to the MI theory, people use seven different intellectual capacities to approach and solve problems, they are:
- Linguistic
- Musical
- Logical-mathimatical
- Spatial
- Bodily-kinesthetic
- Interpersonal
- Intrapersonal
Howard Gardner's MI Theory underscores the importance of the arts in teaching and learning. Gardner considers it critical to recognize that the arts build upon and integrate the other five forms of intelligence -- that is, the other five "ways of learning and knowing." He concludes that teaching the arts themselves, as well as using the arts to teach other disciplines, enables educators to reach many students who are not now succeeding in school and to reach all students more deeply.
Alternatives to current educational practices:
- Range of abilities addressed: Diversify the range of abilities beyond the linguistic and logical mathematical intelligences which school currently address.
- Learning environment: Include sustained hands on practice that address other intellectual capacities. For example: music or bodily intellegences. MI theory emphasises learning in context especially via apprenticeships.
- Assessment measures: MI theory challenges the standardized testing practices currently used by schools. Instead, each intelligence needs to be assessed directly.
- Concept of learner: Emphasizes the individualized ways in which people learn. Questions the policy of educating all students the same way which doesn't allow for individual learning styles. Each student should learn in a context that supports their intellectual learning style.