Chapter 4 Of Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

     A renowned professor of education and psychology at Harvard University, Howard Gardner has radically changed the way we look at intelligence. In 1983 Gardner published the first of two books that theorize that there are multiple intelligences. Gardner believes “that human cognitive competence is better described in terms of a set of abilities, talents, or mental skills, which we call “intelligence” (378). Gardner’s theory dismisses the idea that intelligence is a single attribute of the mind and suggests that there are different types of intelligences that account for different human

I am going to provide real-world examples for three types of intelligence as theorized by Gardner: verbal/linguistic, body-kinesthetic (movement), and logical/mathematical. I'll explain why each example represents one of the types of intelligence and present argumentative critics that have been offered against Gardner's research.

The brain is a complicated thing, and there is evidence to suggest that the mind is not dominated by a single general ability. To many, Howard Gardner is an influential man in the field of education. He is known for his famous theory of multiple intelligences.

What is genius? Since the dawn of 20th century psychologists have been measuring what they consider general intelligence under the assumption that there is a single mental capacity a person possesses that is measurable through an IQ test. The popularity of IQ tests among the general public has lead to the linking of genius solely to the type of intelligence measured on these tests. Howard Gardner, Professor of Cognition at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is well known for his theory of multiple intelligences which critiques and challenges the notion of a singular measurable intelligence. Despite scoring normally on standardized tests I argue that I am a genius because of the unique combination of my visual/spatial, musical, and naturalist intelligences.

In this essay I will discuss the three types of intelligences known as linguistic, body-kinesthetic, and mathematical as theorized by Gardner and how they relate to real-world examples. Each example represents a type of intelligence. Critics have also developed arguments against Gardner’s research.

Overall, Gardner came up with nine types of intelligences. However, this essay will only cover three of them: verbal/linguistic, body-kinesthetic, and logical/mathematical. This essay will also cover several examples of each type of intelligence. Gardner also had some critics criticizing his research which will also be included throughout the essay.

Gardner posited that a person’s g factor could be divided into eight different distinct intelligences. These intelligences include: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist. Unlike other Psychometric theories Gardner’s theory doesn’t rely upon the results of I.Q. tests. Instead, he based it on observation that show that certain parts of the brain are associated with different intelligence (Sternberg 44). Linguistic intelligence can at its core is an ability to comprehend speech. Howard Gardner defines Intelligence as being “a set of skills of problem solving—enabling the individual to resolve genuine problems or difficulties that he or she encounters” (60). This skill is critical for the survival of humans, allowing for the direct transmission of learning, the persuasion of others to the a course of action, as well as explaining your own actions. Logical-mathematical intelligence is an understanding of the permanence of objects (objects exist even when not interacting with a person) and the results of one’s actions. This then develops into a capability to classify objects together. The need to classify “small” and “large” therefore was what gave birth to the mathematical part of

Santrok (2014) lists Gardner’s eight intelligences and states that children have all of the intelligences however they have their own strengths and weaknesses. Whereas Sobel & Li (2013) describe each of the eight intelligences in detail, and rather than asserting that the intelligences are used by every individual, Sobel and Li state that Gardner focuses on “unusual development or lack of unusual development of given abilities” (Sobel & Li, 2013, p.18).

Musical Intelligence, Intrapersonal Intelligence, Spatial Intelligence, to name just a few. These are examples of Howard Gardner’s understanding of the unconscious mind. Gardner believes that all humans exhibit a range of different intelligences, that can not necessarily be discovered by the use of standardized intelligence quotient testing. His theory of Multiple Intelligences is one that details the possibilities of those few whom we can safely call prodigies. Gardner believes that schools should adapt curriculums to support his theory.

Modern day society has come to a threshold where our technologies and advanced findings can attest past concrete research that has come to a conclusion. Intelligence and concepts alike categorized as evolutionary fugues, the vast, detailed state of the brain and it 's understanding is still being processed and heavily evaluated. Chances are you may have heard terms brainiac, smarty pants, genius the list goes on, these are some names associated with someone with alto intelligence. Most might perceive persons of intellect as renown people with endless information about vast subjects. The reality of that conception is not entirely accurate, intelligence isn 't knowing over a hundred numbers of the pie equation, and it is not about testing

     The beginning of the school year is possibly one of the most stressful experiences for a student to endure due to mandatory placement testing—ultimately deciding where and what level a student belongs to based upon their test scores. However, what if a student does not do well on the placement testing because the subjects that the educational system deem ‘intelligent’ are not the student’s strongest attribute? Based upon the low score, the educational system would declare that student to be unintelligent. But is that student really unintelligent? Or are we “brain-washed to restrict the notion of intelligence to the

Have you ever wondered what your intelligence is based on Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theory? Howard Gardner first proposed the Multiple Intelligence theory in 1983 and the theory states that “traditional psychometric views of intelligence are too limited” (“Which type”). Gardner’s theory consists of eight multiple intelligences categorized as visual-spatial, linguistic-verbal, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. Gardner believes that “people do not have just an intellectual capacity, but have many different intelligences” within themselves (“Which type”). Every person learns differently, takes in knowledge differently, and responds differently. No person is the

Gardner, intelligence is 1) The ability to create an effective product or offer a service that is valued in a

The researchers during the era of psychometrics and behaviorism believed that intelligence is single, inherit entity. In contrary to this notion an increasing number of researchers and psychologists now believed that individuals are born with and possess different levels of ability. The researcher can support their argument by the use of intelligence tests. Gardner (1993) expresses this view elegantly, stating that “there exist a multitude of intelligence, quite independent of each other, that each intelligence has its own strengths and constraints; that the mind is far from unencumbered at birth; and that it is unexpectedly difficult to teach things that go against naïve theories that challenge the natural lines of force within an intelligence and its matching domains.” Howard Gardner viewed intelligence as “the capacity to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural settings.”(Gardner and Hatch, 1989)

However Gardner believed that all human beings possess all nine intelligences in different degrees, and each has a unique intelligence profile. He believed that education can be improved by assessment of a student’s intelligence profile and tailoring activities to their benefit. Finally, he theorized that each intelligence occupies a different area of the brain and may operate cooperatively or independently from each other. More importantly is understanding how these theory can be efficently utilized in the classroom.