Of course, it is, and Howard Gardner, one of the best known developmental psychologists, has developed a theory of multiple intelligences:
***** NEAToday Online Extra! Extra! March 1999 Interview with Howard Gardner...
_Can you give a shorthand version of your theory of multiple intelligences?_
Multiple intelligences is a psychological theory about the mind. It's a critique of the notion that there's a single intelligence which we're born with, which can't be changed, and which psychologists can measure. It's based on a lot of scientific research in fields ranging from psychology to anthropology to biology. It's not based upon based on test correlations, which most other intelligence theories are based on.
The claim is that there are at least eight different human intelligences. Most intelligence tests look at language or logic or both; those are just two of the intelligences. The other six are musical, spatial, bodily/kinestheic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist.
I make two claims. The first claim is that all human beings have all of these intelligences. It's part of our species definition. The second claim is that, both because of our genetics and our environment, no two people have exactly the same profile of intelligences, not even identical twins, because their experiences are different.
This is where we shift from science to education. If we all have different kinds of minds, we have a choice. We can either ignore those differences and teach everybody the same stuff in the same way and assess everybody in the same way. Or we can say, look, people learn in different kinds of ways, and they have different intellectual strengths and weaknesses. Let's take that into account in how we teach and how we assess....
_What do you say to people who say that linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences are more important than the other six?_
There's no question that if you have a certain combination of language and logic, you're going to be facile in handling the kinds of tests we usually give, and as long as you stay in school, you'll think you're smart. If you ever should walk out into the street, you might be in for a huge shock. Conversely, if you're not good in language and logic in school, you'll have a harder time because you'll think you're dumb, and you kind of have to get through school to show what it is that you can accomplish in life.
However, there's a very important distinction between the intelligence and the domain. An intelligence is a way of processing, which your mind/brain has. A domain is a subject or topic that you want to master. Any domain can be mastered through a lot of different intelligences. You don't have to use language and logic.
So if you're trying to understand history or science or arts, you can use intelligences like spatial intelligence or musical intelligence or personal intelligence or the naturalist intelligence. A large part of education, whether it's self-education or scholastic education, is figuring how to get your particular mind/brain to learn what it is that it needs to learn.
So if you're not very good in language and logic, you've got three choices: one is to punt, the other is to improve those--and if you can improve them, great--and the third is to say, well I can learn about things in other ways. Let's see whether I can use those other ways to do a better job.
I'm very bad with maps, spatial kinds of things, geometry. I try to exercise my spatial muscles, and they've probably gotten somewhat better. But there are lots of other ways to find your way around besides maps, and it's often very good to use the intelligences that are there.
Indeed I often say that if anybody doesn't believe in multiple intelligences, they should go on an automobile ride with three other people and get totally lost and see how each person tries to get back home. That will make them an instant convert to the theory of multiple intelligences. People do not think the same way....
<http://www.nea.org/neatoday/9903/gardner.html> ***** -- Yoshie
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