Teaching for effective learning - intelligence

What we know

We all possess a unique combination of talents and abilities, which can and do change throughout our lives.

Over the centuries, philosophers have tried to identify and describe these different talents and abilities and, more recently, psychologists and educationalists have explored these concepts within the context of education and learning. Much of this debate has centred on the nature of intelligence.

Intelligence is generally considered to represent our ability to think, reason, plan, solve problems, comprehend ideas, make judgements and learn new things. Intelligence is not just about academic learning or success in tests or exams - it reflects a broader and deeper capability for making sense of the world around us.

Historically, however, intelligence was regarded as a fixed trait; something that we are born with. It was believed that intelligence was based entirely upon our genes. During the early part of the last century the prevailing philosophy of education was to make secondary schooling available only to those considered intelligent enough to benefit from it. In 1920 the Scottish Education Department wrote:

The supporters of this view regarded intelligence as a single fixed commodity which was largely inherited, and found in varying degrees in all individuals. They also believed that such intelligence could be measured, as reflected in the tests devised by Alfred Binet in 1905 and which have come to be known as IQ (Intelligence Quotient) tests.

This view of intelligence, however, has been challenged in recent years. Most psychologists and educationalists now believe that intelligence has little, if any, genetic basis and that it is not a single, fixed commodity. Our capacity to think and solve problems can be strengthened or weakened depending on the experiences we have and the kinds of teaching we receive. Some psychologists such as Vygotsky also believe that our intellectual development may be largely influenced by the social environment in which we live and, in particular, the way that we interact with others.

The idea that intelligence is not in fact 'one' thing at all but a 'set' of abilities, talents or mental skills is probably the most popular view today among psychologists and educationalists. According to the writer Howard Gardner, for example, all human beings possess different forms of intelligence or ability and his theory of multiple intelligences can lay claim to being the most influential in recent years. Gardner’s original model described 7 different types of intelligence and how they might be contextualised within learning.

Linguistic Intelligence refers to the ability to use words and language, both written and spoken. Such learners have highly developed auditory skills and are generally fluent speakers. They think in words rather than pictures. Their skills include listening, speaking, writing, story telling, explaining and teaching others.

Logical Intelligence refers to the ability to reason, apply logic and work with numbers.  Such learners think conceptually in logical and numerical patterns, making connections between pieces of information. Their skills include problem solving, classifying and categorising information, thinking logically, questioning, carrying out investigations, performing mathematical calculations and working with geometric shapes.

Visual-spatial Intelligence refers to the ability to perceive the visual. Such learners tend to think in pictures and need to create vivid mental images to retain information. Their skills include understanding charts and graphs, sketching, painting, creating visual images and constructing, fixing, and designing practical objects.

Musical Intelligence refers to the ability to produce and appreciate music. These musically inclined learners think in sounds, rhythms and patterns. They immediately respond to music either appreciating or criticising what they hear. Their skills include singing, playing musical instruments, recognizing sounds and tonal patterns, composing music and remembering melodies.

Bodily Kinaesthetic Intelligence refers to the ability to control body movements and handle objects skillfully. Such learners express themselves best through movement. They have a good sense of balance and hand-eye co-ordination. Through interacting with the space around them, they are able to remember and process information. Their skills include dancing, physical co-ordination, sports, crafts, acting, miming and using their hands to create or build.

Interpersonal Intelligence refers to the ability to relate to and understand other people. These learners are able to sense feelings, intentions and motivations and are adept at recognising non-verbal language, for example body language. Their skills include seeing things from other perspectives, listening, using empathy, understanding other people's moods and feelings and communicating both verbally and non-verbally.

Intrapersonal Intelligence refers to the ability to understand ourselves, who we are, and what makes us the way that we are. Such learners are able to recognise their own strengths and weaknesses and have a capacity for self-analysis, awareness of their inner feelings, desires and dreams, evaluating their thinking patterns and reasoning with themselves.

According to Gardner, all individuals possess each of these intelligences to some extent, although individuals will differ in the degree of skills and in the nature of their combination. Gardner stresses that it is the interaction between the different intelligences that is fundamental to the workings of the mind and that in the normal course of events, the intelligences actually interact with, and build upon, one another. Howard Gardner has now proposed an eighth intelligence, ‘naturalistic’.

Other writers have put forward different concepts of intelligence. Tony Buzan, for example, has identified 10 intelligences that include categories such as creative intelligence, personal intelligence, social intelligence and spiritual intelligence.

In recent years the concept of emotional intelligence, as established by writers such as Daniel Goleman, has emerged as one of the most influential models of intelligence. The role of emotions in learning is explored in more detail in Section 4 of this document.

Implications for learning

Although Howard Gardner’s theory has received criticism from academics and educational writers, it has, nevertheless, proved to be one of the most influential models in recent years and is used by schools and teachers in a variety of ways.

At one level it is a useful tool for teachers to enter into discussion and debate with learners about the meaning of intelligence. Secondary schools in particular have also used Gardner’s model to address the issue that linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences have traditionally been accorded a higher level of status, and many schools have explored ways of developing the other intelligences in young people.

This is particularly true of interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences where the ability to communicate well with others and to demonstrate a capacity for self-reflection is becoming an increasingly important feature of life and work in a modern society.

Whether we agree with the theory of multiple intelligences is not important. The contribution of Gardner and others has drawn attention to the multiple nature of intelligence and supports the research evidence that intelligence is not a single, fixed commodity. In turn this has reinforced the view that all learners can improve and extend their thinking. 

Multiple intelligences also provide a wide variety of identifiable areas of knowledge and skills beyond the traditional verbal and numerical, including the personal, social and creative. By focusing on these and other ‘intelligences’ pupils can more easily discover that they have strengths and use the resulting gains in confidence to develop those areas in which they are not so strong.

In applying theories of intelligence to the classroom, it is important that teachers do not categorise or compartmentalise learners, but instead recognise that individuals are strong in some aspects of intelligence and less strong in others. All young people should be provided with learning opportunities that help to nurture and develop all their talents and abilities, and assessment methodologies should reflect the multiple nature of intelligence.

One of the most effective ways of applying multiple intelligence theory to learning is to create a bridge or entry point to an activity through a dominant intelligence. A learner, for example, who is strong in mathematics (logical-mathematical), but who is much less confident in, say, art and design (visual spatial) may view a painting activity as being potentially difficult or intrinsically uninteresting. As a result, that learner’s level of motivation to engage fully in the activity may be low. By using the pupil’s strength in mathematics as a bridge or entry point, however, the teacher can increase that pupil’s level of confidence and motivation in tackling the art activity. This might, for example, be achieved by first considering some logical-mathematical aspects of the painting such as scale, angles, shapes, patterns and dimensions, whilst utilising skills such as investigating, questioning and classifying information.

In this way, the teacher can create a range of multiple intelligence entry points for classroom activities, and also exit points through which learners can demonstrate their learning. Varied approaches to assessment can help to facilitate this and some of these aspects are considered in more detail in Assessment.

 Two examples of how teachers have integrated this concept within the classroom are described below.

 1 Profiling celebrities

A teacher with a group of upper primary school pupils profiled a famous footballer in terms of his multiple intelligences. The class concluded that his strengths were ‘body smart’ and ‘picture smart’, but there was significant debate about the extent to which he was ‘people smart’ and pupils concluded that he probably was not ‘self smart’. They went on to discuss whether the player was born with his talents or whether he had to practise and put in effort to gain them.

2 Concept maps

A teacher with a group of special needs students decided to use multiple intelligences as a stimulus for discussion. She displayed the intelligences and discussed with students what each meant. She then asked each student to draw ‘Me’ in the middle of a concept map and then add drawings of what each perceived to be his or her top three intelligences. She then took each of the maps and showed them to the group one by one, asking them to guess whose map it was. Despite knowing each other well, they had little success in guessing whom any of the maps belonged to, because they were describing intelligences not normally acknowledged or celebrated by the school. The teacher later reported that, of all the activities she had tried with the group in question, this exercise raised their self-esteem more than any other.