Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom

Every student in your class is intelligent. The trick is to finding out just how he or she is intelligent and tapping that to help your student to learn more easily and to allow him or her to add a new a dimension to your course. Howard Gardners's Multiple Intelligence Theory defines students as intelligent in one of eight areas. By teaching to a student's intelligences and by allowing them to express themselves using their preferred intelligences the entire classroom can be enriched.

To get started:

• Click on the Syllabus link below to find information about the course and the book
• Click on Introductions link to meet your instructor and introduce yourself
• Post any questions you have in Questions and Comments

Lesson 1: Getting Started

When we say someone is smart we typically mean that they have strengths in the traditional intelligences: verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical. When we see star athletes who can barely string together an intelligent sentence we usually don't associate the word 'smart' with them. When we realize that some of the people who have skills we admire barely made it through school we begin to question how they got where they are.

In this lesson we will introduce you to Gardner's Multiple Intelligences and ways you can use this knowledge to better reach your students.