Word: mi
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...years since Frames of Mind was published, those other volumes have never appeared. Nor, as Gardner acknowledges, have those discussions and tests been undertaken. He now says that as a scientist he preferred to move on to other matters within MI and outside it. Moreover, he says, it goes against the grain of his philosophy to develop tests to measure the intelligences, a prerequisite psychologists say would be necessary to determine the validity of the theory. Gardner also points out that the overall trends in neurology and cognitive psychology strongly support his view that intelligence comprises many abilities...
...less to the theory of multiple intelligences than many educators seem to believe. That may not matter so much. Gardner and other researchers say it's not necessary for a theory to enjoy absolute scientific confirmation as long as it shows good results in the classroom. But does MI show such results...
Gardner has never laid down a detailed plan for applying his theory in schools, and the consultants and publishers who offer training in MI operate independently of him, so there is a wide range of actual practices. A few hundred schools, like Coyote Creek, use the theory in a thoroughgoing way; thousands more adopt pieces of it. The result is that the methods that go under the name of multiple intelligences are often ones Gardner would not approve of. He insists, for example, that it is a waste of time to simply "exercise the intelligence muscles...
...most common use of MI is to attack a topic from seven directions to fit in all the intelligences. Take a typical project described in a book published by SkyLight. To teach children about the oceans, it is suggested that they write about cleaning a fish (tapping the linguistic intelligence), draw a sea creature (spatial), "role play" a sea creature (bodily-kinesthetic), use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast ships (logical), tap glasses with different amounts of water (musical), design a water vehicle in a group (interpersonal) and choose a favorite sea creature (intrapersonal). All these activities will take...
...article by Gardner, which he regards as quite important, suggests that the problem of depth remains to be solved. In "Multiple Approaches to Understanding" (to appear next year in an anthology), he sets out to show how MI theory can be used to teach evolution and the Holocaust. He first details inviting "entry points" for these topics--students strong in interpersonal intelligence, for example, could play the roles of different species. An entry point is only that, however, and Gardner proceeds to pose the "crucial educational question": Can we use knowledge about individual strengths to convey the "core notions...