Multiple intelligences and their role in the learning process.

 

The word intelligence has different conceptualizations. The New Oxford American Dictionary’s definition of intelligence is “the ability to acquire knowledge and skills”. (2010, p.903) But from another perspective the word can be defined as different and independent abilities that each human being acquires to be trained as a unique person and capable of solving an activity in their own viewpoint and in a certain way different from that of others. At that stage it is where multiple intelligences arise, which personally attract my attention, since they are the clear representation that every human being is good by highlighting their abilities in different areas, this being what has motivated me to choose this statement under the focus of education based on  learning a language.

 

Nowadays, professionals are specialized in certain areas in the different disciplines that education requires. The society as a whole is constantly changing, so the claim of teachers with characteristics and skills to carry out current progress from differentiating to specific perspective is present. These professionals, when putting into practice their knowledge in an integrated way, face the situation of mixing the different abilities that students have by presenting lessons with the key use of multiple intelligences in order to stand out and obtain greater achievements. In this point that the analysis multiple intelligences theory proposed by Howard Gardner allows us to consider different intelligences which are present according to the abilities in all students in different grades and classrooms.  These contributions give the alternative of taking them into account to be aware of the abilities that each individual possesses, taking advantage of the heterogeneity in relation to the students in the same classroom.

Multiple intelligences play an important role with reference to the general classroom management framework because "the MI can be used in different ways in the classroom and have several benefits" (Spirovska, 2013, cited by Oliver, 2017). It is known that they promote a new way in which the teacher innovates in the classroom. Armstrong (2009) details the eight intelligences created by Howard Gardner which are called: 1-Linguistic Intelligence. 2-Logical- mathematical Intelligence. 3-Spatial Intelligence. 4-Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence. 5-Musical Intelligence. 6-Interpersonal Intelligence. 7-Intrapersonal Intelligence. 8-Naturalistic Intelligence.

 

Moreover, the contribution that multiple intelligences has done in the development of the curriculum is explaining by Armstrong (2009, p.54) "MI theory makes its greatest contribution to education by suggesting that teachers need to expand their repertoire of techniques, tools, and strategies beyond the typical linguistic and logical ones predominantly used in American classrooms.'' In order to develop the aforementioned, it is necessary to assess the different intelligences of the students, therefore it is important to know which intelligences are predominant in the classroom and especially in which of these intelligences students usually work, previously classifying the strengths and weaknesses to be able to act on it.

 

An effective way to know the intelligences that predominant in the classroom is the observation of the class that way you can facilitate the knowledge of that data and be able to make the decision of how to work to increase the success in the performance and learning progress of a specific language; As well as taking into account the diversification of the contents to be taught. Traditionally, in the classroom the contents focus on verbal intelligence because they transmit knowledge through the word. But in a classroom with multiple intelligences it is important to prepare the class with teaching strategies, material designs and activities so that all the intelligences are worked in that way the students can develop the competences in natural environment.

 

In the future, multiple intelligences may expand to different educational levels as well as to different cities in the world because they are already a mechanism of evolution in methodologies. For the same reason, they will be a very interesting instrument to work in a more complete and efficient way, being able to meet the different needs that students have, with the advantage of individual abilities that will lead to meaningful learning, either collaboratively, such as the popularity of assignments as projects; or individually by giving the student the opportunity to highlight their skills to work on essays or the creation of models, that is, developing everything in an integral way by personalizing and developing the  intelligences that need to  be worked in the classroom.

 

Also, in the future, the way of evaluating will be linked to the particularities and needs of each student by applying the theory of multiple intelligences with an integrative approach. For this, types of activities, exercises, tests, among others, can be attached in the learning process as well as in the evaluation; so that students can choose by having multiple opportunities and approaches to learn and to demonstrate what they have learned.