Multiple Intelligences Theory,
Independent Language Learning
and the Internet

Andy Morrall

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Were you ever bored at school?

• Do you like listening to music?
• Do you like chatting?
• Are you a curious person?

Content

• Can you name a type of dinosaur?
• Were you taught about dinosaurs at school?
• How did you learn about dinosaurs?

Do you think kids like to:

• talk about dinosaurs?
• learn scientific concepts about dinosaurs; e.g. speed?
• draw pictures of dinosaurs?
• pretend to be a dinosaur?
• sing a dinosaur song?
• think about what kind of dinosaur they would like to be?
• guess what kind of dinosaur their classmates would like to be?
• learn about dinosaur behaviour?

How do kids learn about dinosaurs?

• Read books
• Watch videos
• Surf the Internet
• Play computer games
• Use computer CDs

Interest and Motivation

• As teachers, how can we
  retain the interest and
  motivation of students?

My Problem

• I'm the I.T. Coordinator
• 5 million hits is not enough
• Need for more interesting and motivating materials
• How?
• I needed a theoretical framework.

Multiple Intelligences Theory

• Howard Gardner
  Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory
  Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. London: Fontana.

MI Theory - Background

• Gardner thinks that there are 8 abilities which are valued in cultures all around the world.
• He calls these 'intelligences'
• He originally defined intelligence as 'the ability to solve problems or to create products that are valued within one or more cultural settings' (Gardner 1999, p.33). He has now refined this, and sees intelligence as 'a biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture' (Gardner 1999, pp.33-4).

The Eight Intelligences

• Linguistic
• Mathematical / Logical
• Spatial
• Bodily-kinesthetic
• Musical
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Naturalist

Criteria

Examples

 
• potential isolation by brain damage - Linguistic - Broca's area
• the existence or savants, prodigies and other exceptional individuals - Mathematical - Rain Man
• an identifiable core operation or set of operations - Spatial - art, map making
• a distinctive development history - Bodily-kinesthetic - crawl, walk, run, somersault

Examples 2

• an evolutionary history - Musical - animal calls, whale songs
• support from experimental psychological tasks - Inter-personal - you can't have 2 conversations at the same time
• support from psychometric findings - Intra-personal - IQ, EQ, AQ
• susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system - Naturalist - food webs

4 Key Points

• each person possesses all eight intelligences, although with different profiles
• most people can develop each intelligence to an adequate level of competency, i.e. that the level of intelligence is not fixed, and can be improved by study
• intelligences usually work together in complex ways, for example, solving a problem may require the use of multiple intelligences
• there are many ways to be intelligent within each category; e.g. good at one sport but not another

Intelligences, not Learning Styles

• Gardner sees style as a general approach that an individual can apply to every conceivable content
• e.g. activists, theorists, pragmatists and reflectors (Honey & Mumford, 2004)
• activist and reflector in bodily-kinesthtic intelligence - sportsperson and commentator

Independent Learning - Definition

• Independent Learning is "Learning in which an individual or group of learners study on their own, possibly for a part of parts of a course, without direct intervention from a tutor. This can involve learners in taking greater responsibility for what they learn, how they learn, and when they learn" (Jeffries, p.1990).

Levels of independence

1. Awareness - learners identify their strategies and styles
2. Involvement - learners make choices
3. Intervention - learners modify or adapt tasks
4. Creation - learners create their own tasks
5. Transcendence - learners become teachers and researchers

My problem re-visited

• Need for more interesting and motivating materials
• I surveyed 22 CILL students and asked about:
• their hobbies and interests
• their course
• were they good at things from the 8 intelligences; e.g. understanding their strengths and weaknesses
• did they like using English Internet pages to learn about these things
• their highest qualification in these things

Research Question

• Based on Gardner's typology of intelligences, what topics do students like to learn about from English-language web pages?

Survey Participant Profile

• Range of attendance in CILL: 42 - 2,300 minutes
• Courses: Engineering (5), Translation (5), Accountancy (4), Design (4), Bio-medical science, Logistics, Medical, Optometry and Hotel & Tourism Management (1 each)
• 12 male and 10 female
• Twelve were in Year 1, 8 in Year 2, 1 in Year 3, and one was a Post-graduate student.

Results

• They like to use English web pages to study using:
  - interpersonal,
  - musical,
  - naturalist and
  - linguistic intelligences.
• Of those who both liked using English web pages to study an intelligence, and whose hobby or interest involved it, the most popular were music and bodily-kinesthetic.
• Students who agreed that they were both good at an intelligence, and liked using English web pages to learn about it preferred musical, interpersonal and naturalist intelligences.

Conclusion 1

• Musical intelligence appears in all of the analyses of the popularity of the different intelligences.
• Online resources and materials could be linked to and developed to exploit this.
• Example: the BBC World Service page at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/ learningenglish/music/index.shtml

Conclusion 2

• Interpersonal and naturalist intelligences were also popular.
• Could have more resources and tools to help students communicate in English online
• Online communication materials on online communication; e.g. netiquette, and ICQ/SMS abbreviations such as CUL8R (See you later).
• Could have more links to materials involving nature; e.g. food and the environment in Hong Kong.

Application - Report Writing (MI)

• Linguistic and Inter-personal- interviewing for data
• Maths / logic
  - statistics and recommendations
  - deductive grammar analysis
• Bodily-kinesthetic - reports on sport; e.g. favourite team

Report Writing 2 (MI)

• Music - reports on music; e.g. favourite singer / band
• Intra-personal - reports on personal development techniques or courses, reflection in dialogue journals
• Naturalist - reports on food, pets or animal rights

Bibliography 1

• Armstrong, T. (2000). Multiple intelligences in the classroom. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
• Benson, P. & Voller, P., eds. (1997) Autonomy and Independence in Language Learning London: Longman.
• Esch, E. (1996). 'Promoting learner autonomy: criteria for the selection of appropriate methods' in Pemberton, Richard; et al.(1996). Taking Control: Autonomy in Language Learning, Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 35 p. 48.
• Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. London: Fontana.
• Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed. New York: Basic.

Bibliography 2

• Holec, H. (1981). Autonomy and foreign language learning. Oxford: Pergamon.
• Honey, P. & Mumford, A. (2004). peterhoney.com - Online Shop - Manuals. Retrieved December 14, 2004 from http://www.peterhoney.com/
• Jeffries, C. et al. (1990). A-Z of Open Learning. National Extension College Trust.
• Nunan, D. (1997) Designing and adapting materials to encourage learner autonomy. In Benson, P. & Voller, P., eds. (1997) Autonomy and Independence in Language Learning London: Longman, 192 p.203.

Sites - Linguistic & Logical / Maths

• Linguistic Intelligence
  Language learning strategies, http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/strategy.htm
  A list of both general strategies, such as advance organisation, and skill-specific strategies such as writing strategies.
• Logical/Mathematical Intelligence
  Deducing grammar rules from examples given by a concordancer (a program that gives lots of example sentences containing a search term). http://vlc.polyu.edu.hk/concordance/WWWConcappE.htm 

Sites - Musical & Bodily-kinesthetic

• Musical Intelligence
  Learning English through songs. The latest song is available from
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/music/index.shtml , and an archive of recent songs is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/totp/index.shtml .
• Bodily / Kinesthetic Intelligence
  Learning English through drama, with the HKPU English Language Centre's Drama Club. http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/EngDrama/

Sites - Visual, inter- & intra-personal

• Visual / Spatial Intelligence
  Creating a personal dictionary containing drawings, from a section of the ELC site on dictionary skills. http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/advdicts/vocab.htm
• Interpersonal Intelligence
  Correct use of tone and formality http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/eiw/positivetoneletter.htm
• Intrapersonal Intelligence
  Self-analysis skills, http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/howplan.htm , http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/2000silver/chapter6.html
  An online learning to learn course is available at http://www.ldrc.ca/projects/atutor/index.php

Sites - All the Intelligences

• There is an online MI questionnaire to discover a user's stronger intelligences. Feedback on the user's answers to the questionnaire gives suggestions for how to use one's stronger intelligences to help in study. http://literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html 
  There are links to strategies at http://literacyworks.org/mi/practice/index.html