Theory of multiple intelligences

 

The theory of multiple intelligences was proposed by Howard Gardner in 1983 to analyze and better describe the concept of intelligence.

Gardner argues that the concept of intelligence as traditionally defined in psychometrics (IQ tests) mistakenly suggests that the wide variety of cognitive abilities measured in a battery of tests used to assess general intelligence factor are uncorrelated with each other, or at least only very weakly correlated. For example, the theory predicts that a child who learns to multiply easily is not likely to be generally more intelligent than a child who has more difficulty on this task. The child who takes more time to master simple multiplication 1) may best learn to multiply through a different approach, 2) may excel in a field outside of mathematics, or 3) may even be looking at and understand the multiplication process at a fundamentally deeper level. Such a fundamentally deeper understanding can result in what looks like slowness and can hide a mathematical intelligence potentially higher than that of a child who quickly memorizes the multiplication table despite a less detailed understanding of the process of multiplication.

The theory has been met with mixed responses. Empirical evidence reveals high correlations between different tasks (rather than the zero correlations which are predicted). Nevertheless many educationalists^[who?] support the practical value of the approaches suggested by the theory.