Which area of Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences do you feel is your area of strength? Explain why, and give an example.
8 thoughts on “Diverse Students: Multiple Intelligences”
Kegan Miura
After taking the assessment and finding the kind of learner I am it makes a lot of sense as to the kind of person I am. I had a score of 4.86 for both body movement as well as interpersonal which I find funny. Someone who loves to be active and move around yet wants to work alone sounds like conditions I would learn best with. I strongly agree with interpersonal learning styles by working on projects on your own and learning by trial and error. I feel this is because of my short temper and hard headed attitude that has a limited amount of patience that I tend to work alone. Kinesthetic Intelligence I feel has the strongest impact on my learning as I feel it allows me to apply what I am learning and put into action what I see and feel. This helps me to learn faster by understanding what works and what doesn’t to learn by experience. I go back and credit a sophomore year english project that allowed me to practice what I was learning in the classroom outside the classroom using the different skills I learned in class integrating different subjects into one project. It’s amazing to me to see all of the different ways people can learn and as a teacher I can see how difficult it can be as a teacher to reach all learners to make sure they grasp the knowledge being shared with them.
After I was able to take the Multiple Intelligences Assessment, intrapersonal was considered my strongest area out of the eight different multiple intelligences. I agreed that this was the one I was similar to because there were a lot of common traits and actions that were similar to intrapersonal. I like to work on my computer and I tend to listen and read to different books almost everyday. Some other things that relate me to this is I often like to spend time by myself and think about problems or current things that are going on in my life. I also am someone who is shy and keeps to themselves. Often times I like to work alone instead with groups and I also prefer to not speak and let others voice their opinions. For me its easier to observe and listen to others talking. I usually just voice my opinion inside my head. For example when we have group discussions I tend to just listen and think about my answer and compare it to what others have to say. After took the assessment it said that intrapersonal people, “often prefer to learn by trial and error. ” This is another thing that I like to do because I feel its better to learn from your own mistakes instead from another. Once you learn from your personal wrong you can only get better.
After taking the multiple intelligences assessment, the results showed that my strongest area is interpersonal intelligence, and I agree that it is in fact the area that best suits me. According to Howard Gardner, having interpersonal intelligence means having the capacity to be self-aware and in tune with inner feelings, values, beliefs, and thinking processes. The blog also states that those with strong interpersonal intelligence like to spend time alone with their thoughts and prefer working alone when it comes to projects. As far as being in tune with my inner feelings and beliefs, I feel that I am pretty assertive when It comes to knowing my own values and standards. I am someone who will usually voice my opinions and thoughts, even at times where I should just keep them to myself. For example, I am not really the type to go to parties and I stay true to that because that is just who I am. I am not afraid to tell people that I don’t want to be around that even though people may think that makes me lame or not cool. I’m okay with that and I do not let those comments sway me. In relation to the part about enjoying being alone with my thoughts, I have a bad habit of over thinking everything and I tend to set high standards for myself. Although that is sometimes a good trait to have, the downside is that when I do fall short of my expectations, I am extremely hard on myself and will fixate on that mistake. Furthermore, when it comes to projects my high expectations for myself come into play again. I prefer working alone because I have control over my work and I like things a certain way. I am always hesitant to work in a group for class because I don’t have full control.
Of the eight intelligences I feel that intrapersonal is my strongest area. I’ve always been a quiet student, and I owe that to the fact that I’m a very bashful person, don’t like attention, and that when you talk, people tend to look at you, so I remedy that by just not talking. My lack of verbal communication in class and failure to be active in class discussions has lead me to favor working on my own. Howard Gardner states that these skills are covered with the intrapersonal intelligence: the ability to understand yourself and knowing your preferences, capabilities, and deficiencies. I believe I cover all of those skills as I’ve learned my strengths and weaknesses over the years and am able to apply myself to utilize them. For example, in Hawaiian History we were assigned to do a project that demonstrated our knowledge we gathered from a book as it applied to a certain question. The project was very flexible as we could present our knowledge in whatever form (song, poster board, skit, essay, etc.) we preferred and we could also work with a partner. Being the student I am and knowing my preferences and strengths, I chose to work alone and write an essay. As I fall into the intrapersonal intelligence I knew how I could best share my understanding of the book, through written word. Also, working alone meant that I wouldn’t have to deal with possible disagreements about the project, so I went with that option knowing that I’d be more comfortable on my own.
I believe that the Body Kinesthetic area is where I feel is most suited for me. This is suited for me due to the fact that I have always been a more athletic person. Throughout my life I have been active and felt that it was easier to understand things when they involved movement or any hands on activity. But because majority of schooling classes involve lecture and testing I also had difficulties retaining knowledge. As the years went by this has become easier, but I still find it difficult at times to just sit down and listen to a lecture. For me in this environment I at least need to be able to mentally interact with the lesson at hand (Discussion). Otherwise learning proves to be quite difficult.
I see myself as a Body Kinesthetic learner. I enjoy doing things that are hands on and interactive. I tend to retain information easier if I am able to use my body and create or do something instead of having information thrown at me. The downside of this strength is struggling in lecture classes where information is just thrown at me and I need to write and retain information by listening and reading. An example of of learning better when doing hands on work is in my science classes. The experiments allow me to be creative and work on a process myself. When conducting an experiment, I can use all my senses to make clear what I am observing. The learning becomes more personalized, when I do an experiment that I control.
Out of the eight different multiple intelligences, the one that relates closest to me is the Musical type. I am a person that listens to music 24/7. If I’m not listening to music, then I end up just singing one out of no where. A lot of teachers find music as a distraction to students when doing their work, but the truth is it really helps. For me, working in silence makes me lazy and sleepy. As to where working with music keeps me awake with the up beats giving me the mind set to keep going. I think to be a musical person you need to learn how to block the music out while doing your work. It really isn’t about listening to the words, instead it is about feeling the beat that gives some energy. Another reason as to why I think I am a musical person is the way I sometimes memorize some information. Last year in Algebra 2 my math teacher gave us this formula that we needed to memorize for the test coming up the week after. She shared with us how her students came up with a little song to memorize the formula easier. The beat she gave us was really catchy and next thing you know I got it down in no time. Music is something that I can use to express the way I’m feeling. I listen to a different variety of music that always represents my mood. Music is something really important to me. I feel like if I didn’t have anything to listen to while doing my homework, I wouldn’t even bother to do it at all.
In Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences, I feel like my area of strength would most definitely be through visual hands-on work. I’ve always considered myself to be an artistic and creative person and always had much more fun doing things when assigned things where i could, paint, draw or express my artistic views and perspectives while at the same time demonstrating the idea that i’ve fully grasped a certain concept depending on the homework or project that we’ve been assigned. For instance, Drawing and Painting has been my favorite subject for as long as I could remember and it comes naturally to me so i have an easy time in that class, but math on the other hand has been a constant struggle for me throughout my entire school career. I find that numbers and me do not get along at all… we just don’t like each other. With that being said, whenever i got confused with math i would just get frustrated and flustered and would find myself putting zero effort into improving my mathematical skills because of the fact that i wasn’t good at it at all so i would just not do it instead of seeking help from my math teacher. But as I look back on those dreadful math hating days, I’ve realized that it wasn’t that i “sucked” at math or that “math hated me” it was just i had a different way of understanding it. Therefore, i had to find unique ways of doing things to fully grasp the concept within math.
After taking the assessment and finding the kind of learner I am it makes a lot of sense as to the kind of person I am. I had a score of 4.86 for both body movement as well as interpersonal which I find funny. Someone who loves to be active and move around yet wants to work alone sounds like conditions I would learn best with. I strongly agree with interpersonal learning styles by working on projects on your own and learning by trial and error. I feel this is because of my short temper and hard headed attitude that has a limited amount of patience that I tend to work alone. Kinesthetic Intelligence I feel has the strongest impact on my learning as I feel it allows me to apply what I am learning and put into action what I see and feel. This helps me to learn faster by understanding what works and what doesn’t to learn by experience. I go back and credit a sophomore year english project that allowed me to practice what I was learning in the classroom outside the classroom using the different skills I learned in class integrating different subjects into one project. It’s amazing to me to see all of the different ways people can learn and as a teacher I can see how difficult it can be as a teacher to reach all learners to make sure they grasp the knowledge being shared with them.
After I was able to take the Multiple Intelligences Assessment, intrapersonal was considered my strongest area out of the eight different multiple intelligences. I agreed that this was the one I was similar to because there were a lot of common traits and actions that were similar to intrapersonal. I like to work on my computer and I tend to listen and read to different books almost everyday. Some other things that relate me to this is I often like to spend time by myself and think about problems or current things that are going on in my life. I also am someone who is shy and keeps to themselves. Often times I like to work alone instead with groups and I also prefer to not speak and let others voice their opinions. For me its easier to observe and listen to others talking. I usually just voice my opinion inside my head. For example when we have group discussions I tend to just listen and think about my answer and compare it to what others have to say. After took the assessment it said that intrapersonal people, “often prefer to learn by trial and error. ” This is another thing that I like to do because I feel its better to learn from your own mistakes instead from another. Once you learn from your personal wrong you can only get better.
After taking the multiple intelligences assessment, the results showed that my strongest area is interpersonal intelligence, and I agree that it is in fact the area that best suits me. According to Howard Gardner, having interpersonal intelligence means having the capacity to be self-aware and in tune with inner feelings, values, beliefs, and thinking processes. The blog also states that those with strong interpersonal intelligence like to spend time alone with their thoughts and prefer working alone when it comes to projects. As far as being in tune with my inner feelings and beliefs, I feel that I am pretty assertive when It comes to knowing my own values and standards. I am someone who will usually voice my opinions and thoughts, even at times where I should just keep them to myself. For example, I am not really the type to go to parties and I stay true to that because that is just who I am. I am not afraid to tell people that I don’t want to be around that even though people may think that makes me lame or not cool. I’m okay with that and I do not let those comments sway me. In relation to the part about enjoying being alone with my thoughts, I have a bad habit of over thinking everything and I tend to set high standards for myself. Although that is sometimes a good trait to have, the downside is that when I do fall short of my expectations, I am extremely hard on myself and will fixate on that mistake. Furthermore, when it comes to projects my high expectations for myself come into play again. I prefer working alone because I have control over my work and I like things a certain way. I am always hesitant to work in a group for class because I don’t have full control.
Of the eight intelligences I feel that intrapersonal is my strongest area. I’ve always been a quiet student, and I owe that to the fact that I’m a very bashful person, don’t like attention, and that when you talk, people tend to look at you, so I remedy that by just not talking. My lack of verbal communication in class and failure to be active in class discussions has lead me to favor working on my own. Howard Gardner states that these skills are covered with the intrapersonal intelligence: the ability to understand yourself and knowing your preferences, capabilities, and deficiencies. I believe I cover all of those skills as I’ve learned my strengths and weaknesses over the years and am able to apply myself to utilize them. For example, in Hawaiian History we were assigned to do a project that demonstrated our knowledge we gathered from a book as it applied to a certain question. The project was very flexible as we could present our knowledge in whatever form (song, poster board, skit, essay, etc.) we preferred and we could also work with a partner. Being the student I am and knowing my preferences and strengths, I chose to work alone and write an essay. As I fall into the intrapersonal intelligence I knew how I could best share my understanding of the book, through written word. Also, working alone meant that I wouldn’t have to deal with possible disagreements about the project, so I went with that option knowing that I’d be more comfortable on my own.
I believe that the Body Kinesthetic area is where I feel is most suited for me. This is suited for me due to the fact that I have always been a more athletic person. Throughout my life I have been active and felt that it was easier to understand things when they involved movement or any hands on activity. But because majority of schooling classes involve lecture and testing I also had difficulties retaining knowledge. As the years went by this has become easier, but I still find it difficult at times to just sit down and listen to a lecture. For me in this environment I at least need to be able to mentally interact with the lesson at hand (Discussion). Otherwise learning proves to be quite difficult.
I see myself as a Body Kinesthetic learner. I enjoy doing things that are hands on and interactive. I tend to retain information easier if I am able to use my body and create or do something instead of having information thrown at me. The downside of this strength is struggling in lecture classes where information is just thrown at me and I need to write and retain information by listening and reading. An example of of learning better when doing hands on work is in my science classes. The experiments allow me to be creative and work on a process myself. When conducting an experiment, I can use all my senses to make clear what I am observing. The learning becomes more personalized, when I do an experiment that I control.
Out of the eight different multiple intelligences, the one that relates closest to me is the Musical type. I am a person that listens to music 24/7. If I’m not listening to music, then I end up just singing one out of no where. A lot of teachers find music as a distraction to students when doing their work, but the truth is it really helps. For me, working in silence makes me lazy and sleepy. As to where working with music keeps me awake with the up beats giving me the mind set to keep going. I think to be a musical person you need to learn how to block the music out while doing your work. It really isn’t about listening to the words, instead it is about feeling the beat that gives some energy. Another reason as to why I think I am a musical person is the way I sometimes memorize some information. Last year in Algebra 2 my math teacher gave us this formula that we needed to memorize for the test coming up the week after. She shared with us how her students came up with a little song to memorize the formula easier. The beat she gave us was really catchy and next thing you know I got it down in no time. Music is something that I can use to express the way I’m feeling. I listen to a different variety of music that always represents my mood. Music is something really important to me. I feel like if I didn’t have anything to listen to while doing my homework, I wouldn’t even bother to do it at all.
In Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences, I feel like my area of strength would most definitely be through visual hands-on work. I’ve always considered myself to be an artistic and creative person and always had much more fun doing things when assigned things where i could, paint, draw or express my artistic views and perspectives while at the same time demonstrating the idea that i’ve fully grasped a certain concept depending on the homework or project that we’ve been assigned. For instance, Drawing and Painting has been my favorite subject for as long as I could remember and it comes naturally to me so i have an easy time in that class, but math on the other hand has been a constant struggle for me throughout my entire school career. I find that numbers and me do not get along at all… we just don’t like each other. With that being said, whenever i got confused with math i would just get frustrated and flustered and would find myself putting zero effort into improving my mathematical skills because of the fact that i wasn’t good at it at all so i would just not do it instead of seeking help from my math teacher. But as I look back on those dreadful math hating days, I’ve realized that it wasn’t that i “sucked” at math or that “math hated me” it was just i had a different way of understanding it. Therefore, i had to find unique ways of doing things to fully grasp the concept within math.