Chapter 3: Describing Intelligences in Students

Chapter 3 in Multiple Intelligences summarizes the different ways to assess the multiple intelligences of each student. Even before a student enters school, their intelligences have already begun to develop and lean toward certain ones. It is important for teachers to pinpoint the stronger intelligences in each student in order to teach them as best as they can. There are several ways to evaluate the multiple intelligences and most of them come from observing the students: noticing how the student does well, looking at students’ interests, using the ‘check list’ approach, collecting pieces of work from the student, looking at school records of the student. Handing out a questionnaire might help a little, but observing is the best way. As a teacher, you might be able to ask fellow students about a certain student, or just ask that student how he or she best learns. And the most interesting way to determine an intelligence is looking back at the kindergarten records to see how the student acted and more importantly: how he or she misbehaved in the classroom because much can be learned from those situations. For example, a linguistic student would talk out of turn. By keeping track of all these observations, it will be much easier to pinpoint the multiple intelligences of each student and talk to the parents of that student if any concerns arise. And by knowing how each of your students learns, it will be easier to teach to their needs as students and learners.

The different ways of assessing students are incredibly helpful, especially since there are so many different learners in a classroom. It was also interesting that when students are in their younger, in their primary school years, they misbehave in the way in which they learn. Many people can identify with this and tell their own anecdotes. I, myself, was always getting into trouble because I would be talking or I wouldn’t be paying attention to the teacher since I was working on some sort of puzzle, and it turns out that I am heavily logical/mathematical and linguistic, too. It’s just disappointing that my teachers hadn’t recognized this and said something back then to me about this and I could have honed my skills, instead of just talking or working on puzzles. We are a new generation of teachers and when we have our own classroom, I feel that teaching will change dramatically.