Multiple Intelligences

The theory of multiple intelligences was developed by Howard Gardner in the early 1980s. According to Gardner, individuals possess eight or more relatively autonomous intelligences that they use to create products and solve problems. The eight intelligences identified by Gardner are linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalistic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.

Multiple intelligences theory is a departure from the traditional conception of intelligence that stretches back to the start of the 20th century. In the early 1900s, French psychologist Alfred Binet designed a 30-item intelligence test for identifying schoolchildren in need of special education. Binet's test gained a wider audience after American psychologist Lewis Terman developed a commercial version for use in schools and the workplace. Around the same time as Binet's pioneering work, English psychologist Charles ...