Multiple Intelligences

Multimodal View Versus Traditional View of Intelligence

Intelligence and the measurement of intelligence historically have been issues that have been narrowly applied in schools and had a negative impact on culturally diverse populations. Intelligence tests have been used to identify learners for special and gifted education programs. The overidentification of African American learners for special education and underidentification of African American learners for gifted education classrooms have led some educators to question the accuracy of intelligence tests. This phenomenon has often led to the resegregation of the school population, with classrooms segregated along racial and socioeconomic lines.

The pluralistic nature of culture conflicts with the classic, unitary view of intelligence. Traditional views of intelligence as represented by a single numerical score have led to accusations of cultural bias. Testing measures that have provided for the use of skills and abilities that supersede expository skills have resulted in expanded opportunities for culturally different learners to showcase their skills and abilities. Testing measures based on the unitary theory of intelligence provided a limited number of ways for the culturally different to manifest high intelligence and emerge as scholars.

The multiple intelligences theory of Howard Gardner has made perhaps the strongest and most contemporary case regarding the multimodal view of intelligence. Gardner's intelligences include verbal/linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual/spatial, musical, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal (the ability to know and understand others), intrapersonal (knowing and understanding oneself), and naturalist. The concept of multiple intelligences has been embraced by classroom teachers and administrators who believe that all children can learn and that children should, therefore, be taught in multiple ways.

It also follows that if multiple ways of instruction are employed, multiple assessment strategies also should be used. Culturally diverse populations have benefited from the application of this pluralistic philosophy of learning and intelligence. Public and private elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges, and other institutions characterized by racial, socioeconomic, and linguistic diversity have shown positive outcomes when the theory of multiple intelligences has been employed.

Applications in Multicultural Education

The use of the multiple intelligences concept in multicultural education involves employing differentiated instruction to teach learners, using a differentiated curriculum, and measuring learning outcomes by using dynamic assessment techniques. Researchers Maria Dolores Calero and Sara Mata found that immigrant preschool children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds benefited from dynamic assessment following a format characterized by pretesting, followed by a teaching intervention and ending with a post-test. In the researchers’ study of 176 preschool immigrant children who spoke Spanish, the focus was on the individual and the process rather than normative criteria, as in traditional assessment. As revealed in the literature, Calero and Mata found that the multiple intelligence of dynamic assessment is compatible with principles of multicultural education and efforts to teach culturally diverse learners; the personhood of the learner is taken into account, and the learner benefits from the interaction with the assessor.

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