More Than One Way to Cook an Egg: Exploring Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

By Maxim Salonine, Vanier College

At a Glance

Discipline

  • Social sciences
  • Psychology

Instructional Level

  • College & CEGEP

Course

  • Introduction to Psychology

Tasks in Workflow

Social Plane(s)

  • Group

Type of Tasks

  • Collecting & seeking information

Technical Details

Useful Technologies

  • Projector for student presentations

Class size

  • Small (20-49)

Time

  • Single class period (< 90 mins)

Inclusivity & Accessibility

  • Diversity of engagement

Instructional Purpose

  • Exploration & inquiry

Overview

In this activity, students explore Garder’s Theory of multiple intelligences through the following steps:

  1. Each team of 2-3 students chooses one of the intelligences from the theory (e.g., musical) and researches it online to build a short PowerPoint presentation for the class.
  2. Each team presents their type of intelligence to the class.
  3. Individually, students fill out a summary table based on the information presented by each team.
  4. Students conduct a self-assessment using the theory and reflect on how well it captures their strengths and weaknesses.

Instructional Objectives

Students will:

  • Describe a chosen intelligence
  • Give examples of its utility in everyday life
  • Analyze how well Gardner’s theory reflects their strengths as a student/citizen/employee

Workflow & Materials

Workflow

Activity Workflow

View on CourseFlow
Document

Activity Introduction and Summary Table

Maxim Salonine

Contributor's Notes

Benefits
Challenges
Tips
Benefits
  • Encourages students to apply theory to practice
  • Builds appreciation of the complexity and diversity of intelligence
  • Encourages student interaction and reflection
Challenges
  • Depending on the sources students use for their research, they might present inaccurate information. It is advisable for the teacher to validate presentations before they are shared with peers.
  • Depending on team composition, some might present higher quality information than others. One way to mitigate this problem is for the teacher to make the teams.
Tips
  • A motivational strategy is to include presented information on an upcoming evaluation (e.g., a quiz).
  • After students finish their self-assessment, the teacher may create a class intelligence profile based on everyone’s scores.

Applied Strategies

Jigsaw

Distributed expertise and knowledge sharing