Gardner proposed that humans have seven different intelligences in which we grow. These seven intelligences are linguistic, spatial, logic/math, body-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. He suggests that as children we develop in each of these intelligences at different rates. As we develop we favor certain intelligences and may become particularly strong in a specific intelligence. A key point in Gardner's theory is that comparing children to each other is almost impossible because just because a child is strong than another in math doesn't mean they are "smarter". Thus, during the developmental stages of children, how can schools and teachers cater to the different forms of learning. That is to say, children who are strong in the body-kinesthetic intelligence learn best when they are moving around while students who are stronger in the musical intelligence learn best when given songs and rhythms to memorize.
How are schools able to cater to each child's individual needs? Should they individualize education? These questions come to my mind. I worry about such individualized education because after schooling, the real world will not be as specialized and people may suffer without individual attention. Also, if schools recognize a child as a musically intelligent learner and cater specialize their education to only their strengths, then will their weaknesses ever develop?
"I worry about such individualized education because after schooling, the real world will not be as specialized and people may suffer without individual attention."
ReplyDeleteI disagree with this. I think, if anything, schools lack individual attention-- at least generally speaking, and in many respects this is unavoidable. The teaching method for one type of class requires the members of every class to at least be presented with information in the same way. Rven though the real world is a lot bigger than just a school community, it has many divisions where small-scale, meaningful, individual attention is much more possible.
A person who loves storyboarding might get a job at pixar and work with only other professionals who are skilled in other areas relating to the craft. Someone interested in business can get a job in the business world for the job that best suits them. A biologist can go in to the study of just one family of insects for their entire life. Same for any preference-- there's typically a community to be found somewhere, whether it's all that accessible or not. In high school, however, people of all sorts are given fairly generalized education by being put in the same environment. Schools and teachers may have their own philosophy about teaching a certain subject, and they are physically incapable of individually attending to every single student or every type of student at every moment. Should education be individualized? To a certain extent it can't be fully individualized, and part of learning is learning how you learn to overcome that, but with different teaching methods there can be enough different types of learning activities to play on multiple different types of strengths.
I think individualized education wouldn't necessarily make weaknesses never develop, although it might influence the ones that do (multiple intelligences aren't set in stone). Individualized education would help someone with a certain disposition approach the same subject matter from a different angle by helping them learn the best with respect to their nature. Not all weaknesses should need to develop or be fought against. Some mathematicians/scientists, for example, might do their theorizing based on purely the manipulation of numbers, while others might have a very strong visual sense that they incorporate in to coming up with ideas. But I agree with you, many intelligences can be changed by education, so there's no reason why one should be put in a situation where they have limited ways to approach learning. But still, individualized education doesn't entail individualization to the point where one is forced to learn in one way or another, is it? I think it's more about taking each individual's learning style in to consideration when making judgments and giving assignments.