The intelligence is understood by scientists as the brain activity and the ability to use it in the social life. The main area of intelligence usage is the class activity, when all children’s potential should be discovered and developed by the teacher, as well as the parents’ help is supported. Howard Gardner has introduced his own Multiple Intelligence Model with the aim to help teachers to provide the curriculum for gifted children, to develop their abilities and to use them differentially and individually for all gifted children.
Clark (2007) dwells upon the importance of introducing different strategies in reference to gifted children, to identify them and to develop according to their abilities. Giving brief description of Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Model, Clark (2007) is sure that the division, which is introduced in his model and is supported by the test, may help the teacher to identify the students’ abilities (gifts) and to continue children’s deep development of them.
Turning closer to the Multiple Intelligence Model, Gardner understands intelligence as not just sensory process, but as “the sum of the processes that can take place, no matter what he sensory system” (Maltby, Day, & Macaskill, 2007, p.276). Gardner inclines, that linguistic intelligence, for example, may be dependant on all sensors, such as taste, touch, vision, hearing and smell. At the same time, according to Gardner, people’s brain is divided into sections, which act independently, but are controlled by the intelligence. This theory is the core in the Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Model.
Supporting this idea, Gardner identifies eight native intelligences of the person, which are the main consideration in his Multiple Intelligence Model. These intelligences are as follows, (1) linguistic, that explains the creative usage of the language skills, (2) logical/mathematical, which explains the ability to think rationally, (3) spatial, the ability to create mental models of the world, (4) musical, good ear skills, (5) bodily/kinesthetic, the developed body characteristics, (6) interpersonal, good cooperation with people, (7) intrapersonal, when the person can easily identify his/her talents and provide them into life, and (8) naturalist, when the patterns of nature may be easily understood and organized (Richards & Rodgers, 2001, p.116).
Creating the curriculum according to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Model, the teacher should provide the test, the results of which will give the teacher the opportunity to understand students’ abilities and to identify one or two of them, which students have the capacity to. This individual program should be developed for every child with the reference to his/her abilities, gifts. The significant feature of the Gardner’s model is that education for every student is led individually and the activities are developed, which are of the highest priorities for the child. To the point, the child receives the general education, but the significant attention is paid to the activities, the child has the gift to.
In conclusion, Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Model is the model, which allows identifying students’ gifts in linguistic, logics/mathematics, spatial abilities, body/ kinesthetic abilities, intrapersonal and intrapersonal intelligence, and naturalist abilities. The curriculum is provided to any student personally, depending on his/her gifts, which are developed deeper by the teacher on the parallel with the general education, which is still paid attention less. Gardner’s model allows identifying children’s abilities on the early stages, referencing them to the particular scheme of education.
Reference
Clark, B. (2007). Growing Up Gifted: Developing the Potential of Children at Home and at School. Prince Hall, New Jersey.
Maltby, J., Day, L., & Macaskill, A. (2007). Personality, Individual Differences and Intelligence. Pearson Education, Oxford.
Richards, J. C. & Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.