Strengths and Weaknesses of Howard Gardners multiple intelligence theory

The Theory of Multiple Intelligences : Its Strength and Weaknesses

Most learning institutions generally focus education on the linguistic and mathematical intelligence . Children in pre-school are first taught to know their ABCs and to count from one to ten . Those who can recite the alphabet well are considered bright students . Learners who can do addition at an early age are placed on the honors list . It had been the norm that intelligence is measured using IQ tests . The higher the IQ is the smarter the person is . But the Theory of Multiple Intelligences

proposed by Howard Gardner in the year 1983 , states otherwise . The theory basically implies that other than linguistic and mathematical competence , there are other or multiple aspects of the learning that should be considered as intelligence also . Likewise , the theory points out that standardized IQ tests is not a sufficient measurement of smartness or dumbness of a person . Gardner 's theory stirred the psychological and educational communities . It received varied reactions Some were impressed and readily accepted the theory as it explains the differences of each students . Yet , some raised their eyebrows and issues sprouted as questions of validity and empirical evidences of the theory may not sustain the claims of the theory . There have been a lot of debates pertaining to multiple intelligences . Several have also expressed their varied opinions regarding the . Indeed the theory proves to be an interesting milestone in the study of human learning and cognitive sciences . It also gives a lot of insight on how education in the future would affect the different abilities of each person . This hopes to discuss in detail the strength and weaknesses of the theory . For the purpose of this research , several s and opinions on the will be cited . The theory , which is more than 20 years old , is already accepted and even integrated in some school but at the same time still in the middle of scrutiny

About Howard Gardner

Howard Gardner was born in 1943 in Scranton , Pennsylvania . His parents were originally from N 'rnberg , Germany . They went to the US in 1938 with their three-year old son Eric . Before Gardner was born , Eric died in a sleighing accident . These were not known to Howard during his childhood but have a fairly significant impact upon his thinking and development He was discouraged from trying risky physical activities and was rather encouraged to develop his creative and intellectual abilities . As he began to find out his family history , he realized that he was different from his parents and friend (Smith , 2002 ) For his education , he went to a preparatory school in Kingston , Pennsylvania against his parents wish to send him to Phillips Academy in Andover , Massachusetts . After that Gardner attended Harvard University and took up a course in history in preparation for a career in law . In Harvard he was able to study under scholars like Eric Erickson , sociologists David Riesman and cognitive psychologist Jerome Burner . The experience helped him set the...