Application of the Theory of Multiplication on Early Childhood Education

INTRODUCTION

Background
Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving.
Intelligence is most widely studied in humans, but has also been observed in animals and plants. Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines or the simulation of intelligence in machines.
Numerous definitions of and hypotheses about intelligence have been proposed since before the twentieth century, with no consensus reached by scholars. Within the discipline of psychology, various approaches to human intelligence have been adopted. The psychometric approach is especially familiar to the general public, as well as being the most researched and by far the most widely used in practical settings.

Issue Formulation
The formulation of issues to be discussed in this manuscript is as follows:
• The History, Precise, Developmental Domains and Benefits of Early Childhood Education
• The Theory of Multiple Intelligences include The Definitions and Classifications
• Application of The Theory of Multiple Intelligences on Early Childhood Education

Discussion Objectives
The purpose of this discussion paper is to examine the influence of educational technology in institutional education and training.

Benefits Discussion
Based on the purpose of the discussion paper is then expected to benefit from the discussion of this manuscript is to an understanding of the application of the theory of multiple intelligences on early childhood education.

DISCUSSION
1. Early Childhood Education
1.1 History
Early childhood education is the term commonly used to describe the formal teaching and care of young children by people other than their family or in settings outside of the home. According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) the developmental definition of early childhood education, spans the human life from birth to age eight. However, typically early childhood education covers the period from birth to when a child starts school and this can be as early as five years of age as in New Zealand.
1.2 Precise
Early Childhood has been defined as a period of life between 0 to 6 years of age. This is the period of greatest growth and development, when the brain develops most rapidly, almost at its fullest. It is a period when walking, talking, self-esteem, vision of the world and moral foundations are established.
Child Development is the basis of human development. It is connected with living with dignity and achieving quality of life. The early years of life are critical to the development of intelligence, personality and social behaviour. Research on brain development attests to the importance of key mental, physical and social capabilities. If these fundamental capabilities are not well established from the start, and especially if neurological damage occurs, the learning potential is adversely affected.
For programming purposes, it has been decided to extend the concept of early childhood to about 8 years of age. This age range provides the opportunity to reinforce the view of the development as a continuum. It will facilitate the interaction between the pre and initial school years. The concept of basic education calls for the inclusion of early childhood and the key "survival" grades, that is, the first two or three grades of primary education.
Early childhood education often focuses on children learning through play.
According to UNESCO ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) Unit, Early childhood is defined as the period from birth to 8 years old. A time of remarkable brain development, these years lay the foundation for subsequent learning.
The terms preschool education and kindergarten emphasize education around the ages of 3–6 years. The terms "early childhood learning," "early care," and "early education" are comparable with early childhood education. The terms Day care and Childcare do not embrace the educational aspects. Many childcare centers are now using more educational approaches. They are creating curricula and incorporating it into their daily routines to foster greater educational learning. The distinction between childcare centers being for care and kindergartens being for education, for example, has all but disappeared in countries that require staff in different early childhood facilities to have a teaching qualification. The ChildForum early childhood education national organisation highlights that while this can uplift the overall quality of children 's learning a primary purpose of all early childhood programmes is nevertheless to provide a high standard of care and nurturance due to the young age and emotional and physical needs of children. However, it is necessary to distinguish between nurturance and locomotive learning. One implies the development of vestigial implements of characterized babies, the other refers to hand-eye co-ordination.
Researchers in the field and early childhood educators both view the parents as an integral part of the early childhood education process. Often educators refer to parents as the child 's first and best teacher. Early childhood education takes many forms depending on the beliefs of the educator or parent.
Much of the first two years of life are spent in the creation of a child 's first "sense of self" or the building of a first identity. This is a crucial part of children 's makeup—how they first see themselves, how they think they should function, how they expect others to function in relation to them. For this reason, early care must ensure that in addition to employing carefully selected and trained caretakers, program policy must emphasize links with family, home culture, and home language, meaning caregivers must uniquely care for each child using Developmentally Appropriate Practice, Individually Appropriate Practice and Culturally Appropriate Practice. Care should support families rather than be a substitute for them.
If a young child doesn 't receive sufficient nurturing, nutrition, parental/caregiver interaction, and stimulus during this crucial period, the child may be left with a developmental deficit that hampers his or her success in preschool, kindergarten, and beyond.
Worst-case scenarios such as those found in Russian and Romanian orphanages demonstrate how the lack of proper social interaction and development of attachment affect the developing child. Children must receive attention and affection to develop in a healthy manner. While in developed nations today such scenarios are fortunately rare there is a danger of a false belief that more hours of formal education for the very young child = greater benefits for the young child than a balance between formal education and time spent with family. A systematic review of the international evidence suggests that the benefits of early childhood education come from the experience itself of participation and that more than 2.5 hours a day does not greatly add to child development outcomes especially if this means the young child is missing out on other experiences and family contact.
1.3 Developmental Domains
There are five different developmental domains of children which all relate to each other. They are easily referred to as the SPICE of life:
• Social - Refers mostly to the ability to form attachments, play with others, co-operation and sharing, and being able to create lasting relationships with others.
• Physical - Development of Fine (small) and Gross (large) Motor Skills.
• Intellectual - The process of making sense of the world around them.
• Creative - The development of special abilities creating talents. Music, Art, Writing, Reading, and Singing are all ways for creative development to take place.
• Emotional - Development of self-awareness, self-confidence, and coping with feelings as well as understanding them.
Psychosocial
According to Jean Piaget, there are four major stages of cognitive development:
1. Sensorimotor Stage. This stage occurs between the ages of birth and two years of age.Sensorimotor (infancy): During this stage, which includes six distinct substages, intelligence is demonstrated through motor activity with limited use of symbols, including language; the infant’s knowledge of the world is primarily based on physical interactions and experiences.
2. Preoperational Stage. The second stage occurs between the ages of 2 – 7 years. During this stage, intelligence is increasingly demonstrated through the use of symbols; memory and imagination are developed as language use matures; thinking is nonlogical, nonreversible, and egocentric.
3. Concrete Operations Stage. Occurring between ages 7 and about 12 years. During this stage—characterized by conservation of number, length, liquid,mass, weight, area, volume—intelligence is increasingly demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols relating to concrete objects; thinking is operational, reversible, and less egocentric.
4. Formal Operations Stage. The final stage of cognitive development (from age 12 and beyond). During this final stage, intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts; thinking is abstract, hypothetical, and early on, quite egocentric; it is commonly held that the majority of people never complete this stage.
• Emotional Development - Concerning children 's increasing awareness and control of their feelings and how they react to these feelings in a given situation.
• Social Development - Concerning the children 's identity, their relationships with others, and understanding their place within a social environment
There are many other reformers of education that have contributed to what early childhood education means today. Although Piaget had a great impact on early childhood education, people like John Locke, Horace Mann and Jane Addams contributed a lifetime of work to reform education and learning in this country. The information presented is a starting point for educators to better understand the development of children.
1.4 Benefits
Chicago’s publicly-funded Child-Parent Centers have served almost 100,000 3- and 4-year-olds since 1967. Researchers tracked 989 of those children and 550 similar children not in the program for 14 years. The children who did not participate were 70 percent more likely to be arrested for a violent crime by age 18. This program also cut child abuse and neglect. In Ypsilanti, Michigan, 3- and 4-year-olds from low-income families who were randomly assigned to a group that did not receive preschool who were five times more likely to have become chronic lawbreakers by age 27 than those who were assigned to the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation’s Perry Preschool program.
The first-ever Conference about Early Childhood Care and Education took place in Moscow from 27 to 29 September 2010, jointly organized by UNESCO and the city of Moscow.
The overarching goals of the World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (WCECCE) are to:
- Reaffirm ECCE as a right of all children and as the basis for development;
- Take stock of the progress of Member States towards achieving the EFA Goal 1;
- Identify binding constraints toward making the intended equitable expansion of access to quality ECCE services;
- Establish, more concretely, benchmarks and targets for the EFA Goal 1 toward 2015 and beyond
- Identify key enablers that should facilitate Member States to reach the established targets; and
- Promote global exchange of good practices.
2. The Theory of Multiple Intelligences

2.1 Definition
The theory of multiple intelligences was proposed by Howard Gardner in 1983 to analyze and better describe the concept of intelligence.
Gardner argues that the concept of intelligence as traditionally defined in psychometrics (IQ tests) mistakenly suggests that the wide variety of cognitive abilities measured in a battery of tests used to assess general intelligence factor are uncorrelated with each other, or at least only very weakly correlated. For example, the theory predicts that a child who learns to multiply easily is not likely to be generally more intelligent than a child who has more difficulty on this task. The child who takes more time to master simple multiplication 1) may best learn to multiply through a different approach, 2) may excel in a field outside of mathematics, or 3) may even be looking at and understand the multiplication process at a fundamentally deeper level. Such a fundamentally deeper understanding can result in what looks like slowness and can hide a mathematical intelligence potentially higher than that of a child who quickly memorizes the multiplication table despite a less detailed understanding of the process of multiplication.
The theory has been met with mixed responses. Empirical evidence reveals high correlations between different tasks (rather than the zero correlations which are predicted). Nevertheless many educationalists.
2.2 Classification
Gardner has articulated eight basic types of intelligence to date, without claiming that this is a complete list. Gardner 's original list included seven of these; in 1999 he added a naturalist intelligence. He has also considered existential intelligence and moral intelligence, but does not find sufficient evidence for these based upon his articulated criteria, which include:
• the potential for brain isolation by brain damage,
• its place in evolutionary history,
• the presence of core operations,
• susceptibility to encoding (symbolic expression),
• a distinct developmental progression,
• the existence of idiot-savants, prodigies and other exceptional people,
• support from experimental psychology and psychometric findings.
The theory 's eight currently accepted intelligences are: (Ref: Educational Psychology, Robert Slavin. 2009, 117)
• Spatial
• Linguistic
• Logical-mathematical
• Bodily-kinesthetic
• Musical
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Naturalistic
Spatial
This area deals with spatial judgment and the ability to visualize with the mind 's eye. Careers which suit those with this type of intelligence include artists, designers and architects. A spatial person is also good with puzzles.
Linguistic
This area has to do with words, spoken or written. People with high verbal-linguistic intelligence display a facility with words and languages. They are typically good at reading, writing, telling stories and memorizing words along with dates. They tend to learn best by reading, taking notes, listening to lectures, and by discussing and debating about what they have learned. Those with verbal-linguistic intelligence learn foreign languages very easily as they have high verbal memory and recall, and an ability to understand and manipulate syntax and structure.
Logical-mathematical
This area has to do with logic, abstractions, reasoning and numbers. While it is often assumed that those with this intelligence naturally excel in mathematics, chess, computer programming and other logical or numerical activities, a more accurate definition places less emphasis on traditional mathematical ability and more on reasoning capabilities, recognizing abstract patterns, scientific thinking and investigation and the ability to perform complex calculations. It correlates strongly with traditional concepts of "intelligence" or IQ.
Bodily-kinesthetic
The core elements of the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence are control of one 's bodily motions and the capacity to handle objects skillfully . Gardner elaborates to say that this intelligence also includes a sense of timing, a clear sense of the goal of a physical action, along with the ability to train responses so they become like reflexes.
In theory, people who have bodily-kinesthetic intelligence should learn better by involving muscular movement (e.g. getting up and moving around into the learning experience), and are generally good at physical activities such as sports or dance. They may enjoy acting or performing, and in general they are good at building and making things. They often learn best by doing something physically, rather than by reading or hearing about it. Those with strong bodily-kinesthetic intelligence seem to use what might be termed muscle memory - they remember things through their body such as verbal memory.
Careers that suit those with this intelligence include: athletes, pilots, dancers, musicians, actors, surgeons, doctors, builders, police officers, and soldiers. Although these careers can be duplicated through virtual simulation, they will not produce the actual physical learning that is needed in this intelligence.
Musical
This area has to do with sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, tones, and music. People with a high musical intelligence normally have good pitch and may even have absolute pitch, and are able to sing, play musical instruments, and compose music. Since there is a strong auditory component to this intelligence, those who are strongest in it may learn best via lecture. Language skills are typically highly developed in those whose base intelligence is musical. In addition, they will sometimes use songs or rhythms to learn. They have sensitivity to rhythm, pitch, meter, tone, melody or timbre.
Careers that suit those with this intelligence include instrumentalists, singers, conductors, disc-jockeys, orators, writers and composers.
Interpersonal
This area has to do with interaction with others. In theory, people who have a high interpersonal intelligence tend to be extroverts, characterized by their sensitivity to others ' moods, feelings, temperaments and motivations, and their ability to cooperate in order to work as part of a group. They communicate effectively and empathize easily with others, and may be either leaders or followers. They typically learn best by working with others and often enjoy discussion and debate.
Careers that suit those with this intelligence include sales, politicians, managers, teachers and social workers.
Intrapersonal
This area has to do with introspective and self-reflective capacities. People with intrapersonal intelligence are intuitive and typically introverted. They are skillful at deciphering their own feelings and motivations. This refers to having a deep understanding of the self; what your strengths/ weaknesses are, what makes you unique, you can predict your own reactions/ emotions.
Careers which suit those with this intelligence include philosophers, psychologists, theologians, lawyers, writers. People with intrapersonal intelligence also prefer to work alone.
Naturalistic
This area has to do with nurturing and relating information to one’s natural surroundings. Careers which suit those with this intelligence include naturalists, farmers and gardeners.
Existential
Some proponents of multiple intelligence theory proposed spiritual or religious intelligence as a possible additional type. Gardner did not want to commit to a spiritual intelligence, but suggested that an "existential" intelligence may be a useful construct. The hypothesis of an existential intelligence has been further explored by educational researchers.
Ability to contemplate phenomena or questions beyond sensory data, such as the infinite and infinitesimal. Careers or callings which suit those with this intelligence include shamans, priests, mathematicians, physicists, scientists, cosmologists and philosophers.
2.3 Characteristics of Multiple Intelligences
The following descriptions can be helpful to identify basic personal characteristics, traits, behaviors, and preferences for each of the seven intelligences. Remember, we are all intelligent to varying degrees in all seven ways. Each person has a unique profile. You may be very strong in one or two intelligences, medium in a few, and perhaps weak or empty (not yet filled) in one or two. Consequently, you may have four or five intelligences that are equally developed and two that are less developed. The important thing is to identify and build on one 's strengths to modify and increase the less developed intelligences in ourselves and in children.
1) Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence—"The Writer/Orator/Attorney"
People with high verbal/linguistic intelligence love words. They prefer to process information through words and language versus pictures. They may prefer oral or written methods, or excel in both. Additional characteristics include the following:
• Sensitive to the meaning, order, and sound of words
• Uses varied language
• Avid talkers; good speakers
• Likes to explain, convince, and persuade through words
• Enjoys and excels at word games
• Enjoys listening to, telling, and reading stories
• Enjoys rhymes and poetry
• Has good memory recall for names and dates
2) Logical/Mathematical Intelligence—"The Scientist/Philosopher"
People with high logical/mathematical intelligence create order out of chaos by analyzing, grouping, and categorizing. They recognize relationships, connections, and patterns more easily than people with less logical intelligence. Additional characteristics include the following:
• Ability to handle long chains of reasoning
• Likes reasons for doing things
• Possesses good inductive and deductive reasoning
• Quick to learn equivalencies
• Asks "why" and "how" questions
• Solves problems rapidly
• Likes to predict, analyze, and theorize
• Enjoys dealing with abstraction
• Strong at math and problem solving skills
• Sequential thinker
• Enjoys board games and games with rules
3) Musical Intelligence—"The Entertainer/Musician"
People with high musical intelligence learn best through sound, rhythm, and music. These people learn better when music is playing and through musical metaphors. Additional characteristics include the following:
• Ability to perceive pitch, tone, and rhythmic pattern
• Well developed auditory sense and discrimination
• Ability to create, organize rhythmically, and compose music
• Picks up and creates melodies/rhythm easily
• Remembers songs easily
• Ability to sing or play instruments
• Sensitive and drawn to sounds
• Possesses "schemas" for hearing music
• Constantly humming, tapping, and singing
4) Visual/Spatial Intelligence—"The Architect/Engineer/ Sculptor"
People with high visual intelligence process information best using pictures, visuals, and imagery. They have a sense of direction and an ability to think and plan in three dimensions. Additional characteristics include the following:
• Ability to create complex mental images
• Active imagination
• Ability to find their way mentally and physically around environment
• Ability to see the physical world accurately and translate it into new forms
• Ability to see things in relationship to others
• Ability to use "mind maps"
• Uses imagery and guided visualizations
• Likes visual support-video, pictures, photos, charts, posters
• Organizes space, objects, and areas
• Enjoys designing and decorating
5) Body/Kinesthetic Intelligence—"The Athlete/ Dancer/Actor/Surgeon"
People with high kinesthetic intelligence process information through their bodies-through muscle, sensation, and movement. Their bodies are their avenue to learning and understanding any content or subject and is also their preferred form of self-expression. Additional characteristics include the following:
• A fine-tuned ability to use the body and handle objects (fine and gross motor)
• Ability to express emotions through bodily movement
• Enjoys physical movement and dance
• Constant movement-likes to get up and move around
• Commitment to comfort
• Uses body to accomplish a task
• Experiences a strong mind/body connection
• Expands awareness through the body
• Experiences a total physical response
• Often good at creative drama
6) Interpersonal Intelligence—"The Counselor/Minister/Teacher"
People with high interpersonal intelligence process information through relatedness to others. They are "people" people. It is in relationship to and with other people that they best understand themselves and the world. Additional characteristics include the following:
• Ability to notice and discern subtleties among others, such as moods, temperaments, and feelings
• Discerns underlying intentions, behavior, and perspectives
• Easily makes friends and enjoys the company of others
• Ability to get into the perspective of another
• Responds to verbal and nonverbal communications-facial cues and body movements
• Recognizes and empathizes with others ' feelings
• Ability to negotiate and handle conflict resolution
• Works cooperatively in a group
• Works well with a diverse group of people
• Good communication skills
• Loves to talk and influence
7) Intrapersonal Intelligence—"The Poet/Efficiency Expert"
People with high intrapersonal intelligence have a strong sense of themselves, their wants, and needs. They are self reflective and in touch with themselves. They may be the nonconformist individuals who march to their own drummer. Additional characteristics include the following:
• Well developed sense of self
• Awareness and expression of different feelings
• Self reflection and mindfulness
• Ability to think about thinking (i.e., metacognition)
• Transpersonal sense of self. Asks big questions—"Why are we here?" and "What happens when we die?"
• Often is a daydreamer
• Often writes introspectively including prose, poetry, or journal writing
• Excellent self planners and good at goal setting
• Enjoys solitude and likes to think alone
• Good understanding of strengths and weaknesses
• Enjoys self discovery

3. Application of The Theory of Multiple Intelligences on Early Childhood Education
Traditionally, schools have emphasized the development of logical intelligence and linguistic intelligence (mainly reading and writing). IQ tests (given to about 1,000,000 students each year) focus mostly on logical and linguistic intelligence as well. While many students function well in this environment, there are those who do not. Gardner 's theory argues that students will be better served by a broader vision of education, wherein teachers use different methodologies, exercises and activities to reach all students, not just those who excel at linguistic and logical intelligence.
Many teachers see the theory as simple common sense. Some say that it validates what they already know: that students learn in different ways. On the other hand, James Traub 's article in The New Republic notes that Gardner 's system has not been accepted by most academics in intelligence or teaching.
George Miller, the esteemed psychologist credited with discovering the mechanisms by which short term memory operates, wrote in The New York Times Book Review that Gardner 's argument boiled down to "hunch and opinion" (p. 20). Gardner 's subsequent work has done very little to shift the balance of opinion. A recent issue of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law devoted to the study of intelligence contained virtually no reference to Gardner 's work. Most people who study intelligence view M.I. theory as rhetoric rather than science, and they are divided on the virtues of the rhetoric.
The application of the theory of multiple intelligences varies widely. It runs the gamut from a teacher who, when confronted with a student having difficulties, uses a different approach to teach the material, to an entire school using MI as a framework. In general, those who subscribe to the theory strive to provide opportunities for their students to use and develop all the different intelligences, not just the few at which they naturally excel.
A Harvard-led study of 41 schools using the theory came to the conclusion that in these schools there was "a culture of hard work, respect, and caring; a faculty that collaborated and learned from each other; classrooms that engaged students through constrained but meaningful choices, and a sharp focus on enabling students to produce high-quality work."[8]
Of the schools implementing Gardner 's theory, the most well-known is New City School, in St. Louis, Missouri, which has been using the theory since 1988. The school 's teachers have produced two books for teachers, Celebrating Multiple Intelligences and Succeeding With Multiple Intelligences and the principal, Thomas Hoerr, has written Becoming a Multiple Intelligences School as well as many articles on the practical applications of the theory. The school has also hosted four conferences, each attracting over 200 educators from around the world and remains a valuable resource for teachers interested in implementing the theory in their own classrooms.
Thomas Armstrong argues that Waldorf education organically engages all of Gardner 's original seven intelligences.
Gardner 's Multiple Intelligences theory is a very useful model for developing a systematic approach to nurturing and teaching children and honoring their individual needs and strengths within a classroom setting. The theory of Multiple Intelligences includes the notion that each person is smart in all seven types of intelligence. Every person is smart to varying degrees of expertise in each of the intelligences, stronger in some ways and less developed in others. Heredity and genetics influence the way the brain is neurologically "wired" before birth and are contributing factors that determine the strongest and/or most favored types of intelligence. This is often seen in children with very strong and overt talents demonstrated at very young ages, such as Mozart, who had started to play and compose music by age five.
Because research now shows that we can become more intelligent in more ways, both students and teachers can become more adept in all seven intelligences. This is possible by providing a planned cycle of experiences and opportunities which foster each and every intelligence, and by making these opportunities available to every child in our classrooms. By broadening our view of intelligence, and valuing and nurturing abilities other than mathematics and reading, we can open doors by using the strengths of children as a means of complementing their less developed areas.
Teaching Tools and Strategies
Reflect on and identify your own strengths and intelligences which are less developed. Identify the strengths and "empties" of the children, too. You may begin to notice patterns and correlations between the strengths you enjoy or are less comfortable with in the children and your own strengths and empties. Are the children 's strengths the same as yours or are they most intelligent in a way you are least intelligent? We naturally rely on and use teaching strategies that match our strongest intelligences. Our strengths, therefore, create unconscious teaching biases. When we identify our own less developed intelligences, we may notice that we are untrained in or have avoided using the teaching strategies best designed for developing that intelligence in children. Therefore, it becomes our responsibility first to identify our own strengths and weaknesses and then to stretch and continue our lifelong learning process by developing our own intelligences. Only then can we incorporate teaching strategies which support all seven intelligences and meet the needs of all children.
The following are activities and strategies that can help us strengthen and support the development of each of our intelligences. When we begin systematically to implement these multiple strategies to teach any subject, concept, or activity, we will naturally meet the individual needs of more children. As Colin Rose states, "The more ways you teach, the more people you reach."
Verbal/Linguistic Activities
Reading, Improving vocabulary, Emergent /creative writing, Writing and reading reports/essays, Taking and giving dictation, Giving and listening to verbal instructions (oral and/or written), Lecturing o Impromptu speaking, Story telling, Dialogue and discussion, Debate, Publishing, Telling jokes, Listening to tapes, Doing crossword puzzles, Keeping a diary or journal
Logical/Mathematical Activities
Sorting and classifying objects or ideas, Taking apart or fixing things, Solving math problems, Solving mysteries, riddles, puzzles, and word problems, Exploring, Outlining, Grouping and calculating activities, Creating timelines and sequences, Comparing and contrasting, Experiences that demonstrate change over time (e.g., before/after), Using symbols and formulas, Playing pattern games, Socratic questioning-especially open-ended and "what if" questions
Musical Activities
Listening to background, instrumental, or environmental music, Unison recall activities, Giving or listening to musical performances, Singing, Clapping and slapping memory games, Rhythm, chants, and rap, Setting new ideas to familiar tunes, Using musical instruments, Composing music
Body/Kinesthetic Activities
Role playing/drama, Playing sports, Playing physical games such as Charades, Dancing, Miming, Using physical gestures, Physical exercise, "Hands-on" activities, Changing seats and moving to different learning stations/centers, Creating new room rearrangements, Standing or moving while listening, Learning a topic or idea with a physical gesture associated, Taking things apart and tinkering, Finger writing on palms or back
Visual/Spatial Activities
Using guided imagery, Playing with patterns and designs, Mind-mapping, Taking pictures/photos, Drawing/painting/sculpting, Watching and making videos, Creating charts and graphs, Using color cues and organizers, Circle/line dancing, Changing teaching locations, Rearranging the room to suit the subject or project, Giving or taking visual/spatial instructions
Interpersonal Activities
Cooperative learning, Working with a partner, Group projects and games, Creative drama/role playing, Simulation, Practicing empathy, Win/win competition, Peer teaching and buddy systems, Subject drills with partners, Quizzing each other, Discussion, Getting and giving feedback
Intrapersonal Activities
Guided imagery, Thinking about how to solve a task/problem, Meditation, Journal writing, Self assessment, Personal contracts and goal-setting, Silent reflection and review time for recall or thinking about what has been learned, Emotional processing, Focusing/concentrating, Higher-order reasoning tasks, Time to be alone, Providing choices
Environmental Strategies to Support Multiple Intelligences
Because circle time and whole group instruction activities dictate that we do the same thing with all or most of the children at the same time, these activities are among the least effective strategies for meeting the diverse needs and intelligences of young children. Group activities often favor a teacher 's strengths while meeting the strengths of only a few of the children. The most significant modification we can make to meet diverse needs is to reduce the use of circle time and replace it by incorporating and using well-planned learning stations or centers where children can spend most of their day. Learning stations are temporary activity locations where materials are put out and later put away, usually by an adult. Learning centers are permanent locations, visually and spatially defined areas, ideally three-sided, where materials are organized by subject and available for children to select independently.
Active Learning Centers for Multiple Intelligences
The following suggested learning centers foster the development of each intelligence and allow children opportunities to build on and expand their strengths. Verbal/Linguistic
Library or book-nook
Story time
Writing center
Listening center
Flannel board station
Publishing center Logical/Mathematical
Math center
Science center
Take-apart center
Puzzle center
Recycling center
Weather station
Computer center (e.g., logical thinking, sequential software)
Cooking center Musical
Music center
Instrument center
Singing circle
Listening center
Background music
Nature sounds Visual/Spatial
Art center (e.g., sculpting dough, collage, painting, drawing)
Manipulatives (e.g., 3-D manipulatives, visual puzzles)
Block center, Media center (e.g., videos, slides, photos, charts)
Computer center (e.g., visual design and layout software) Kinesthetic
Gross motor center (e.g., open space for creative movement, climbing structure, mini-trampoline) Dance circle
Woodworking center
Manipulative center
Take-apart center
Imaginative-play center
Playground/outdoor play
Tactile-learning center (e.g., sandpaper letters, sample textures and cloth) Interpersonal
Puppet theater
Dramatic play center
Sharing/social area
Group discussion area
Small group area
Cooking center Intrapersonal
Lofts
One-person centers & stations
Life skills/self-help center
Computer center (e.g., self-paced software)

SUMMARY

Howard Gardner 's Theory of Multiple Intelligences honors and promotes the development of all seven avenues of intelligence in young children. This approach provides a framework to identify how children learn; to build on their strongest assets; to help them become more intelligent by exposing them to a variety of ways of learning; to better individualize for their interests and needs; and to use teaching strategies that make learning more efficient, successful, and enjoyable for all children. We can foster meaningful learning experiences by using multiple teaching tools and strategies and by building positive, supportive relationships with children. Through environments that offer a variety of stimulating, hands-on materials that children individually select, and by creating learning centers that provide natural opportunities to move, be active, and fully engaged in either solo or small group experiences, we better serve and meet the needs of more children.

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