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

By Maxim Salonine, Vanier College

At a Glance

Discipline

Psychology
Social sciences

Instructional Level

College & CEGEP

Course

Introduction to Psychology

Tasks in Workflow

Social Plane(s)

Individual
Group
Whole Class

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:

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.
Each team presents their type of intelligence to the class.
Individually, students fill out a summary table based on the information presented by each team.
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

Activity Workflow

View on CourseFlow

Document

Activity Introduction and Summary Table

Maxim Salonine

Contributor's Notes

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

Published: 18/06/2024

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