Multiple Intelligence and the learning styles

Howard Gardner developed the Theory of Multiple Intelligence to document the fact that human beings have very different kinds of intellectual strengths and these strengths forms the basis of their learning style. According to him the different intelligences are 
linguistic, logical, kinesthetic, musical, visual, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic.

To be simple, not everyone learns best by reading and writing, some learn better through actually doing, some finds easy to understand the concept when given as pictures. It is very important to know how kids learn and represent things in their minds, and then how they use them in order to show what it is that they've understood.

In a class of thirty kids it is highly difficult to address individual child's learning style in a forty minute period. It is possible for a teacher to ensure at the end of the unit at least one or two activities match each child's learning style.

Take for an instance, Grade I, Environmental Science,
Topic - Plants and Trees
Subtopic - Common plants in neighbourhood

Suggested activities: 

• Take the children to the school garden            
• Allow them to observe the different kinds of plants and trees - Kinesthtic, Interpersonal, Visual
• Back to classroom and ask the kids to list the observed plants and trees - Linguistic
• Tabulate the list under plants and trees - Logical
• End the class with a song about trees or plants - Musical ( I would suggest Karadi Rhymes - Neem, Peepal, Banyan )

Activities for children with Interpersonal and Intrapersonal like roleplay and drawing can be given in the following classes.

Though millions of people live on this earth, we are physically unique; there's an intellectual uniqueness too. Lets explore the child's uniqueness instead of grading and comparing :)

Creativity - Nurture or Nature?

All of us admire creative people! Where does creativity come from? Is it nurtured or its a natural inborn talent?

Creativity is...

An Ability. A simple definition is that creativity is the ability to imagine or invent something new. Creativity is not the ability to create out of nothing, but the ability to generate new ideas by combining, changing, or reapplying existing ideas. 

An Attitude. Creativity is also an attitude: the ability to accept change and newness, a willingness to play with ideas and possibilities, a flexibility of outlook, the habit of enjoying the good, while looking for ways to improve it. We are socialized into accepting only a small number of permitted or normal things, but a creative person realizes that there are other possibilities too.

A Process. Creative people work hard and continually to improve ideas and solutions, by making gradual alterations and refinements to their works. The creative person knows that there is always room for improvement.

Characteristics of the Creative Person

• curious
• seeks problems
• enjoys challenge
• optimistic
• sees problems as opportunities
• sees problems as interesting
• doesn't give up easily: perseveres, works hard

Believe it or not, everyone has substantial creative ability. It is still there and can be reawakened. Often all that's needed to be creative is to make a commitment to creativity and to take the time for it.

Certainly creativity can be nurtured by 3A's - Appreciate - Analyze - Apply

A simple classroom instance... 

Give a simple task, allow the children to present the same in front of their classmates, 

1. Identify and  appreciate the positives in the completed task.
2. Once if the whole class is done, allow the children for self evaluation, where analysis takes place.That's all our job is done!
3. At the end of the task, the children can generate new ideas by combining, changing, or reapplying existing ideas for their next task.

Remember this is not copying, this is creating :)