Using the multiple intelligences of the classroom in an integrated fashion expands student's range of interests and abilities and fosters creative approaches to learning. Using multiple student interests and intelligences is also helpful because it gives students a sense of empowerment when their strengths are deployed in a positive fashion.
This is especially important for students with strengths that are not always fully utilized in the current academic curriculum, like music, art, and interpersonal skills. Feeling as though their individual excellence is recognized can foster a life-long love of learning in other subject areas that require different cognitive strengths. Even students who excel in traditional academics can still benefit from more creative strategies of coping with assignments and challenges of learning. For example, when assigning more conventional, logical, verbal, and linear assignments, using open-ended questions rather than assigning tasks with clear right and wrong is helpful for students to learn important creative, out of the box ways of thinking.
To teach students to be creative learners and problem-solvers, a teacher must be a creative teacher. The teacher must think outside of the conventional methods used in most schools, like lectures, textbooks, and directed writing assignments. Brainstorming by 'clustering' ideas is an effective technique to create a lesson plan. For example to make use of diverse student intelligences, a teacher can put the topic of the lesson in the center of a blank sheet of paper, and draw eight straight lines sticking out from this...
There needs to be rules, and students must recognize and learn to
respect the rules, and the learning processes of others. After all, respecting difference is a student obligation, as well as an obligation of the
instructor. But to foster the open atmosphere of the classroom, the teacher can engage students in the rule-setting process. For example, do students want to raise their hand to speak in class? What do they think is an appropriate punishment for students who violate certain classroom rules? Even when teaching 'the basics' teachers can adopt creative strategies, and by extension encourage the use of
creativity when students deploy their multiple intelligences and abilities.
Works Cited
Armstrong. Thomas. (1998). "Multiple intelligences." Retrieved 30 Aug 2007 at http://thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm
Ching, Yang Shu & Lin Wen Chau. (2004, Mar). "The relationship among creative,
critical thinking and thinking styles in Taiwan high school students." Journal of Instructional Psychology. Retrieved 30 Aug 2007 at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCG/is_1_31/ai_n6143324
Ediger, Marlow (2006, Sept.) "Present day philosophies of education."
Journal of Instructional Psychology. Retrieved 30 Aug 2007 at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCG/is_3_33/ai_n17134809
