So each may learn: summary and overview

¶ … intelligence, the authors use this chapter to explore the evolving history of the concept of intelligence. Though basically meaning the ability to acquire and utilize knowledge and information, "intelligence" has gone through many different meanings as it has been put to different uses. Howard Gardner developed the theory of multiple intelligences by imagining the different qualities or "end states" that are/would be valued by different cultures, societies, and individuals in different occupations and situations. His thinking led to several important changes in the way that intelligence is viewed by the psychological and educational communities, including the concept of multiple intelligences and the notion that intelligence can be developed, rather tan remaining fixed.

Gardner's work has identified eight different intelligences that operate at different levels among different individuals. No one is entirely without one form of intelligence or another, but rather every individual ahs a unique blend of abilities in all eight different fields. In this way, intelligence can also be related to dispositions, or sensitivities to certain types of intelligence. Awareness and acuity might be other words to describe what the authors mean here. The most important part about multiple intelligences and the ways in which people are disposed to think about things based on their intelligence profiles is the fact that all intelligences can be developed and taught; being aware of others' multiple intelligences (especially the students in an educational setting) is necessary in order to impart information to others at the most efficient and meaningful level.

Much of the rest of the chapter is devoted to different activities that can help both to identify and to develop the levels of various intelligences in classrooms of different age levels and abilities. This includes a general description of how to incorporate activities based on multiple intelligences into the classroom, and the benefits and importance of doing so. A diversified curriculum will be far more likely to meet all learners' needs, rather than just promoting and developing the types of intelligence that have been traditionally recognized and encouraged in Western schools. This means making curricula both "intelligence rich" by promoting and developing all types of intelligence, and "intelligence fair" by making sure that learning opportunities and assessment methods take the different intelligences into account. This can often mean providing choice in the activities to be performed, as well as in the ways to complete them, as well as offering many different activities even when they don't match a particular student's proclivities, specifically to develop some of their weaker intelligences.