Using multiple intelligences to develop an educational career strategy

¶ … Personality Strengths and Weaknesses

Multiple Intelligences Testing: Defining a Career Strategy in Education

After completing the Multiple Intelligence Survey by Walter McKenzie, my strengths of interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist and logical/mathematical skills emerged from the analysis. My weakness in verbal and linguistic skills also emerged. The goal of this paper is to evaluate how my existing strengths can be used for furthering my educational career. I also plan to address how my weaknesses, specifically in the verbal and linguistic area, can also be turned into a strength over time and through efforts to improve.

Strength Analysis

From the research completed of the areas of multiple intelligences and their influence on transformational leaders (Hoffman, Frost, 2006) and the development of charismatic quality of leaders (Murphy, Ensher, 2008), the observation is made that multiple intelligences contribute to greater social and emotional intelligence over time (Salopek, 2004). The study of multiple intelligences emerges as critical for defining educational programs (Rae, 2002) and personalizing instructional strategies (Vincent, Ross, 2001). Defining strengths within the Multiple Intelligence Survey as a prerequisite for educators has also been shown to increase educational effectiveness related to cultural diversity as well (Sturz, Kleiner, 2005).

From the foundation of research cited, my specific strengths in the areas of interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences form a balanced foundation for counseling and guiding students to define their best possible educational strategies and goal fulfillment. These two strengths form the foundation also from an extroversion and introversion perspective as well. Interpersonal skills are essential in teaching a course; it could be argued that gregariousness is critical for an educators' success. Complimenting interpersonal strengths are intrapersonal ones that center on self-awareness and knowledge. Having this self-awareness and knowledge is crucial in designing educational programs that capitalize on my strengths as an educator on the one hand, and give students the opportunity to learn as much as possible on the other. Additional strengths of naturalist and logical intelligences are ideally applied in teaching science and technology-related courses that capitalize on these two strengths. In summary, the four strengths can form the foundation for greater social intelligence (Salopek, 2004) within the classroom, giving students the opportunity for more personalized instruction (Vincent, Ross, 2001) all contributing to their long-learn retention of the materials presented.

Summary

Educators owe it to their students to work hard at transforming their weaknesses into strengths, and for me, the greatest challenge is transforming verbal and linguistic weakness into strength. What is invigorating is that change is always possible and that change can be rapid once one finds something to passionately change for. The opportunity to excel in education and assist students in getting to their goals and the chance to do work I chose not for the paycheck but for the passion of instructing others will make the effort required worth it. To pursue an education as a profession requires a balanced set of skills, and I am encouraged by the fact that every educator enters the profession with a different skill set. Each has their strengths and weaknesses, and many have been able to turn their weaknesses into strengths. I am confident I will be able to do the same with a consistent effort made daily to improve in verbal and linguistic skills.