 Learns by doing

 Well-coordinated

 Good with hands

 Enjoys sports

 Seeks excitement

 Very active

 Crafty

 Energetic

 Enjoys the outdoors

 Athletic

 It is not necessary that a person who has a high level of bodily-kinesthetic intelligence will have a high level of other intelligences as well.
 Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence highlights a person's ability to use their whole body for expression and understanding. People who possess this
intelligence are highly aware of their bodies and use the same for controlling their bodily motions, using it deftly in the capacity that they like.
 Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence is one of the 8 multiple intelligences that were proposed by Howard Gardner in his groundbreaking work
'Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences' (1983).
People with a high bodily-kinesthetic intelligence are able to relate to things in their environment through their body.

► They tend to use their body to express themselves.

► They use a lot of movement to gain knowledge about their own selves, their mental and physical abilities, as well as their surroundings.

► They have a natural understanding and sense of how the body should react and act in a physically demanding situation.

► They also have a strong sense of body awareness.

They also portray a highly evolved capacity to handle objects skillfully.

► They enjoy learning by handling things physically, experimenting with them, and working on them rather than simply having a theoretical lesson of the
same.

► They have a lot of physical energy that they are looking to expend.

► They enjoy creating things with their hands.

► They usually follow their gut instincts and do not like to be told what to do.

► They enjoy the outdoors and love being in nature.

People with Visual/Spatial intelligence are very aware of their surroundings and are good at remembering images. They have a keen sense of direction
and often enjoy maps. They have a sharp sense of space, distance and measurement.

People with Visual intelligence learn well through visual aids such as graphs, diagrams, pictures and colorful displays. They usually enjoy visual arts such
as drawing, painting and photography. They can visualize anything related to art, fashion, decoration and culinary design before creating it. Visual/Spatial
is one of several Multiple Intelligences.

Enhancing Spatial Intelligence

Those with spatial intelligence have the ability to think in three-dimensions. They excel at mentally manipulating objects, enjoy drawing or art, like to
design or build things, enjoy puzzles and excel at mazes. As a teacher, you can help your students enhance and strengthen their spatial intelligence by:

 Practicing visualization techniques

 Including artwork, photography or drawing in classes
 Giving homework assignments in the form of puzzles
 Having students provide step-by-step instructions or directions
 Using maps and visual aids
 Create models

Gardner says that spatial intelligence is a skill few are born with, yet while it is likely one of the more important intelligences—it is often the most
neglected. Creating lessons that recognize spatial intelligence may be the key to helping some of your students be successful in all areas.

About the Multiple Intelligences Theory and Spatial/Visual Intelligence

Analytical intelligence gets a lot of positive press when it comes to succeeding in school; but, did you know that there’s actually more than one kind of
intelligence? Researchers have discovered a wide variety of different intelligence types, like spatial/visual intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, emotional
intelligence, and more. Under what’s called the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, each of these different kinds of intelligence has a role to play in success.
What’s just as important is the fact that you can build these different kinds of intelligence by focusing on them and training them with different techniques.
Each one can also help you study in different ways.
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What is Visual/Spatial Intelligence?

Spatial/visual intelligence is a type of intelligence held by people who are “visual thinkers.” They easily imagine things vividly in their minds and are usually
very creative. Artists who draw and paint are typically visual thinkers and have high intelligence relating to these skills. They are good at remembering the
details of places they’ve visited, and they might be more likely to notice visual details such as color and shape. Artists, architects, graphic designers and
many other professionals benefit from a high level of visual intelligence. In school, developing visual intelligence makes it much easier to study and
understand geometry and other subjects.
How is Visual/Spatial Intelligence Related to Academic Performance?

Those with high visual intelligence are usually “visual learners” in the sense that they can easily understand something with illustrations. Understanding
your level of each different kind of intelligence will help you come up with different ways to study and learn effectively. Standard “analytical intelligence” is
not the only way to approach problems, and reading from books is not the only way to learn new things. To help you visualize subjects effectively, you might
want to accompany your notes with drawings, pictures or slide shows that will speak to your visual senses. Videos and visual demonstrations can also be
helpful.
Can a Spatial Intelligence Test Help You Achieve Your Goals?

You might want to find out what your level of spatial intelligence is by taking a spatial intelligence test. Spatial intelligence is closely related to visual
intelligence, so much so that they’re usually thought of as the same thing. Spatial intelligence is a little bit different, though: It relates to being able to orient
yourself and other objects in space.

Sound confusing? Well, people with high spatial intelligence can see how the different parts of a set of objects, like a machine, all relate to each other. They
also tend to be good drivers, and may find it easy to navigate with a map. A spatial intelligence test can help you see where you fall on this scale. If you
aren’t satisfied with your progress on this kind of intelligence, it might be a good idea to seek out a structured academic improvement program that includes
help in this area so you can progress quickly.
Building Visual/Spatial Intelligence

All people seem to be naturally inclined toward certain kinds of intelligence. There’s no reason not to use your preferred type of intelligence to the best of
your ability! Even so, though, you can build other kinds of intelligence to help you with tasks that you might find challenging right now. Develop Spatial/Visual
Intelligence by looking for different ways to exercise your visual senses. You might want to consider taking up some visually oriented hobbies, like drawing.
Look for visual ways to express information that you’re studying and see if it seems to help you retain more knowledge. With practice, you can become
more visually oriented than you are now.
Conclusion

The Theory of Multiple Intelligences is an exciting idea for students who really want to excel academically. It means that if you want to understand a topic
really well, you can express it in your study materials in a way that matches your own intelligence. If you want to develop different forms of intelligence,
practice is essential — but only the best “kind” of practice for you will yield the fastest results. Look for expert help from an academic improvement program!

Maybe you’ve heard about the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, but you’re not sure how it works in your classroom. Maybe you’ve never heard of it, but
you know some of your students are smart in ways the tests aren’t measuring. Or maybe you’re just looking for a spark to liven up learning this year.

No matter what, multiple intelligences can give you – and your students – a new way to approach learning.

The Theory of Multiple Intelligences

In 1983, Howard Gardner proposed the Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI), though he has continued to revise his theory over the years. He felt the
traditional concept of intelligence was incomplete and instead proposed a variety of different types of intelligence, such as:

 Linguistic (skilled with words and language)

 Logical-mathematical (skilled with logic, reasoning, and/or numbers)

 Bodily-kinesthetic (skilled at controlling bodily motion such as sports, dance, etc.)

 Visual-spatial (skilled with images, spatial judgment, and/or puzzles)

 Musical (skilled with sound, rhythm, tone and music)

 Interpersonal (skilled at communicating with others/relating to others)

  Intrapersonal (skilled at self-knowledge, reflection, etc.)

 Naturalistic (skilled at understanding/relating to the natural world)

For many teachers, MI theory makes perfect sense. Who hasn’t had a student who couldn’t write a coherent paragraph, but can solve any kind of puzzle
you put in front of her? Or the student who persists in tapping his pencil rhythmically as he studies because “it helps him think”? While some psychologists
question the scientific validity of MI, it can be extremely helpful in the classroom.

Teaching is one of the most difficult things to do because it is all about dealing with human minds. Human minds receive information in different ways
according to different backgrounds and experiences. From here comes the importance of studying the different kinds of intelligences through which a
human being receives, decodes, understands, applies, and analyzes information. In order to be successful in teaching, a teacher has to improve their
abilities to address all students’ thinking as different as they may be.

What is the Mu ltip le Inte lli gences Theo ry?

“The theory of multiple intelligences differentiates intelligence into specific (primarily sensory) ‘modalities’, rather than seeing intelligence as dominated by
a single general ability. Howard Gardner proposed this model in his 1983 book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. According to
Gardner, an intelligence must fulfill eight criteria: potential for brain isolation by brain damage, place in evolutionary history, presence of core operations,
susceptibility to encoding (symbolic expression), a distinct developmental progression, the existence of savants, prodigies and other exceptional people,
and support from experimental psychology and psychometric findings. Gardner chose eight abilities that he held to meet these criteria: musical-rhythmic,
visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic.”

Educationa l Bene fits o f Ap plying Mu ltiple Inte lligen ces Theory

What makes the Multiple Intelligences Theory strong and useful in a classroom is the fact that it can be used for any subject and at any level. Each
student comes to a classroom as an individual who has developed a different type of intelligence. This means that each student has their own intelligence
superiorities and weaknesses. Called a learning style, these intelligence domains determine how easily or difficultly a student can learn through a specific
teaching method.
There can be more than one learning style present in a classroom. To balance learning styles and subject matter, a teacher should show students how to
understand a subject which addresses one of their weak intelligence domains by applying their most developed intelligence domain. For instance, a
student who has highly-developed musical intelligence can be asked to learn about a war and what happened during that war by making up a song about
it (Temur, 2007).
Moreover, students who apply their strong fields of intelligences in learning activities can learn a subject that they used to hate with joy and without
pressure. As another example, mathematics is considered to be a tough subject for many students due to the abstract concepts they have to learn.
However, when such concepts are explained through a learning activity that implements students’ intelligences, students will find it more interesting and
more fun because it is given as something they love to do. Students can learn mathematics by drawing, dancing, blogging, and much more. A whole
curriculum can be created with activities based on multiple intelligences in a way that develops different fields of intelligences for each
student; such curriculum will be more student-centered. Students will then discover the best ways by which they’re able to receive information.
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Challenges of Mu ltip le Inte lligence s Theory

However, not all the intelligences included in the theory can be targeted easily when preparing a learning activity. Our challenge is to target the maximum
number of intelligences in one session to ensure the engagement of all students in a classroom especially in classrooms in which the number of students
is considerably large. Teachers should also be careful that addressing a specific type of intelligence doesn’t mean ignoring other types because our aim is
to reach students’ minds as well as developing all their skills.

Mu ltip le In te lligence s Theo ry in Action

I’ve been using this theory in my teaching for three years. I am a high school mathematics educator, and, for me, it is a challenge to find a suitable activity
for my lessons by which I reach all my students. It was a huge step forward in my teaching when I used this theory. It helped me a lot in reaching all
learners without putting pressure on them. I used these learning activities with classes of different levels (elementary, intermediate, and high school) and I
noticed that students were achieving better with less pressure, which is a great success for them. Students were enjoying such activities as well as
discovering their own strong fields of intelligence and developing the fields that were less strong. Students were more confident to express their ideas in
their preferred ways all moving toward good achievements that were tested in many assessments.
There are many challenges and details to be taken into consideration such as the number of students in a classroom, the classroom equipment, and the
number of units to be finished during a scholastic year. For me, I managed to use activities based on the multiple intelligences theory even when I taught
classes with large numbers of students and in classrooms that were not fully equipped. It was more challenging and it took more preparation and
research, but it turned out to be better for my students as seen in their results.

 Lesson design. This might involve team teaching, using all or several of the intelligences in lessons, or asking student opinions about the best way
to teach and learn certain topics.

 Interdisciplinary units. Secondary schools often include interdisciplinary units that incorporate diverse types of learning experiences.

 Student projects. Students learn to organize and manage complex projects.

 Assessments. Students use diverse methods to express what they have learned. Each student might devise the way he or she will be assessed,
while still meeting the teacher’s criteria for quality.

 Apprenticeships. Apprenticeships allow students to gain skills and self-discipline. Gardner believes that apprenticeships should comprise a
significant portion of a student’s school experience.

Getting Started

How does an educator go about taking on the monumental task of teaching to each individual student in the classroom, taking into account each ones
learning style, challenges and needs? Start by:

1. Getting to know your students — Find out what their interests and concerns are. Learn about who you’re working with by doing activities that are interactive.
You will learn more about your students and discover what they are comfortable with.
2. Creating a safe atmosphere for learning — It is important for teachers to create a nurturing and inclusive learning environment for students so that they
understand everybody is there to learn — and most importantly, that it is not a competition. A lot of teachers today are using problem-based learning
strategies that bring groups of students together to work as a team on projects. This approach allows students to try out different roles and build on their
strengths.
3. Being flexible and offering choice — Build on what you know about your students and their specific needs by tailoring your lesson plans appropriately. Build
in choice to your teachings and how you require tasks to be accomplished. And provide multiple means of learning (lectures combined with videos or
discussion, for example)

Teacher Centered vs. Student Centered Instruction

There are two main buckets that most teaching styles fall into: teacher centered or student centered.

Teacher Centered Approach

The teacher centered approach positions the teacher as the expert who is in charge of imparting knowledge to his or her students via lectures or direct
instruction. In this approach, students are passive actors or “empty vessels”, listening and absorbing information.

This teacher centered style is the traditional approach to teaching, but it’s not necessarily the best. And as educators learn more about effective ways to
engage learners of every style, the teacher centered approach is becoming more and more a thing of the past.

Student Centered Approach

The student centered approach creates more equanimity between the teacher and student, with each playing a role in the learning process. While the
teacher still holds authority, he or she acts more as a facilitator, coaching students and assisting them in their learning. This approach champions student
choice and facilitates connections among students. A couple styles of the student centered approach are:

Inquiry Based Style

This student centered learning style encourages independence, autonomy, and hands on learning with students leading the way and receiving guidance
from their teachers.

Cooperative Style
Cooperative learning is another student centered approach that focuses on group work and social growth. Much like the inquiry based style, the
cooperative style encourages independence and hands on learning but puts special importance on peer to peer work and community.

Student Learning Styles

So what are the different learning styles? According to Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory, there are “distinct intelligences” or ways students
learn. While it was developed over three decades ago, in 1983, Gardener’s theory still holds true today and can be applied to many modern teaching
strategies such as universal design for learning (discussed below).

The seven intelligences according to Gardner are:

 Visual-spatial
 Bodily-kinesthetic
 Musical
 Interpersonal
 Intrapersonal
 Linguistic