March 08, 2005

Making practice perfect

Multiple intelligence theory is changing classroom practice across the globe. But what about here in Thailand?

Story and pictures by NEIL STONEHAM

The theory of multiple intelligences emphasises the practical approach to educating the young.

Here’s an interesting hypothesis — is it possible to pass a test in a subject you know practically nothing about? In most cases, the obvious answer is no. But if, for instance, you take a multiple-choice exam it could, in theory, be achievable. By a process of clever elimination, a test-savvy student could feasibly heighten the odds of passing without recourse to any in-depth knowledge at all.

While this may be an extreme example, education systems are littered with tests and exams that rely little on a student’s understanding of a subject and more on their capacity to navigate the practicalities of test-taking.

The problem is particularly acute in Thailand, exemplified by the masses of students attending tutoring or “cram” schools in order to guarantee themselves a pass in university entrance exams.

Dr Howard Gardner

In last week’s learning post, we featured a story on the theory of multiple intelligences. The author of that theory, Harvard professor Dr Howard Gardner, has identified eight different “intelligences” that span logical, creative and physical activity (see box).

One important area of his work is on what Gardner calls the “education of understanding”. The basic premise is that understanding should form the basis of any educational goal. Obvious, perhaps, but it is amazing how many educators veer from this fundamental assumption.

In an analysis piece in the Bangkok Post on February 25, education correspondent Sirikul Bunnag noted that, despite the education reform act, “less than a third of teachers have changed the way they teach, and most continue to assess their pupil’s abilities based on scores obtained in multiple-choice tests.”

In fairness, the resources and training available to teachers in order to assist with reform have been limited. But it could be argued that a fundamental shift in the very way we perceive the role of education is necessary if reform is to be ultimately successful. This applies not just to teachers and administrators but also to parents and students.

Understanding the theory of multiple intelligences and how it might be implemented in the classroom could be one way of moving forward on the issue. After all, other developing countries such as the Philippines are already embracing such an idea. When Howard Gardner visited that country recently, his seminars made front-page news in many of their national newspapers.

Theory into practice

Howard Gardner first attracted the attention of educators when his book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences hit US shelves back in 1983. Since that time, hundreds if not thousands of institutions have used multiple intelligences theory to guide their curriculum as well as change teaching styles. The results, by and large, have been positive with schools reporting a heightened interest among their students along with rising grades.

Gardner believes that knowledge should be taught in order to help the students understand other things. “I think the most important reason for going to school is to gain an understanding of the major disciplines,” says Gardner. “For me, personally, those disciplines would be science, history, mathematics and one or more art forms.” These are the disciplines, he believes, that help to answer many of the questions we ask in order to understand the world around us.

“To simply repeat what you’ve read or what someone told you, you might understand but you might just have a good verbal memory,” says Gardner. “It’s very good to have a strong verbal memory because you can pass tests in school. But unless you can use that knowledge to understand something new, it’s really useless. It’s just a bunch of facts that might win you lots of money in some television quiz show but it’s certainly not going to help you make sense of the day’s newspaper or understand why you should or shouldn’t touch something like a plant or an animal.”

In terms of teaching a syllabus, Gardner laments that schools are often forced to cram as much information as possible into a student’s mind, citing the example of those poor history teachers who must go “from Plato to Nato” in 36 weeks.

“If you try to cover too much, you will not have understanding,” says Gardner, suggesting that teachers narrow this ambitious task down to a small number of important ideas or events and focus on studying those in depth. “If you spend time on those ideas,” he says, “people believe the class gets some understanding of history.”

But how do teachers decide what is important?

“I say to them – if you have only one class for one hour and you can only teach that one class, what would you teach? Then I say teach those things for a full semester and the students will have an understanding. Some people laugh at that but I think they’re wrong. For instance, if you taught a class, let’s say in the year 2000, and somebody looks back from 2005 and you asked them what they learned, they’d be very happy to remember four or five things. In fact, you’d be very surprised.

“Most people, unless they have gone on to study the subject, will have forgotten. But if you really focus on those few things in depth, if it really gets into those neural networks, then there’s a good chance that more information would be retained.”

“If you want to teach something, you can present it in lots of ways. You can use language, drama, humour, hands-on activities, group work. If you know your students well, you might teach one student differently from another or you might assess them differently. Even if you have a larger class, you can individualise to some extent, it’s just more difficult.”

An educator's view

While here in Thailand, Howard Gardner spent some time with teachers and

Marcy Criner and Peter Stanley

administrators at Concordian International School in Samut Prakan. One of the school’s recruitment criteria is that teachers should be open-minded and flexible in their approach since they will be required to teach to the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme – a programme that supports multiple intelligences theory. Indeed, Gardner himself has singled out the IB as being one of the most constructive educational programmes in the world.

Many of the teachers who spoke to learning post were very positive about Gardner’s theory following a one-day seminar he gave at the school. For some, it provided an opportunity to reflect on their technique while, for others, it was quite an inspiration.

“It gave me a real boost of energy,” says science and maths teacher, Peter Stanley. “I think the most important thing is that it empowers people. So many systems will teach to one type of kid because it’s all based around taking tests. That’s great for some kids but maybe only 20% of them. The rest have a really hard time trying to learn that way.”

Indeed, Peter takes his own learning experience as an example of why he thinks it’s vital to approach the teaching of all subjects in more than one way. “I’m not a test-taker,” he says. “I don’t really love books, it’s just never been my thing. But I really like sports, I love being outside, I learn from doing those kinds of activities. It’s really empowering to have somebody bring that up and have that theory. Hopefully, teachers anywhere can realise that if kids aren’t being helped with the tests, they can try something else.”

The principal of the school, Marcy Criner, is equally enthusiastic, noting the fact that multiple intelligences values a range of disciplines rather than just the academic.

“I think it works really well in supporting the IB programme in terms of teaching for understanding. It gives students all those different windows to see different ways of the world and valuing people. For me, the most important thing would probably be for students to realise that, while we have all of the intelligences, people can have strengths in some, which is good, but if you’re weak in one that doesn’t mean anything bad.”

Multiple intelligence theory may not be the answer to every educator’s problems but it must certainly be preferable to a system that ignores the strengths and talents of a significant section of the student population.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has pledged to focus more on education during his second term. We will have to wait and see how those words translate into actions but when the new education minister takes office, whoever it turns out to be, perhaps they should pay some attention to what Dr Howard Gardner has to say.

Multiple intelligences theory condensed

The theory works on the notion that our intelligence is not one single entity, as measured by IQ tests, but based on a number of distinct types of brain activity. Dr Howard Gardner, who founded the theory back in 1983, has identified eight intelligences ranging from logical, which determines our ability to logically follow patterns or instructions, to bodily kinesthetic, which determines our physical motor and co-ordination skills. Other areas, such as the way we deal with people or manipulate our creative instincts, are each allocated a separate intelligence.

The idea is that, rather like a set of different computers, each intelligence has a particular function. Notably, Gardner argues that it is possible to strengthen each intelligence, which may already be weak or strong, simply through appropriate practice and application.

For more information, you can read last week’s article entitled A Question of Intelligence on the learning post website – www.bangkokpost.com/education

Read our other cover stories here.

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