Quennie N.

De Vega

MEM 1-1 D

Impact of the Multiple Intelligence to the Academic Performance of high School Students.

All the learners can develop their own talent at a younger age with the help of the

people that surrounds her or him. Each individual has his own strength and weaknesses, the

quality of being the only one of his kind (Dunn 1996). The strength of a student maybe the

weakness of the other one. Sometimes, an individual experiencing hardship to know what really

is his strength.

Howard Earl Gardner, a psychologist and a former educator at Harvard University

proposes Multiple Intelligence that defines the ability of a learner which comprises the 8 types

of intelligences, Logical-Mathematical Intelligence, Linguistic Intelligence, Musical Intelligence,

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence, Spatial Intelligence, Intrapersonal Intelligence, Interpersonal

Intelligence and Naturalist Intelligence, it was added to the theory by Gardner in 1999 in his

book entitled Intelligence Reframed. This intelligence was added in 1999 because it met the

criteria that Gardner uses for his intelligences. His criteria are as follows: “Is there a particular

representation in the brain for the ability?” Are there populations that are especially good or

specially impaired in an intelligence? And, can evolutionary history of the intelligence be seen in

animals other than humans?” (Guignon, 2004). He is the author of 20 books on multiple

intelligences which have been translated into 27 different languages (Heming, 2008). These

intelligences give an idea on how an individual will be able to improve his own capability.
 I became interested in Multiple Intelligences during my first days of teaching as a

teacher, I encountered different student which has different intelligence, a student might poses

several intelligence, intelligence that are correlated to each other. I noticed some children using

different strategies to arrive at answers and occupying themselves with different tasks, and I

wondered what could explain these differences in children. Some Question runs on my mind

while realizing that each student has a unique talent that no one can steal it and use it. It is

believed when learners are aware with their multiple intelligence they can use it to grow in the

field where they are belong. This leads me as a researcher to make a study to determine the

impact of intelligence types on Mathematics and English performance of high school students.

Although no one intelligence was considered to be superior to other types, according to

Gardner (2003) all intelligence are required for an individual, in order to participate, act

purposefully and creatively in the society. In order to be successful in educating all students,

teachers should be aware of the students’ individual differences; individual learning styles and

multiple intelligence profiles (Ahvan, 2015).

The following is the list of eight intelligences formulated by Howard Gardner (Gardner

1999: 41-43, 48).

Linguistic intelligence involves “sensitivity to spoken and written language, the ability to

learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish certain goals.” This

intelligence uses language to express ones feeling.

carry out mathematical operations, and investigate issues scientifically.” This intelligence

focuses intellectually through patterns and logical thinking.

Musical intelligence involves “skill in the performance, composition and appreciation of

musical patterns.” It encompasses the ability of persons in music.

Bodily-Kinesthetic entails “the potential of using one’s whole body or parts of the body

to solve problems.” The ability of an individual to use mental abilities to coordinate bodily

movements.

Spatial intelligence involves “the potential to recognize, categorize and use the patterns

of wide space and more confined areas.”

Naturalist intelligence enables human beings to “recognize, categorize and draw upon

certain features of the environment.”

Interpersonal intelligence is concerned with “the capacity to understand the intentions,

motivations and desires of other people.” There’s an interaction with other people.

Intrapersonal intelligence emphasizes “the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate

one’s feelings, fears and motivations.”

Gardner asserted that individual differences reflect multiple intelligences of human

beings; and through these intelligences an individual tries to understand the world, these are

personal strengths through which a person comprehends the world (Arnold and Fonseca,

2004).
 It was became known to some researchers who really have the courage to conduct a

study. Some researcher prove that Multiple Intelligence is very useful that encourage

stakeholders to be knowledgeable, on how to empower students with recognition of their

intelligence (Pour, 2015). Several studies suggest multiple intelligence-based instruction

increases students’ achievement. According to Laidra et al. (2007) academic achievement of the

students is reliant on their cognitive abilities through all grade levels.

Multiple intelligences need to be incorporated in teaching, learning process, so the

students may have the opportunities to develop all intelligences (Ahvan, 2015). Teachers

should create such an environment, which is favorable for the development of all the

intelligences, keeping in view individual differences of the students. In order to be successful in

educating all students, teachers should be aware of the students’ individual differences;

individual learning styles and multiple intelligence profiles. In schools logical and linguistic

intelligences are emphasized in teaching. Students who are more developed in other

intelligence dimensions are often ignored. Identifying and knowing students’ intelligence profile

is important and has implications for instruction (Shalk, 2002). Students with different ways of

learning are often labeled as learning disabled, ADD (attention deficit disorder) or simply

underachievers, when their unique ways of thinking and learning are not addressed by a heavily

linguistic or logical-mathematical classroom (Armstrong, 2000). Students today are much

different than students who were in school even ten years ago. They are more technologically

savvy and they have had more opportunities in life; therefore we cannot treat or teach them as

if they are the same person. Howard Gardner said it best, “If we all had exactly the same kind of

mind and there was only one kind of intelligence, then we could teach everybody the same
thing in the same way and assess them in the same way and that would be fair. But once we

realize that people have very different kinds of minds, different kinds of strengths -- some

people are good in thinking spatially, some in thinking language, others are very logical, other

people need to be hands on and explore actively and try things out -- then education, which

treats everybody the same way, is actually the most unfair education. Because it picks out one

kind of mind, which I call the law 30 professor mind -- somebody who's very linguistic and

logical -- and says, if you think like that, great, if you don't think like that, there's no room on

the train for you” (Gardner, 2006, p. 255).

Some questions are need to be addressed for me to achieve the goals of this study that I

wanted to pursue like, What is the mean performance of the respondent in a specific subject? –

is there a dominant intelligence in a specific class, Is there a relationship between the

respondents’ Multiple Intelligence (M. I.) test score and their performance in a specific subject?

In connection in the study that I wanted to conduct. There’s a lot of question that a researcher

wanted to pursue, but it needs time and effort to answer all the questions.

Based on my research, there’s a lot of Multiple Intelligence Test (M.I. Test) a researcher

can use to support a study which is related to it. Using it, I will be able to answer if is there a

relationship between the students’ Multiple Intelligences score in their M.I. Test and their

performance in a specific subject?

Ahvan, Y. R. and Pour, H. Z. (2015). The correlation of multiple intelligences for the

achievements of secondary students. Retrieved from

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1091511.pdf

Cohen AD (2003). The learner's side of foreign language learning; where do styles, strategies,

and tasks meet? Int. Res. Appl. Linguistic, 41:279-291.

Gardner H (1999a) Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York:

Basic Books.

Gardner H (2003). Multiple intelligences after twenty years. American Educational Research

Association, Chicago, Illinois, 21.

Gardner H (2006). Multiple intelligences new horizons. New York: Basic Books.

Guignon, A. (2004). Multiple intelligences: a theory for everyone. Retrieved from

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr054.shtml

Heming, A. L. (2008). Multiple Intelligence in the classroom. Retrieved from

https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1143&context=stu_hon_theses
Laidra K, Pullmann H, and Allik J (2007). Personality and intelligence as predictors of academic

achievement: A cross-sectional study from elementary to secondary school. Personality and

Individual Differences, 42(3):441-451.