Early Childhood Intelligence and Learning Styles Margdarshak (New Delhi)

Early Childhood Intelligence and Learning Styles Margdarshak

Current research on the brain learning and human intelligence from a variety of disciplines including medicine cognitive sciences and education has provided information with profound implications to education. This research is challenging and stretches the traditional approaches to education and teaching particularly about the ability to learn human intelligence and how efficient learning occurs. Intelligence what is it The traditional theory of intelligence has two fundamental assumptions that human cognition is unitary and that individuals can be adequately described as having a single quantifiable intelligence.The traditional theory of intelligence has helped create a mindset or paradigm as to what smart or intelligent is who has potential or ability to be smart and how we can or cannot become smart. This has influenced current educational practices. It is still a common educational practice to use the score from standardised intelligence tests to qualify children for various special programs. It is assumed these tests measure intelligence accurately and meaningfully.Current research indicates that the only limit to one s intelligence is what the individual believes is possible and how his or her behaviours either foster or limit his or her intelligence. Research also indicates that intelligence is not a static structure that can be measured and meaningfully quantified but an open dynamic system that can continue to develop throughout life. Through his work and studies Reuven Feuerstein an Israeli psychologist and educator has developed a theory of the Modifiability of Intelligence. He has linked the importance of how teachers through facilitating learning experiences impact the quality of learning and influence the potential intelligence of each student. The Theory of Multiple IntelligencesSupporting the new paradigm of intelligence Howard Gardner of Project Zero at Harvard University has determined that intelligence is a pluralistic phenomenon rather than a static structure with a single type of intelligence. Gardner defines intelligence as 1. The ability to solve problems that one encounters in real life 2. The ability to generate new problems to solve 3. the ability to make something or offer a service that is valued within one s culture. In his cross-cultural exploration of how people are intelligent he has identified nine distinct types of intelligence Verbal-Linguistic Mathematical-Logical Musical Visual-Spatial Bodily-Kinaesthetic Interpersonal Naturalist Existential Intelligence According to Gardner s theory one form of intelligence is not better than another they are equally valuable and viable. Yet he discovered that different cultures are biased towards and against certain types of intelligence. Our Indian culture for instance favours verbal linguistic and logical mathematical intelligence and tends to undervalue others such as body kinesthetic intelligence. These biases added to the traditional theory of intelligence have limited our development of curricula instructional strategies and current methods of assessment-including how we measure intelligence.