For several decades , psychologists, educationists, Career Counsellor in Pune were trying to find a model way to probe into a person’s mind – to find his/her aptitude.
In 1983 a major breakthrough arrived, by the discovery of Multiple Intelligence The theory was first put forth by Professor Howard Gardner in his principalistic book , Frames of mind. For his work on broadening our understanding of human intelligence Gardner received one of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship Awards. While his original theory included descriptions of 7 intelligences, in the mid-1990s he began to propose that there was an eighth kind of smarts — naturalistic intelligence. Later the Ninth Intelligence was added– Existential or Cosmic Smarts
Gardner’s career has had many facets. He was the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, By combining his areas of interest and expertise, one of the great strengths of Gardner’s work is that he accurately pinpointed parts of the brain as these correlated to each of his described intelligences.
Over the past 40+ years Gardner’s MI theory has become popular with both teachers and parents and career counsellors as a tool for explaining and differentiating the talents and gifts of children. The spread of this important theory reached all over the globe.
This information has helped many teachers and parents better understand how to use children’s strengths to improve or heighten cognition and learning.
While initially Professor Gardner described seven aspects of human intelligence as being verbal/linguistic; mathematical/logical; spatial; musical; kinesthetic; interpersonal; and intrapersonal, in 1994 he added eighth intelligence, “naturalistic intelligence”(or “nature smarts”). Naturalistic intelligence was then more fully described and officially added to his original array of seven intelligences in 1999 in his book Intelligence Reframed.
All of us in school have been told that we are intelligent in some aspects/subjects and not in some. If you are not good at math or language, you might still be gifted at other things but it was not called “intelligence”- before the above theory was accepted.
In 1983 an American developmental psychologist Howard Gardener described 9 types of intelligence :
- Naturalist (nature smart)
- Musical (sound smart)
- Logical-mathematical (number/reasoning smart)
- Existential (life smart)
- Interpersonal (people smart)
- Bodily-kinesthetic (body smart)
- Linguistic (word smart)
- Intra-personal (self smart)
- Spatial (picture smart)
What other scientists thought were just soft-skills, such as interpersonal skills, Gardener realized were types of intelligence. It makes sense. Just as being a math whiz gives you the ability to understand the world, so does being “people smart” give you the same ability, just from a different perspective. Not knowing math you may not calculate the rate at which the universe is expanding, but you are likely to have the skills to find the right person who will.
For something to qualify as an intelligence, it has to satisfy Howard Gardner’s eight “signs” of intelligence. After extensive research, Gardner identified nine, distinct intelligences.
Spatial
The ability to conceptualize and manipulate large-scale spatial arrays (e.g. airplane pilot, sailor), or more local forms of space (e.g. architect, chess player).
Bodily-kinesthetic
The ability to use one’s whole body, or parts of the body (like the hands or the mouth), to solve problems or create products (e.g. dancer).
Musical
Sensitivity to rhythm, pitch, meter, tone, melody and timbre. May entail the ability to sing, play musical instruments, and/or compose music (e.g. musical conductor).
Linguistic
Sensitivity to the meaning of words, the order among words, and the sound, rhythms, inflections, and meter of words (e.g. poet). (Sometimes called language intelligence.)
Logical-mathematical
The capacity to conceptualize the logical relations among actions or symbols (e.g. mathematicians, scientists). Famed psychologist Jean Piaget believed he was studying the range of intelligences, but he was actually studying logical-mathematical intelligence.
Interpersonal
The ability to interact effectively with others. Sensitivity to others’ moods, feelings, temperaments and motivations (e.g. negotiator). (Sometimes called social intelligence.)
Naturalistic
The ability to make consequential distinctions in the world of nature as, for example, between one plant and another, or one cloud formation and another (e.g. taxonomist). (Sometimes called nature intelligence.)
Existential
Sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence, such as the meaning of life, why we die, and how did we get here. The Ninth Intelligence – Existential or Cosmic Smarts
DMIT- Dermatogyphic multiple intelligence test is used by career counsellors, career advisors in Pune for children, adults and even for people working in Corporate world, IT companies and so on.
The well acclaimed center in Pune- the dmit counselling center– is a subject expert in this model of counselling.The result is it has mapped the career path of hundreds of students.
The test not only clarifies students but also the parents after they discover the aptitude, IQ Test results and DMIT results. For more details and to book the appointment for bright fu
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