A teacher asks herself - “How can I provide experiences that require students…

CONCEPT: Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences proposes that human cognitive ability is not one single general intelligence but a set of distinct intelligences, each linked to a specific way of processing information. Naturalistic Intelligence is the capacity to observe, recognise, and classify features of the natural and physical environment - plants, animals, objects, and the schemes used to categorise them.

APPLICATION: The teacher wants to give students experiences that require classifying different types of objects in the environment and analysing their classification schemes. This is exactly the defining activity of Naturalistic Intelligence - observing the environment and organising it into categories - so the teacher is trying to promote Naturalistic Intelligence.

CROSS-CHECK: Checking each other intelligence against its own defining feature confirms none of them centres on classifying environmental objects:

• Linguistic Intelligence centres on sensitivity to the sounds, meanings, and structures of spoken and written language, not on classifying physical objects.

• Inter-personal Intelligence centres on reading other people's moods, intentions, and motivations to interact effectively with them, not on analysing object categories.

• Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence centres on using one's own body and movement skilfully to solve problems or create products, not on observing and classifying the environment.

Only Naturalistic Intelligence matches the activity the teacher is designing, which is why it is the intelligence being promoted.