Figure 1, The Curriculum Nautilus. (Ministry of Education, 2007. p.1)
Key CompetenciesThinking
This key competency relates directly the multiple intelligence's as they are the different ways students can think about when tackling problems. By embracing the different intelligence’s students can creatively and critically interpret ideas and situations. Additionally when students are taught about the different forms of intelligence’s they become meta cognitive as they are thinking about the way they best think. Students who can learn these skills are able to confidently follow any path that their curiosity takes. They can reflect on the prior experiences of themselves and others to actively create new knowledge. |
ValuesInnovation, Inquiry, and Curiosity
The curriculum values innovation, inquiry, and curiosity in the students we teach. As teachers we want to try and foster these as much as possible. To do this we need to get student thinking critically, creatively, and reflectively. The multiple intelligence’s and its various lenses it can bring to a task allow teachers to do just that. Each intelligence can be used to think critically and reflectively on a task on its own, e.g. a task in art looking visually appealing/meeting the tasks requirements, but most tasks can be thought about using two, three, or more intelligences to further increase the reflective and critical values of a task, e.g. using the mathematical/logical intelligence to think about the proportions and ratios used in a piece of visual art. This cross over in intelligences can also be used when solving/completing tasks in a similar manner. This could be seen as creating an informative poster in English, this brings the visual spatial intelligence’s into a linguistic dominated realm. It still engages a student’s linguistic intelligence’s but by engaging the visual spatial intelligence it is a creative way of informing people over and above the written language of linguistics. |
Principles
Learning to Learn
Since learning does not stop when you leave school we want to equip students with the tools to continue learning long after they leave the classroom. The multiple intelligence's provide a means of showing students a wide range methods for engaging with a task. It allows students to learn about their own learning. They will be able to find ways and methods that help them click with a range of subjects. By giving them the full range of options it allows students to persist with problems, trying another intelligence method if their first isn't successful. Coherence Part of the principle of coherence is being able to make connections across the different subject areas of the curriculum. The multiple intelligence's are perfect for teachers to make these connections. Different intelligence incorporate skills used in a variety of the curriculum areas, for example English has a large verbal linguistic focus and Visual Art has a large visual spatial focus. The multiple intelligence's allows teachers to bring a new lens to their planning by incorporating other forms of intelligence's to different curriculum areas like creating posters or graphic organizers in English. Examples like this allow for the dominate visual spatial thinking and skills used in visual arts to be applied to the linguistic realm of English. In this way, multiple intelligence theory facilitates an integrated coherent curriculum. |
VisionLifelong Learners
Part of the curriculum envisions students which entails students thinking critically and creatively. By engaging students with the multiple intelligence's they are able to play to their strongest mode of thinking when tackling problems. Also having knowledge of the other intelligence's means that if the students preferred is proving to be ineffective then the students can analyse the situation and identify another form of intelligence that they could potentially use to allow them to reach their goals. |
Effective pedagogyEnhancing the relevance of new learning
Students need to be able find practical applications for the skills they learn. The multiple intelligence’s provide students with a tool through which they can see how they can use their skills in a variety of contexts enhancing the relevance of what they learn. Making connections to prior learning and experience Students are able to learn more efficiently when they can combine new and existing knowledge. As the multiple intelligence’s provide a variety of lens to view a topic through students will be able to bring their prior experiences from one aspect of a topic and combine it with other areas the teacher or other students provide to develop a more complete understanding. Providing sufficient opportunities to learn Everybody has a dominant intelligence, one that they excel in and learn with quicker than the rest. When teachers create tasks that can accommodate the multiple intelligence’s they are creating opportunities for students to learn in a way that suits their dominant intelligence giving them the best chance to learn from the task. |