THEORIES OF INTELLIGENCE

Theories of Intelligence

Theories of Intelligence

Introduction

Intelligence is the umbrella term under which describes a property of the mind in which skills, related capabilities such as abstract thinking, the understanding, the communication, the reasoning, the learning, planning, and troubleshooting. The intelligence seems to be linked to other mental functions as perception, or ability to receive information, and memory or storage capacity (Shiraev & Levy, 2010).

Defining intelligence is always the subject of controversy, in a scenario as diverse of opinions. The same, done on three groups: psychological, showing the intelligence as the cognitive ability, learning, and relationship, the biological, which include the ability to adapt to unusual situations, and operations, which are those which give a circular definition saying that intelligence is "... what intelligence tests measure."

However, for the purpose of this project, we have selected four diverse articles that cover two major theories of intelligence. The first one is Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, and the second one is Robert Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence.

Discussion

Theory of Multiple Intelligences

The Theory of Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner developed from research on children with special talents and adults, so uneven ability profiles showed that the conclusion was obvious, human intelligence does not consist of a relatively homogeneous potential, but of a number of different skills.

According to Chen (2004) Gardner also speaks insights from related disciplines for the theory of multiple intelligences; the findings of neuropsychology example of the modular structure of the brain or the acceptance of evolutionary psychology that have abilities emerged only in certain environments.

In another article by Bailey, Clark & Furnham (1999), all minds are equally important. The problem is that our school system does not treat them equally and has enthroned the first two of the list (logical intelligence - mathematical and linguistic intelligence) to the point of denying the existence of others.

For Gardner, it is clear that, knowing what we know about learning styles, types of intelligence and learning styles is absurd that we continue to insist that all our students learn the same way. The same material can be presented in many different ways that allow students to assimilate based on their capabilities and leveraging their strengths. Moreover, we must ask whether an education focused on only two types of intelligence, best suited to prepare our students to live in an increasingly complex world (Bailey, Clark & Furnham, 1999).

What is this thing we call intelligence?

Not always the first exit scores correlated faculty with the best professionals. The assessed highest averages are more doors open, but are no guarantee that after the exercise of his knowledge, are the best.

There are prominent people in all or almost all, lucid, highly valued in certain areas, but with poor academic performance. Individuals are completely normal, well adjusted and even happy, harmonious and balanced family, enthusiastic children, with ideas and goals clear who seem to lose the motivation to join the processes of teaching and learning. They could not engage in the mechanics proposed ...