Multiple Intelligences Action Research

Discussion


American schools have traditionally favored those students who excel in the linguistic and analytical arenas because these skills are highly valued in our culture. Unfortunately, this traditional approach leaves certain students behind to stumble blindly through an educational system that ignores their unique abilities. This action research study seeks to show that instructional activities that incorporate the multiple intelligences can improve students' attitudes toward learning and students' academic achievement in English class.

by Michele R. Acosta

Summary of Findings: Part 1

The purpose of this study was to determine if MI based instruction had an effect on students' attitudes toward learning and on students' academic achievement in English. The results of this study reject the alternate hypothesis that the four instructional activities that incorporate the multiple intelligences will have no effect on students' academic achievement and on students' attitudes toward learning and support the hypothesis that the four instructional activities that incorporate the multiple intelligences will improve students' academic achievement in English and their attitudes toward learning.

The results of the analytical writing sample indicated improvements in analytical thinking skills and in written communication skills following instruction based on the multiple intelligences. At the beginning of the study, students' overall analytical skills were relatively undeveloped. Many of them still thought of literature in literal rather than inferential terms, and only a very small number of students could fully explain their analyses using evidence from the text. These results were consistent with the results of the informal MI self profile given to the students during the MI lesson at the beginning of the study. Students' responses to this profile indicated that 62 percent of the students were weak in the logical-mathematical intelligence and 56 percent of the students were weak in the verbal-linguistic intelligence. Since the logical-mathematical and verbal-linguistic intelligences heavily influence the ability to analyze literature and the verbal-linguistic ability influences the ability to effectively communicate through the written word, it is not surprising that the majority of students wrote compositions which were rated in the middle and low categories.


Six weeks later, students were demonstrating significant improvements in analytical thought and significant improvements in their ability to communicate in writing. Their post analytical writing samples indicated that they were better able to interpret the poet's implied meaning and that they were better able to explain their analysis in writing. As one might expect with such low analytical and written communication abilities, the most significant improvements were seen in the decreased number of compositions in the low category, which contained either no analysis or only literal analysis with no explanations or textual support. Students in the fourth period class demonstrated the lowest levels of analytical and written communication abilities, so their dramatic 19 percent decrease in compositions rated in the low category demonstrated a definite improvement in analytical and written communication skills. The students in the first period class exhibited higher levels of analytical and written communication ability at the beginning of the study; therefore, the most important improvement for this class was the 15 percent increase in compositions rated in the high category.

The improvement in analytical and written communication abilities demonstrated on the post-tests indicated that MI based instruction had an impact on students' learning. This improvement over a six week time period implies that students' analytical and written communication abilities would likely continue to improve with continued exposure to instruction based on the multiple intelligences.
The author is a writer, a former English teacher, and the mother of three boys. She spends her time writing and teaching others to write. Visit articles.TheWritingTutor.biz for more articles or TheWritingTutor.biz for other writing and educational resources for young authors, teachers, and parents. Visit writing_editing_service.TheWritingTutor.biz for a description of writing and editing services provided by the author.

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