Individual Differences - Chapter 5

This chapter goes over many different theories for intelligence. The Chapter really stresses the importance of understanding individual differences when trying to assess the intelligence of a student. As I have said before, I think that this is the toughest part of being a teacher. We are going to have 20 to 30 students in our class and every single one of them have their own issues and own differences that make them unique and we have to try to teach to all of them and reach every single one of them so they can continue to progress socially and academically. They define intelligence as the ability to apply prior knowledge and experiences flexibly to accomplish challenging new tasks. Then we learned about a few different theories on what is, or how to measure intelligences. There is Spearman's concept of "g", Cattell's Fluid and Crystalized Intelligences, Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, and Sternberg's Triarchic Theory. Of all these theories I would have to say that my favorite would have to be Gardner's multiple intelligence. I think I like to most because it treats the student more like an individual. Everybody has strengths in different areas and the multiple intelligence test allows students to see that for themselves. Who cares that a student is not the smartest in linguistics, they are brilliant in math and that is what they excel in and that's the most effective way they can learn.