Multiple Intelligences in the Text: Examining the Presence of MI Tasks in the Annotated Teacher\u27s Editions of Four High School United States History Textbooks

The current state of the social studies classroom comprises one of uninspired students using unexciting textbooks as their guide for learning U.S. history (Hope, 1996; NCES, 1993; Banks, 1990; Wakefield, 2006). With multiple intelligences gaining popularity in education, renewed hope exists for social studies to produce quality textbooks with differentiated instruction to reach all learners. The purpose was to design a rubric for measuring the presence of multiple intelligences structured tasks in teacher\u27s editions of four 11th grade U.S. history textbooks. Using 1995 to 2007 as a purposeful sample of consistent authorships and similar publications, the study looked at teacher\u27s editions of U.S. history textbooks to create a reliable and valid rubric for measuring the presence of multiple intelligences tasks in the teacher\u27s editions of four high school history textbooks. Using this analytical rubric, the researcher analyzed trends of tasks offered in teacher\u27s editions of textbooks to determine whether multiple intelligences tasks were being offered. Findings suggested that teacher\u27s editions do reflect a MI/directive framework over a non-directive framework, with MI/directive tasks appearing much more frequently. However, linguistic/verbal tasks were more likely to appear as the MI/directive task of choice over other categories. Changes were noted in number of tasks found in mid-1990s editions to mid-2000s editions with a decrease in verbal/linguistic and spatial/visual tasks in The Americans. Yet Pathways to the Present saw an increase in spatial/visual tasks. Hence, it is implied that textbook publishers have not embraced MI whole-heartedly and have not met all learner\u27s needs in terms of curriculum design. Furthermore, textbooks authors and publishers need to incorporate more variety in learning tasks to include other categories of multiple intelligences