Reconceptualizing Teaching in the Twenty-First Century: Teacher Attitudes and Perspectives on the Role of Multiple Intelligences Inside the Classroom

Traditionally, teacher-centred approaches in education have been dominated by verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences, and as a result, have only been beneficial for certain learners and ineffective for others (Sulaiman & Sulaiman, 2010). Understanding that students bring with them diversity in their life experiences and learning abilities and needs, it is only feasible to assume that students learn best when multiple instructional interventions are implemented (Standford, 2003). The present qualitative study examined the question: How do elementary teachers’ knowledge and understanding of the theory of Multiple Intelligences influence their instruction? Data obtained from the interviews with two elementary teachers from the Greater Toronto Area revealed three overarching themes: (1) teacher opinions and attitudes towards Multiple Intelligences, (2) teaching pedagogy and instructional approaches to student learning, and (3) challenges in planning instruction to meet student diversity. Findings revealed the need for teachers to take on active roles in helping to facilitate students’ identification of their intelligences and use the intelligences of their students as the focal point for planning and implementing learning tasks. Participants recommended that teachers help to facilitate students’ awareness and understanding of their intelligences through differentiating the content, tasks, materials, and methods of assessment in any given learning experience