WHY DESCRIBE STUDENTS INTELLIGENCES IS VERY IMPORTANT BEFORE APPLYING A TEACHING STRATEGY

Students intelligences and teaching strategy are two different thing that related each other.  Both of them can affect students in mastering a lesson. In this case, student intelligences are  internal factor and  teaching strategy is external factor. We know that every student have all eight intelligences, but just different in the strengths. So, describing students intelligences is very important before implement teaching strategy. Some reasons why describing students intelligences is important before apply such teaching strategy are to meet each students needs,  to provide interesting teaching method, and also to develop certain intelligences to a fairly high level of competence.

By knowing students intelligences description, we know their strenghts and weaknesses. So, we can support them both behaviorally and academically to meet their needs. By developing lessons that draw on a variety of different intelligences, we can hope to meet the needs of many more students than through one method only. Think of this: If you were asked to do a task that was interesting and that you had confidence, of course could complete it successfully. But now, think of being asked to do a task that you had little hope of completing. Would you finish it with the same enthusiasm? Would you be able to do with the task without distraction? Most people will answer these questions, “probably not.” Think about how many students are faced with the second scenario on a daily life. It must be very frustrating and is likely the cause of many behavior problems we see in the schools.

Just like in the second paragraph, by knowing students intelligences description, we know their like and dislike. So, An interesting teaching strategy can be provided based on their anxiety. For example: on language teaching (English), we can use Story Telling for students with great linguistic intelligence, Science Thinking for students with strong logical mathematic intelligence, Visualization for students with optimal spatial intelligence, etc. All of those strategies will likely spark greater interest, keep them focused on the given task , and also make them feel comfortable in learning material and finally, they will have a great motivation to learn on every next sessions.

By describe students intelligences, we know the strong intelligence of each students to practice and also their weaker intelligence to develop. Further, It can change the teachers and students think about learning something. A simple test which shows which intelligences students are strong in can really give them a new perspective. It can get them to change their attitudes towards their own intelligence and learning and raise their self-esteem. For example: if students know that he is strong in Naturalistic intelligence but doesn’t excel in Logical-mathematic intelligence he can get a whole new perspective on his abilities and change his view about learning. I believe it is very important for teachers to focus on students’ strengths and students intelligences’ description can help with that.

All of the reasons above show that describe students intelligences before apply such teaching strategy is very important to consider. It is also make us more creative to design various teaching method and increase students’ interest in their studies. That way also give a chance for everyone to shine and feel comfortable in the classroom. Finally, The teaching and learning process become more like the real world and gives students the opportunity to develop their special abilities which is very usefull in their later life.