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Sample Insight Paper
Sample Insight Paper
As Gardner’s Theory puts it, there are lots of ways to be smart! We need a range
of abilities–analytical, creative, social & emotional, and practical–and the motivation to
use them. Yes, we are probably born with tendencies toward particular strengths and
thinking styles in these areas, but all of them are affected by what we learn and
experience. Parents, this is where we come in! We have the opportunity and
responsibility to help your children develop their intelligences so they are well prepared
for their adult lives in our increasingly complex world.
There’s no agreed upon definition of intelligence, but we know intuitively that
intelligence gets at what it takes to be successful, however it is that each of us judges
our success. When I became a parent (and realized it’s not as easy as it looks), but here’s
a framework developed by Dr. Chelskey Fisk in ThinkParenting.com that we parents can
use to keep in mind the basic range of smarts our children need. Drawing on important
theories by renowned psychologist Robert Sternberg and others, the framework includes
analytical, creative, social and emotional, and practical intelligences. Other researchers
have identified more and different intelligences, and we can learn from them too. The
purpose is to provide a general framework, easy for parents and other educators to use.
In all of these important areas, you can help your child get smarter:
Analytical Intelligence: Using analytical intelligence can involve evaluating
information and arguments and judging their reliability and value. It includes
noticing things that just don’t make sense, predicting what might happen next,
recognizing when you need to know more, making appropriate inferences, and
solving problems.
Creative Intelligence: Creative thinking includes thinking “outside the box” and
using your imagination to experiment, create original ideas, and add to other
people’s ideas. Creative thinking is flexible thinking—for example, we can think of
the number 8 as 15-7 or 4×2 or 24/3.
Social & Emotional Intelligence: Emotional & social intelligence includes the ability
and inclination to understand and manage your own feelings, have insight into how
others are feeling, and work effectively in groups.
Practical Intelligence: Practical intelligence is important for getting along and feeling
successful in particular settings such as school. We often just pick up practical
abilities through personal experience, but we need them to be successful in our
work and adult lives.
These four areas of intelligence are interrelated and overlapping. You can be
analytical and creative while using your social intelligence, for example. But people do
not necessarily develop intelligences in a balanced way. You can surely think of a person
who very smart in a traditional way, maybe a straight-A student, who was not able to
fit into the social scene or be successful in the world of work. That person has analytical
intelligence and underdeveloped social and/or practical intelligence.
We are probably born pre-wired to have particular strengths and weaknesses in these
four areas of intelligence. The tendencies we are born with are shaped by our
experiences; intelligence is without a doubt an interaction of nature and nurture.
Any person can increase their ability in any area, and it is generally easier to learn new
things as children when our brains are growing rapidly. That’s one reason the everyday
and special experiences we provide our children matter so much. We can, naturally and
without overparenting, help them develop their multiple intelligences in a balanced way.
By doing so, we are preparing our children for the complexity and change they will
experience in their 21st century lives.
Source: https://ayeshapenuela.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/parents-kids-and-
multiple-intelligence/