Every Student is Smart!

Everyone is special in their own way
We make each other strong
We're not the same, We're different in a good way
Together's where we belong.
(We're All in This Together, OST High School Musical)

I’m always impressed with all things related to Multiple Intelligences. By this frame of mind, every people is viewed as a smart people. Not only one who wins Science Olympiad, or gets the best score in National Examination, but also people that can paint well, talkative, even people who look silent (but actually they think inside). That’s why I think teachers should look students through this framework.

Even though we cannot claim that one method is the best, I think this is the most appropriate way when teachers want to develop students’ skills and their various abilities. It’s suitable with the condition of Indonesia students, who have a lot differences one to each other, even in the same area. Different culture, family background, and parenting style also influence what the most dominant intelligences of a student.

Nevertheless, it’s impossible to accommodate all of the intelligences in one activity in one day. I have planned to give my students questionnaire to obtain what their stronger intelligences are at the beginning of the learning period. So later on, I can modify activities that support students multiple intelligences. Not only vary, the assignments given should also encourage them to think critically. We can use Integration Matrix—that is given in the MI workshop with Pak Iwan—to compose the assignments that are in higher level of Bloom’s taxonomy. Of course not every task support all intelligences but at least there are some intelligences accommodated in one activity. For instance, the teacher can ask students to discuss about a book in a literature circle. In the circle, students are given different roles such as the facilitator (to support students’ interpersonal and verbal-linguistic intelligence), the illustrator (visual-spatial), and the vocabulary developer (verbal linguistic). Since the discussion is done in a group, they can increase their interpersonal intelligence. The intrapersonal people are also given opportunity to express their feeling through reflection journal after the session. Imagine the fact that we can accommodate some intelligences only with one book!

We know that every student actually has all of the intelligences, though the compositions are not the same. To maximize all of the intelligences, teachers can ask students to work in group so they can complete to each other. Because every student is special in their own way--just like the song above--, and teacher's role is to facilitate them to make each other strengthen their intelligences.