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Our methodWe have adapted two well-known educational models for practical work with families, schools and companies: the theory of multiple intelligences and backward design.
American psychologist Howard Gardner proposed that intelligence is not a single number but a set of abilities. Everyone has all of them, in a unique combination. Our job is to see that combination and put it to work in learning and at work.
Sensitivity to words, speech, reading and writing.
Signs: Loves stories and books, picks up new words quickly and retells events in detail.
At home: Read together for 15 minutes a day and ask your child to tell you about their day.
Examples from history: Rudaki, Ferdowsi
Working with numbers, patterns, cause and effect.
Signs: Counts, puts things in order, often asks “why?” and enjoys puzzles.
At home: Cook together with measuring, play strategy games and try small experiments at home.
Examples from history: al-Khwarizmi, Omar Khayyam
Seeing, imagining and creating images and shapes.
Signs: Draws, builds with blocks, remembers places and routes well and understands better through pictures.
At home: Keep drawing materials and construction sets within reach, and review lessons with diagrams and color.
Examples from history: Kamoliddin Behzod, Mirzo Ulugh Beg
Skill with the body and hands, learning by doing.
Signs: Loves running and sports, is good at hands-on work and finds it hard to sit still.
At home: Make time for movement every day and connect review with active games.
Examples from history: Pahlavan Mahmud, Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi
Sensitivity to melody, rhythm and sound.
Signs: Learns songs quickly, responds to music with movement and notices off-key sounds.
At home: Set things to memorize (times tables, rules) to the tune of a familiar song.
Examples from history: Barbad, al-Farabi
Understanding others and working with people.
Signs: Prefers playing with other children, notices their feelings and organizes the game.
At home: Arrange group games and chances to “teach” a younger child.
Examples from history: Ismail Samani, Saadi of Shiraz
Knowing oneself, one's feelings and goals.
Signs: Can stay absorbed in their own play for a long time, knows what they want and puts feelings into words.
At home: Give them personal space and choices, and set small weekly goals together.
Examples from history: Jalaluddin Rumi, Nasir Khusraw
Recognizing and classifying living things and nature.
Signs: Is very interested in animals and plants, collects stones and leaves and notices changes in nature.
At home: Offer exploration walks in nature and caring for a plant or a pet.
Examples from history: Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, Ibn Sina
The historical names are illustrations of where each kind of ability shines, not test results: every person has all eight intelligences.
Gardner defined an intelligence as the ability to solve problems or create products that are valued in a culture. To decide which abilities qualify, he checked each candidate against eight criteria in his 1983 book (the naturalist intelligence was added in the 1990s).
Brain damage can impair one ability and spare others: after a stroke, some people find it hard to speak yet can still sing familiar songs.
Some people are far ahead in one area and ordinary in others: a child may play an instrument much better than others their age yet find reading hard.
Each intelligence has its typical mental “moves”: musical intelligence works with melody and rhythm, linguistic intelligence with the sounds and meanings of words.
The ability grows through recognisable steps up to expert level: from counting on fingers to proving theorems.
The ability has forerunners in the animal world: many animals find their way by landmarks, and songbirds learn their songs.
Laboratory tasks show which abilities get in each other's way: it is easy to walk and talk at once, but hard to follow two conversations at the same time.
Scores on tests of the ability should differ at least partly from other scores: doing well at spatial puzzles does not automatically mean a rich vocabulary.
What the ability creates can be written down in special signs: letters for language, notes for music, numbers for maths, maps for space.
The theory of multiple intelligences is often retold inaccurately. Here are five common misconceptions and what research actually shows.
Myth 1
Matching teaching to a supposed learning style does not improve results (Pashler and colleagues, 2008), and Gardner himself says intelligences are not learning styles. What helps every child is meeting important ideas in several forms: words, pictures, objects and discussion.
Myth 2
Some functions, such as producing speech, rely more on one side of the brain, but a study of about 1,000 brain scans found no people in whom one hemisphere dominates overall (Nielsen and colleagues, 2013). Maths, music and creativity all draw on both hemispheres.
Myth 3
Everyone has all eight, developed to different degrees, and the mix changes with experience and practice. Gardner himself warns against labelling children: a label can close doors that are still open.
Myth 4
Research consistently finds that most mental abilities are linked: people who do well on one kind of task tend to do well on others too (the general factor, g). Even most of Gardner's more “cognitive” intelligences turned out to be connected to it (Visser and colleagues, 2006). The theory is a useful way to notice different strengths, but it does not overturn more than a century of research.
Myth 5
Self-report questionnaires show preferences and how people see themselves, not measured ability, and the answers depend on mood, modesty and self-knowledge. That is why we treat any questionnaire, including our own, as a starting point for conversation and observation, not a verdict.
A high grade does not always mean understanding. Educators Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe described six facets of understanding. A person who has truly understood:
Knows why and how, not just what.
Sees the meaning behind facts and events.
Uses knowledge in a new situation.
Looks at a question from different points of view.
Understands other people's feelings and worldviews from the inside.
Knows the limits of their own knowledge and their own biases.
We design every learning programme, training or development plan starting from the end.
What should people understand and be able to do in life or at work after the learning?
How will we know they really can? Which task or observation will show it?
Only then do we choose the activities, materials and schedule that lead to that evidence.
The limits of our method. The theory of multiple intelligences is very popular in education but remains debated in psychological science. That is why we use it as a shared language for talking about strengths and for varying how people learn — not as a test that precisely measures “intelligence”, and not to confine anyone to a single “learning style”. Read more about the theory in our “Science of intelligence” section.
Start with the short test or choose a time for a first meeting.