Other+Possible+Intelligences

Naturalistic & Existential



After developing his first seven intelligences, Howard Gardner went on to officially add one more to his working theory in 1999. Naturalistic intelligence is currently the only other theory besides the original seven that is accepted in educational psychology. Existential intelligence still has not been recognized as legitimate intelligence because there is no psychological data to support the theory. Gardner added these two theories to his original seven when he realized the original seven did not encompass the ideas presented through naturalistic and existential intelligence. The naturalist and existential intelligences meshed with Gardner's definition of intelligence as "....the human ability to solve problems or to make something that is valued in one or more cultures." The naturalist intelligence clearly meets Gardner's specific criteria for must be present to claim it is a form of intelligence under his definition.
 * "Is there a particular representation in the brain for the ability?
 * "Are there populations that are especially good or especially impaired in an intelligence?
 * "And, can an evolutionary history of the intelligence be seen in animals other than human beings?"

**Naturalist:**
According to Gardner natural intelligence refers to the extent to which people are able to see and classify the variety of things in life. This can be anything from cultural artifacts, to any flora or fauna. Natural intelligence is often referred to, even by Gardner himself, as nature smarts. The idea behind this intelligence is that there are certain people for whom the desire to understand the universe and everything in it are driving forces. Student who have a high level of this intelligence will excel in classes like biology and environmental science. Students will often be interested in collecting, classifying, and reading about nature. People with naturalistic intelligence are often more aware of their surroundings and subtle similarities, differences, and changes than others. They often have a keen sensory perception that allows them to see and understand things that the average person will not see. Some of the famous people with this intelligence are John Muir, Rachel Carson, and Charles Darwin.

**Possible Traits Exhibited by Students with Naturalistic Intelligence:**

 * 1) Have keen sensory skills - sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.
 * 2) Readily use heightened sensory skills to notice and categorize things from the natural world.
 * 3) Like to be outside, or like outside activities like gardening, nature walks or field trips geared toward observing nature or natural phenomena..
 * 4) Are interested and care about animals or plants.
 * 5) Create, keep or have collections, scrapbooks, logs, or journals about natural objects -- these may include written observations, drawings, pictures and photographs or specimens.
 * 6) Are very interested, from an early age, in television shows, videos, books, or objects from or about nature, science or animals.
 * 7) Show heightened awareness and concern of the environment and/or for endangered species.
 * 8) Easily learn characteristics, names, categorizations and data about objects or species found in the natural world.

**Possible Employment:**

 * 1) Forest Ranger
 * 2) Evolutionary Research/Theorist
 * 3) Environmental Scientist
 * 4) Physicist
 * 5) Veterinarian
 * 6) Biologist
 * 7) Botanist


 * Resources:**

There are several ways in which educator's can enhance the education of a naturalistic learner in the classroom. Doing activities such as exploring the surroundings of the school, taking filed trips to National Parks and museums, and working on classifying various things found within and outside of the school. Students with a high naturalistic intelligence will be drawn to courses found in the sciences and humanities. Students will often seek to understand their surroundings more in depth than others and try to make sense of what they sense. Technology can play a vital role in helping students develop this intelligence and gain a better understanding of what is around them. Below are only a few of the websites that can help teacher's use technology to help students who have a high naturalist intelligence.

This website contains thousands of hours of nature videos that could enhance a classroom discussion on anything from the animal kingdom to how plants synthesize sunlight. Videos can be downloaded directly or linked to other sites for in class work.
 * Nature Online Video Streaming Archive: @http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/**

This website is dedicated to children learning about nature and the world around them. It has everything from documentary videos to ideas about how to use their materials in the classroom. Any teacher looking to engage students in learning about the world would find everything they need to plan their lessons here.
 * National Geographic: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/**

PBS has several videos from their nature documentary series that follows researchers all over the world. Any student with a high naturalist intelligence would enjoy reading and watching things from this website. Because it is PBS all materials and resources they have to offer are completely free of charge.
 * Public Broadcasting Station: @http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/video.html**

Existential Intelligence refers to a persons ability to be able to tackle larger and deeper concepts such as the meaning of life, death and existence. People who have a higher existential intelligence will be more ready to explore deeper into the cosmic mysteries of life. Gardner has made allusions to this possible being a ninth intelligence but he has to yet to fully create a working theory or definition. He has given a preliminary idea of how this intelligence could work and its characteristics but has not added to his other eight. It can be argued that Gardner feels adding this intelligence to his others will cause problems in the educational world. Whatever his reason Gardner does not and will not have a full working definition and concept of this theory ever. There are those who have taken what Gardner has said and begun to employ different teaching strategies for this intelligence in the classroom. A link is provided below to one such website, but it is important to keep in mind that not Gardner or Education recognize this as a learning intelligence or theory.
 * Existential Intelligence:**

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 * Cited:**

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__Naturalist:__
Wilson, L. (2005). //The Eighth Intelligence: Naturalistic Intelligence.// Newer Views of Learning. Retrieved from @http://www.uwsp.edu/education/lwilson/learning/natintel.htm Feb. 27, 2010. MI Research and Consulting Inc. (1999-2011). //Multiple Intelligence Theory.// Retrieved from @http://www.miresearch.org/mi_theory.html Feb. 27,2010 Dickinson, D. (1998). //Technology That Enhances Naturalistic Intelligence.// America Tomorrow. Retrieved from @http://www.america-tomorrow.com/ati/mi8.htm Feb. 27, 2010 Guigon, A. (2010). //Multiple Intelligences: A Theory for Everyone.// Education World. Retrieved from @http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr054.shtml Feb. 27,2010 [Gardner, H.?] //Offices of Howard Gardner.// Retrieved from http://www.howardgardner.com Feb. 26, 2010.

__Existential:__
[Gardner, H.?] //Offices of Howard Gardner.// Retrieved from @http://www.howardgardner.com/ Feb. 27, 2010. Wilson, L. (2005). //Exploring the Ninth Intelligence: Maybe.// Newer Views of Learning. Retrieved from @http://www.uwsp.edu/education/lwilson/learning/ninthintelligence.htm Feb. 27, 2010. Smith, Mark K. (2002, 2008) 'Howard Gardner and multiple intelligences', //the encyclopedia of informal education//. Retrieved from @http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm Feb. 27, 2010.