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Diverse Learning In The Classroom

Sternberg, Gardner, and Diverse Learning in the Classroom
Introduction
If there has been one overarching theme in this course, it has been the theme of diversity. From examining the different ways that students develop physically in Module 2, to the different ways that they develop morally in Module 4, to the multiple ways in which they acquire and process information and demonstrate their mastery of knowledge in many of the other modules, we as student teachers are left with the overwhelming sense that no two learners are alike, and that there is no one theory of physical, emotional, or cognitive development that we can learn or apply to all of the possible learning situations that we may find ourselves in when we embark on our education careers.
A good example of this can be found in the Eggen and Kauchak (2005) text. Here, the authors discuss intelligence, and offer two theories in binary opposition for us to consider: Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI), and Robert Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence. Both theories seek to help us understand how intelligence is formed and made manifest; they give us tools with which we can structure learning activities and then assess them. Of the two theories, Eggen and Kauchak single out Gardner's for the most criticism—while Sternberg's model takes into account the mental, environmental, and experiential components that make up intelligence, they argue, Gardner's never accounts for the way that information is processed. Gardner, they claim, does not account for the way that we "maintain, organize, and coordinate information" (p. 120). MI can account for how we acquire knowledge and how we demonstrate that knowledge to others, but it cannot account for the mental processes that we use to store it in our memory.
In reply, Gardner (2004) has himself criticized Stenberg's model for the very same reasons: that Sternberg, too, fails to acknowledge the role of MI in information processing. While...