Suncity International Academia

MI Learning Centre ©

The education of gifted children must be informed by research based practice and ongoing evaluation and improvement.

In the 1900s French psychologist Alfred Binet tried to come up with some kind of measure that would predict the success or failure of children in the primary grades of schools. The result was the forerunner of the standard IQ test we use to traditionally measure, how intelligent a person is based on Math and English. In the 1980s Harvard University psychologist, Howard Gardner had a pluralistic view of the mind, and recognized the many discrete facets of cognition. Gardner defines intelligences as the ability to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural settings. Gardner acknowledged that people have different cognitive strengths as well as different cognitive styles. Gardner, in his theory of multiple intelligences, identified eight intelligences, which are like talents and gifts and many combinations of the eight are possible.

Keeping the above principles in mind at Suncity we have clear mandates that most gifted and talented learners will be taught in mainstream classes however using a differentiated curriculum.

Gardner's eight intelligences are:
  • Linguistic intelligence ("word smart")
  • Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")
  • Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
  • Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
  • Musical intelligence ("music smart")
  • Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
  • Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
  • Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")

At Suncity School, it is our endeavour to place equal stress on individuals and their different gifts of intelligences and we have incorporated all the eight intelligences in different laboratories to provide eight different potential pathways to learning. The Logical lab, the innovative Art & Craft Lab, the Linguistic Lab, Lyrical/Gayan and Nritya Lab and the Spa Block address mathematical and logical intelligence, spatial intelligence, verbal-linguistic intelligence, musical intelligence and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, respectively.

Naturalist, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal and Spatial Intelligences are nurtured in the first of its kind – a world class, copyrighted – ‘Multiple Intelligence Learning Centre.’ The centre has been lauded by the Cambridge University’s “Guide to Excellence” as one of the world’s 100 best pedagogical practices to be implemented in education.

Some of the essential features and objectives of the lab are as enumerated below:

Showcasing Pre Historic Existence

Extinction of dinosaurs Stone Age – Emergence of Pre historic man

Dwellings & Fossils Discovery of Fire and Wheel Emergence of social behavior – impact of discoveries

Interdependence between man & nature

NATURALIST INTELLIGENCE

Medieval Art & Culture

Agriculture & growth of civilization Ajanta &Ellora Caves, Buddhist Monastaries – art forms, frescoes

NATURALIST AND SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE

Village Life

Settlements as opposed to nomadic life Facets of rural life & culture Emergence of the Panchayat system Complex political structures – The King & the state

INTRAPERSONAL AND INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE

Urban Existence

Contrast with village life Interdependence between both Miniature road system

INTRAPERSONAL AND INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE

(developing civic sense)

Space Exploration

The sky Surface of the moon Life in space

SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE

(nurturing imagination)

Projects, Story telling, vocabulary building, dramatization & educational trips are some of the techniques that are used by the faculty to expose the children to the various intelligences and enable them to explore their own pathways to their own kinds of learning. At Suncity School we believe that the right situation and learning can reveal the right aspects of the child’s personality and make him a true “MI child” or ‘ Multiple intelligences child.’

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