Conceptions of Learning in Light of the MI Theory

The multiple intelligences (MI) theory emphasizes the multiple nature of our brain capacity. The purpose of this study was to examine Turkish primary teacher candidates’ conceptions of learning in light of the MI theory through metaphors. The participants included 87 seniors taking an elective course in the primary education program of Necmettin Erbakan University during the spring term of 2014. They were asked to complete the prompt “Learning in light of the MI theory is similar to … because …” to write their learning images and send their compositions within a week to the researcher's e-mail account. The findings are based on the content analysis of these compositions. Overall, 25 metaphorical images were identified and five themes were developed out of them. The five themes and their representative metaphors include the following: (1) the nature of MI (e.g., rainbow), (2) the functions of MI (e.g., eating healthy), (3) the coherence of MI (e.g., our body systems’ working together), (4) the characteristics of learning (e.g., growing plants) and (5) the attributes of learners (e.g., grafting a fruit tree). It can be argued that the metaphor generating activity helped teacher candidates transform their abstract information of the MI theory into more concrete knowledge.