The Methodological Pluralism and the Multiple Intelligences in Teaching Electrical Circuits

Abstract

This essay investigated how the plurality of teaching methodologies proposed by Laburú e Carvalho (2001) can contribute to the development of different types of intelligence in high school students. A bibliographical review was done on the theory of multiple intelligences by Howard Gardner and about the methodological pluralism with the goal of developing a democratic learning unit that would stimulate many types of intelligence and that would involve the biggest amount of students possible. The data was collected through the audio taping of classes, the observation of participants and a questionnaire done at the end of the unit. To do the analysis of the data, the Discursive Textual Analysis proposed by Moraes and Galiazzi (2007) was chosen. The intelligence spectrum was defined as a priori categories. It was observed that some methodologies stimulate a range of intelligences that was not initially expected. Besides that, practical activities in groups demonstrated to be the best way to stimulate multiple intelligences. At last, the manifestation of eight intelligences during the research were verified, a fact that was only possible due to the diverse methodologies used.