American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD

 Issue: October 2004

Using Multiple Intelligences to Teach Tennis
Melanie Mitchell & Michael Kernodle

Abstract:
Physical education classes will have students with special needs, at different skill levels, from various cultures, and of different genders. In order to be an effective physical educator, the teacher needs to design and provide experiences that nurture the development of all children. In 1983, Howard Gardner proposed that there were many different ways to demonstrate intellectual ability and suggested that individuals have different intellectual strengths and weaknesses. He also recommended that in order to optimize the teaching/learning environment for mental or motor skills, a teacher or coach must be able to identify and teach to these abilities by using highly correlated activities. The purposes of this article are to (1) provide an overview of eight of the nine identified multiple intelligences (the ninth is not relevant to movement skills) and (2) discuss how this knowledge (with specific examples) can be used to develop a more inclusive teaching environment by someone teaching or coaching tennis at the secondary level or in a college/university basic instruction program.

Article category: Teaching