Product reviews for Higher-Order Thinking

On the face of it, the busy teacher already stretched and stressed, may feel that it is hard enough thinking about intelligence at all, never mind differentiating between eight different types. This nail-bitten individual would ask the author for an eighth day in the week to do the lesson planning, not an eighth intelligence to get to grips with. However, a free 30 minutes to skim and scan the book is arguably all that is needed to see that there is some good stuff within.

Arguably, the overall strength of this book is the host of multi-sensory ideas for lesson activities that are provoked in the pages that link Bloom's cognitive taxonomy with each of the separate intelligences. Cleverly, each of the eight intelligences is broken down into components that are clearly exemplified at the three major levels of the taxonomy. This means that the teacher using this as a guide for designing assessments, would be able to differentiate or personalise the learning appropriately. The author has also included some samples of how various subjects could be taught using a balance of different-yet-complementary intelligence styles, to make potentially boring subjects lively and interesting.

Reservations? There is something of the "flavour of the month" about the concept of multiple intelligences. The critique that has been soundly delivered at the various methods of determining learning preferences, may well apply. Practically speaking, it is quite a lot to take on board and many may mistakenly believe that each individual should be diagnosed as to which intelligence they embody. If, however, the teacher accepts Lazear's applications of the basic premise as tools to think with, rather than prescriptions to live by, then this book is a useful addition to the teaching toolkit.