No 8: Naturalist Intelligence: When Diarmuid Gavin (right) waxes lyrical about the contrast between two trees that look identical to you, he's displaying naturalist intelligence and you're not.
In truth, we all have some of Dr Howard Gardner's more recently defined intelligence, as it is the kind of adaptive mental skill that allowed our ancestors to avoid poison and predators in the wild.
Naturalist intelligence, which Gardner recently added to his original list of seven multiple intelligences, is a person's ability to identify and classify patterns in nature.
Early humans depended on their natural intelligence to identify the flora and fauna that were edible and those that were not.
Farmers, gardeners, botanists, geologists, florists and archaeologists all exhibit this intelligence, as do students who can name and describe the features of every make of car or motorbike.
What's the connection between flowers and car marques? The ability to pick out subtle differences among apparently similar objects and catalogue them in the mind. Some naturalists are Nobel laureates, others are just anoraks.
Naturalists use their fine eye for detail in other useful ways, too. They may be sensitive to changes in the weather or slight variances in their physical environment that contain warnings. Their brains are like enormous libraries. They are skilled at recording and recalling details.
In the classroom they may specialise in a key aspect of a subject and build up extensive knowledge. They may also gain from learning outdoors. Gardner's definition of naturalist intelligence is interesting, because it ties this primal intelligence to the modern condition.
According to Gardner: "Naturalist intelligence designates the human ability to discriminate among living things (plants, animals) as well as sensitivity to other features of the natural world (clouds, rock configurations). This ability was clearly of value in our evolutionary past as hunters, gatherers, and farmers; it continues to be central in such roles as botanist or chef. I also speculate that much of our consumer society exploits the natural intelligences."
Multiple-intelligence theory is a central tenet of the transition-year programme. Not all educators are agreed on the validity of Gardner's theory, as it is still not possible to test for all eight intelligences. We still rely on IQ tests, which reveal only mathematical, logical and linguistic intelligences.
Series concluded
