A UCC research project has the potential to change the face of our education system. Parents and teachers are aware that many of the children who don't do well at school, who flounder at English and maths, have abilities and skills that go unrecognised and unrewarded in our examfocused system.

Unfairly, such children are labelled "unintelligent" and live out their lives believing they are failures. UCC's department of education has developed an action research project which is applying the theory of multiple intelligences to curriculum and assessment in Ireland. It could provide a blueprint for different teaching and assessment methods which would better serve children with a variety of different intelligences.

The widely held view that we are born with a single intelligence that is immutable and can be measured is only a recent concept. In the 19th century the term was used quite differently, according to Dr Aine Hyland, UCC's professor of education. "Even in Irish education circles they used to talk of the curriculum improving the intelligences'. It wasn't until psychologist Alfred Binet developed his IQ tests in France in 1900 that a static view of intelligence developed," she says.

In recent years Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (MI) has done much to dint the traditional view. The theory is fast gaining credence with educators in this country.

A Harvard based psychologist, Gardner defines intelligence as an ability to solve a problem or make a product that is valuable in at least one culture or community. An IQ test won't show whether you can cook a dinner or conduct a meeting, he says.

Through his work with both braindamaged and gifted children Gardner has identified a number of different intelligences - linguistic, logical mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily kinesthetic, intrapersonal and interpersonal. Writers, broadcasters and teachers have highly developed linguistic verbal intelligences. The logical mathematical intelligence is associated with deductive reasoning and involves the ability to recognise patterns and to work with abstract symbols and geometric shapes.

People with highly developed spatial intelligence, which involves the ability to think in pictures, are likely to make good artists, architects or navigators. Musical intelligence meanwhile, is associated with having a good musical ear, being able to carry a tune and having a sense of rhythm. "Many people think in music and hear it all the time," notes Gardner.

People who have highly developed bodily kinesthetic intelligence learn through their bodily sensations. They enjoy touching feeling and tapping. Dancers, actors and surgeons enjoy high levels of this intelligence.

People with high levels of interpersonal intelligence are good at understanding other people and what motives them. Nowadays this intelligence is most highly prized by employers, yet nobody ever gets a Leaving Cert in it.

According to Gardner the intrapersonal intelligence is also becoming increasingly important in our society. People who have high levels of this intelligence have self knowledge and understand their own feelings, strengths and weaknesses. "Without good self knowledge, people make mistakes in their personal lives," he says.

Western education systems, which largely rely on written exams. recognise only the linguistic and logical mathematical intelligences, Gardner says.

The MI theory has huge implications for our education system which puts the linguistic and logical mathematical intelligences on a pedestal and largely ignores the others. Gardner believes that the basic goal of education should be understanding, yet research shows that even people who do well at school, exhibit only a fragile under standing of their subjects. The theory is of particular interest to educators who are concerned about the high dropout rates in our schools and the high levels of failure.

"Anything that improves the learning of young people is worth exploring," asserts Aine Hyland. "I have a particular concern for under and non-achievers. We've all had them in our classrooms and know the frustration of feeling that if only we could reach them in some way.

Between 15 and 20 per cent of the population is failing to achieve adequately at school. "Out of an age cohort of 60,000 we're talking about 10,000 people," she says. "We can't afford to have these numbers failing to gain anything from our education system. We really have no right to tell children that they are failures. Who are we to define the parameters so narrowly?" As she reads the theory of multiple intelligences, says Hyland, it seems to provide a gateway for some children. "However, children who are doing well in the education system can also benefit from the MI theory. By being taught through a variety of intelligences their potential for learning and understanding is also enhanced."

The UCC project involves teachers from a number of second level schools in Cork. The real challenge for the project, according to Hyland, is to see if it can meet the challenge of the White Paper. "It's not enough to change the content of the curriculum," she explains. "We have to change the methodology and look at how children learn and how teachers teach." It's much more difficult to change the methodology, than it is to change the curriculum.

According to Dr Joan Hanafin, director of UCC's multiple intelligences, curriculum and assessment research project, there are similarities between active learning and the MI theory. "In any class," she says, "you'll find a whole range of intelligence profiles, so it makes sense to use a range of strategies." But, she stresses, MI is about more than teaching for and through the intelligences. "It's about how we recognise and value diversity." It's one thing to recognise the variety of intelligences, it's another to value them, she says.

If changing teaching methodologies is difficult, changing methods of assessment is more so. In a society that places so much weight on written exams, it's difficult for some people to have any belief in the validity of other assessment methods.

"It's vital that we develop assessments that are valid," says Hyland. "If the assessment is narrowly pen and paper focused - simply a test - some children are going to feel `Why bother if they're not going to let us exhibit our understanding'. We have to provide opportunities for young people to display what they know in ways that suit them. This can be very difficult in one off, end of year exams."

Some children may lack the vocabulary or writing skills to explain - how the circulation works for example, but they may be able to represent it physically or with drawings and diagrams. "You'd be amazed at the depth of understanding some children can display, given the opportunity," she says.

"In the real world, you find that in a whole range of areas the people who are successful are not those who were high achievers in school. We have to realise that the world values more than one set of intelligences. A whole range of skills including interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences are valued by society yet they are not taught in school."

Hyland is convinced that the project will develop a range of assessment methods that will reflect the variety of teaching methods being used. However, she notes, they will be more time consuming than the conventional pen and paper method.