Intelligence is the ability to acquire information, analyze the information, and be able to use what you have acquired in the future. You also need to know how to survive in the world, which involves common sense and to know right from wrong.
The theory that is the closet to the definition of intelligence would be Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Everyone is different, which means people can obtain the same information. However, some people may not be able to analyze the information while others are able to analyze and use the information well. Gardner believes there are seven distinct kinds of intelligence: Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Musical, Spatial, Bodily Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal. He believes that each person has multiple forms of these intelligence. .
IQ test should not be paper and pencil test. Children should be observed throughout a day, where there are activities that every child must do that tap into each of the intelligences Gardner has described. The activities can test several of the intelligences at one time or can test just one.
One activity that taps into Musical intelligences is to play a melody and have the child play it back. An example of an activity that test different intelligence at the same time could be; have the children work in a group and they have to write a short story and be able to use movements or objects to help them tell the story. This activity involves Interpersonal intelligence because they are working with other people. It also involves Linguistic intelligence because you are writing a story. If the children use movements to help them tell the story then the activity would also use Bodily Kinesthetic intelligence.
Some of the pros of this kind of evaluation of intelligence are; children will not be compared to each other, and they will know what they are good at and what they are bad at. The activities could also be considered standardized because every child is completing the same activity.
