REGIONAL DIFFERENTIALS IN STUDENTS’ PREFERENCES REGARDING THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES AT ELEMENTARY LEVEL

The purpose of the study was to investigate the students’ multiple intelligences according to their preferences and how students’ multiple intelligences differ in terms of their region in which they live, at Elementary level. All the students studying in 7th class of age group 12+ in Government Middle and Secondary Schools of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan) constituted the population of the study. Total Eighty Government Middle and Secondary schools (20 from each district) from urban and rural regions were selected randomly to choose the students as the sample for the study. A total sample of 2000 respondents, in the age group of 12+ years studying in 7th class, was drawn out of the population using stratified random sampling technique. A tool "Multiple Intelligences Scale for Elementary Level", having eight sub scales, was used to examine students’ preferences in different components of Multiple Intelligences. The results of the investigation revealed that majority of the respondents had average levels of intelligence for all the eight components of multiple intelligence, however the students’ multiple intelligences showed variety according to their interests. When results were examined in terms of their locality i.e. urban and rural, significant differences were observed in the mean scores of Urban and Rural students for Bodily-kinaesthetic (-4.8) and Naturalistic (-8) intelligences. It was found that in case of Bodily-kinaesthetic and Naturalistic intelligences rural students took slight lead due to environmental factors.