The Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences and Academic Performance Among the Second-Semester Mechanical Engineering Students in Politeknik Kuching Sarawak: A Correlation Analysis
The aim of this study is to determine which intelligences are strongest and most often used by the second semester of mechanical engineering students in Politeknik Kuching Sarawak. This study also investigates the relationship between the multiple intelligences and the students’ academic performance. In addition, the gender difference in multiple intelligences also have been examined. The interactive assessment of Multiple Intelligences for Adult Literacy and Education together with the separated items for existential intelligence were used in this study. The first-semester cumulative grade point average, CGPA of respondents was used as their academic achievement’s measurement. The analysis used in this study were descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test and Pearson product-moment correlation. The overall results found that the second semester of mechanical engineering students in Politeknik Kuching Sarawak preferred to use the mathematical-logical intelligence in their study and it followed by the intrapersonal intelligence and the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. The results showed that the verbal-linguistic, visual-spatial, mathematical-logical, bodily-kinesthetic and musical intelligence had a positive correlation with the academic performance. The analysis also showed that the interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist and existential intelligence were negatively correlated with the academic performance. Meanwhile, there was no statistically significant difference found in the multiple intelligences due to gender difference. This survey may have provided the important and useful information for lecturers and Department of Mechanical Engineering to help students to discover their self-knowledges, talents, and abilities from the aspect of Gardner’s multiple intelligences in their learning and co-curricular activities, so that the students can perform well in their academic and non-academic parts during their study.