Augmenting Tertiary Students' Soft Skills Via Multiple Intelligences Instructional Approach: Literature Courses in Focus

Abstract

The second half of the twentieth century is a witness to an unprecedentedly soaring increase in the number of students joining the arena of higher education(UNESCO,2001). Currently, the number of students at Saudi universities and colleges exceeds one million vis-à-vis 7000 in 1970(Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Washington). Such enormous body of learners in higher education is per se diverse enough to embrace distinct learning styles, assorted repertoire of backgrounds, prior knowledge, experiences, and perspectives; at this juncture, they presumably share common aspiration which is hooking a compatible post in the labor market upon graduation, and to subsequently be capable of acting competently in a scrupulously competitive workplace environment. Bunch of potentialities and skills are patently vital for a graduate to reach such a prospect. Such bunch of skills in a conventional undergraduate paradigm of education were given no heed, being rather postponed to the post-graduation phase. The current Paper postulated tremendous  merits of deploying the Multiple Intelligences theory as a project-based approach, within  literature classes in higher education; a strategy geared towards reigniting students’ engagement, nurturing their critical thinking capabilities, sustaining their individualistic dispositions, molding them as inquiry-seekers, and ending up engendering life-long, autonomous learners,  well-armed with the substantial skills for traversing the rigorous competition in future labor market.  Keywords: Multiple intelligences, teaching Literature, motivation, autonomous learning, critical thinking.