Educational Lessons from the “Dead Poets Society”: A Multiple-Intelligences View

Askarzadeh, Hossein; Pournakhaei, Ahad; Bakhtiari Moghadam, Zahra; Haddad Narafshan, Mehry

doi:10.22080/iselt.2026.29220.1100

Educational Lessons from the “Dead Poets Society”: A Multiple-Intelligences View

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Foreign Languages, Ke.C., Islamic Azad University, Kerman, Iran.

10.22080/iselt.2026.29220.1100

Abstract

The film "Dead Poets Society" (Weir, 1989), has sparked significant public discourse and resonated deeply with audiences due to its educational themes and portrayal of unconventional teaching methods. Analyzing the film through the compelling lens of Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory, proposed by Gardner (1983), this study explored the various intelligence types. Employing a qualitative content analysis, the researchers selected the main characters and scenes as units of analysis and then developed codes to categorize them, tracing the manifestations of MI. Findings portrayed eight intelligence types and indicated how society’s conventions could heavily influence the activation of these intelligences. Codes for linguistic intelligence included verbal artistry, verbal inspiration, and phonological sensitivity; interpersonal intelligence involved social understanding, social feedback, and social bonding; spiritual intelligence focused on purposeful living and existential comprehension; bodily-kinesthetic intelligence related to physical performance, physical awareness, and physical expression; visual-spatial intelligence involved spatial awareness and multi-perceptiveness; logical-mathematical intelligence emphasized reasoning and hypothesis testing; intrapersonal intelligence centered on self-reflection, self-awareness, and personal growth; and musical intelligence encompassed musical literacy and musical passion. Bridging the gap between the MI and ELT contexts through film content analysis, this research contributes to the MI conceptualization, enriching individuals' comprehension of the theory, and the application of film-based tasks and MI-oriented activities in pedagogical institutes, particularly ELT contexts.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). Published by the Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages at the University of Mazandaran. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

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