Tuesday, April 01, 2008

‘Multiple Intelligences’ at 25


Inside Higher Ed. takes a look at the influence of the concept of multiple intelligences, 25 years after the release of Howard Gardner's Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

As is usual, the education establishment took a good and useful idea and ruined it through the implementation of various dumbass programs (like trying to abolish standardized testing).

When I was a wee lad, I was in a program for "talented and gifted" kids (my talent was kicking ass on verbally-based tests). In 1980 or so, the program changed to allow in kids who are gifted in other areas, such as the visual arts and music. This was a direct result of Gardner's early research, before the book was published. It was great for the rest of us, who were mostly left-brain thinkers, to be exposed to the genius of right-brain thinking.

But the move to do away with standardized testing is silly. There has to be some objective measure of educational success. The point shouldn't be to abolish standardized testing, but rather to include other measures of educational success and intelligence that allow for the fact that not everyone is verbally-based in their thinking.

Here is some of the article.

The push toward group assignments. The rise of portfolios to document student progress. The backlash against the SAT and standardized testing, and the push to consider new ways that colleges might judge students’ creativity and knowledge. The idea that IQ isn’t destiny.

and many other trends are intellectual offspring of the “multiple intelligences” movement that Howard Gardner launched 25 years ago with the publication of Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Gardner, professor of cognition and education at Harvard University, gave a talk Monday at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association to mark the anniversary.

Gardner and others noted that for all of the influence he has had, there are plenty of people who disagree, and who believe in standardized tests in ways that Gardner finds both offensive and irrelevant. But at the gathering Monday, in New York City, the overflowing crowd was entirely supportive of Gardner’s work, with people calling him their hero.

“Multiple intelligences” is the view that there is not a single measure of intelligence (like the traditional IQ), but rather a range of intelligences present in different ways in everyone. Gardner also challenged the notion that intelligence is largely inherited. While he does not discount the role of genetics and parenting in intelligences, Gardner focuses as much on the nurture part of parenting as nature and also holds that people can work to improve their intelligences. (Detailed explanations of his work can be fond on Gardner’s Web site.)

In his talk, Gardner sought to debunk some of the myths that he said have arisen about his theories and their creation. He said, for example, that he his critics have charged repeatedly that he was looking for a way to challenge IQ tests. While Gardner freely acknowledges that he criticized IQ tests after his book came out, he said he didn’t go looking for this battle. “I accepted the notion of intelligence,” he said. Two other research efforts led him to his theory, he said. One was a study of artistically gifted children. The other was a study of people who have suffered brain injuries. Both of those experiences got him thinking about the different ways people have intelligence.

Gardner also said his book received a lift because of his title, although he said he can’t remember when or how he made the “fateful decision” to refer to “intelligences” (in the plural). “I could have used ‘talents’ or ‘competencies,’ ” he said. It was “intelligences” that grabbed people’s attention, and that angered the testing establishment. “The psychometric community had believed that it owned intelligence” so by “pluralizing it,” Gardner said, “I caused a commotion.”


Read the whole article.


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