Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences For The 21st Century by Howard Gardner Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences For The 21st Century
Book Review: A Matrix of Human Resources
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this a difficult but rewarding book to read. Its basic premise is that "intelligence is too important to be left to the intelligence testers." Gardner notes that, during the past half century, many assumptions about the human mind and the human brain have been challenged...in some instances revised. "For example, we now understand that the human mind, reflecting the structure of the brain, is composed of modules or faculties. At the same time, in light of scientific and technological changes, the needs and desires of cultures all over the world have undergone equally dramatic shifts." The task Gardner sets for himself, therefore, is to introduce and then explain his theory of multiple intelligences (MI) in juxtaposition with the traditional view of intelligence. After describing the traditional view of intelligence in Chapter 2, he next considers several "new candidate intelligences" (naturalist, spiritual, existential, and moral). In the remaining chapters, he addresses questions and criticisms about his theory; dispels some of the more prominent myths; explores the relationships among intelligence, creativity, and leadership; suggests how his theory can be applied; discusses the theory in scholastic settings, then in"the wider world"; and then in the final chapter, explores in greater depth (returning to issues raised in Chapter 1) "my answer to the provocative question, "Who owns intelligence?'"
Gardner "reframes" our understanding of human intelligence by increasing the number and nature of our perspectives on it. That is to say, he creates a wider, deeper, and more diverse frame-of-reference in which certain conclusions which, for many apparently, are controversial. For example, "the saga of individual consciousness cannot be reduced to formulas or generalizations." Moreover, "no two selves, no two consciousnesses, no two minds are exactly alike." Therefore, "Each of is...is situated to make a unique contribution to the world." The challenge for the human race is to discover "our deepest common tie -- that we are all joint products of natural and cultural evolution."
I am reminded of what Walt Whitman once said: "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes." Gardner seems to be suggesting that, if each human being contains "multitudes", it is imperative that we cherish as well as recognize such diversity and complexity. Only then can we "in a complementary but synergistic way" ensure "that Nature and Culture survive for future generations." For all of us, Gardner's theory has profound implications. It also suggests substantial benefits if we apply this theory within what is sometimes referred to as "The Family of Man."
Book Review: An excellent update on Howard Gardner's thinkings.
Summary: 5 Stars
Intelligent Pictures in our MindsAlmost two decades ago, a Harvard University developmental psychologist, Howard Gardner, wrote Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, a book he believed he was writing predominantly to enlighten mainstream psychologists, not educators. In that book, he proposed a novel notion: the psychological construct 'intelligence' should be formally measured in more ways than simply through the dry statistical analytical lenses of the widely accepted logical and linguistic IQ-type formalized tests, tests so standardized for most schooling systems. Gardner questioned the classical belief that human beings could have only one 'mode of representation' about the world; instead, he suggested that a more pluralistic viewpoint for measuring mental functioning ought to be addressed - a variety of intelligent ways of thinking.
In Frames, Gardner theorized a master list of seven basic intelligences to represent these other modes, including the widely accepted linguistic-verbal and logical-mathematical, and visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical-rhythmic, and the two most criticized, interpersonal and intrapersonal. Frames was well received by those in the educational arena and the wider community at large. It was translated into Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. It was selected by five book clubs. Frames became Gardner's claim-to-fame.
In his second 1999 book, Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century, the 'father' of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) once again acquaints his followers with another first-rate book that continues the argument he made in earlier books, that there are multiple forms of intelligences. Although he 'canonizes' two additional intelligences, naturalistic and existential, he feels that what is more important is how people make use of MI to carry out daily tasks prized in the culture. This latter statement was well summarized during a recent interview when Gardner said "The fact that we have the same intelligences means that we can communicate with one another. But the fact that we represent things mentally in numerous symbolic systems to one another means that we are not necessarily going to construe things in the same way or see the same options."
The strength of the book lies in its core, the next three chapter describing and justifying "the ways in which MI theory can be applied to scholastic and "wider world" settings. Gardner's line of reasoning is persuasive, not because of the extensiveness of the information he includes, and his realization that certain mainstream institutions may encounter difficulty implementing his "multiple approaches to understanding", but because his script, as always, is vibrant and lucid enough to hold our interests more than a monotonous statistical analyses of a psychometric theory of intelligence would, yet firm and advanced enough that he can be taken as a serious thinker rather than as some pop cognitivist.
These three chapters outline how others have successfully implemented MI; they detail how the MI model can be easily applied to classroom learning and also infused into the "the wider society." In fact, all of Chapter 11 comments on MI in the wider world of institutions and business communities. Here, Gardner outlines ways that he has observed MI "at work in children's museums", including possibilities within art museums, and finally, within the workplace. The book concluded with Chapter 12 where he addresses (somewhat) the question first introduced in Chapter 1: Who Owns Intelligence? While the jury will be out most likely well in the 21st century on this deep and philosophical problem, may it be said, for now, that the "proprietary rights" to intelligences belong to all? Intelligence Reframed is especially important for the way in which it lays out a challenge to the 'psychometric consensus.' More specifically, the book is important for the following four reasons.
If there is a weakness in the book, it lies within the opening and closing chapters. Here the book stumbles somewhat in its attempt to address the authentic ownership of intelligence. It is suggested that "intelligence is too important to be left to the intelligence testers", that the book lay "out a position that challenges the psychometric consensus", that the book adopt the stance that humans ought to develop a better method of viewing cognitive potential and that what matters more than developing tests to measure intelligences is the practical applications of intelligences. There are some interesting calls for greater human individualization provided in these two chapters. But the details given to intellectual renovators is inconsequential and save for intellectual generalities, is slightly outdated; long-standing MI supporters will find little in these two chapters that they did not already know.
Nevertheless, Intelligence Reframed is Howard E. Gardner: it is a delightful and entertaining read and beautifully written by one of the best writers in the field of developmental cognitive science. Dr. Gardner has, once again, provided readers with a significant and well-articulated text that should be widely read and discussed. As with his previous books, detailed reference notes have been conveniently located in a section at the end of the book, so that the flow of the text is continuous. The four appendices (Books and Articles by Howard Gardner, Other Works About The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Videos, Newsletters, and Miscellany, and Contacts on Multiple Intelligences Theory and its Application) represent a welcomed background for the more interested reader. The 292 pages of the book clearly delineate and reframe the original (1983) picture of his many 'kinds of minds' image. Every chapter title, save one, contains either the word 'intelligence' or 'intelligences' - an indication of the central theme throughout the book - to "challenge the psychometric consensus" by updating the reader with numerous fresh viewpoints from a cognitive developmental standpoint.
Like so many of the author's earlier books, Intelligence Reframed ought to have a powerful impact on all who read it because Gardner puts into words a common sense type of message that so many people in psychology, education, and the greater world already know: human beings are very special from each another. They learn in dissimilar kinds of ways, and to treat all of them as if they were the same and call everybody stupid who fails to resemble a certain prototype is simply a misguided assessment.