AOW 17

The Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner

A World of Ideas

Howard Gardner, Hobbs Profesor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is codirector of Harvard's Project Zero, a program dedicated to imroving education in schools by emphasizing Creativity in thinking and problem solving.

Summary:

Intelligence is not a sweeping term. Although things like standardized tests often accurately predict how well a student may do in a classroom setting, it does not necessarliy reflect success in one's career. Great artists, musicians, and athletes are considered smart in their career, but in the classroom they are often pegged as average, or worse. There are seven main kinds of intelligence: musical, bodily-kinesthetic, logical mathematical, linguistic, spatial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. They are part of a repertoire that we draw from to solve certain problems. They are all independent from one another (brain damage often leads to the loss of one or two, while others are spared). Therefore, traditional IQ tests are inaccurate, as it is often the combination of certain skills that creates the diversity of human ability, rather than just the one intelligence tested for by such exams.   

Analysis:

The book was published, so it is available to a wide audience. However, I believe that the purpose of this writing was to cause reform in education. From what I understand, Project Zero is striving to create a new method/understanding of individual potential. Current standardized tests lack an understanding of how the human brain works, and the influence of our culture and surroundings on the ways we solve problems. Being interested in science, I found this peice not only satisfying but enlightening. It is perfect to put it in a high school/college book as we are being bombarded by standardized tests that I already KNOW mean little to nothing.

Rhetorical Devices:

Hypothetical situation: Several times Gardner proposes that the reader conduct a thought experiment, such as opening our minds away from the context of a classroom. For example, if we went to a concert, wouldn't we consider the musicians geniuses? So why condemn this form of intelligence in the classroom?

Definition: He begins explaining his theory by first defining intelligence. This was critical because before that he spends two pages telling the reader that their view of intelligence is wrong. The passage would have been extremely confusing if he hadn't then explained his definition of the term.

Narration: He begins the fairly complicated passage with a fairly simple scenario, where two boys are taking the same standardized test. This not always serves as an extended hook, but it is relatable as everyone in the audience has been in that position, and felt distressed when their results ended up as "average".

Ethos: Before he launches into his theory, Gardner gathers credibility by saying he got his results by "studies of exceptional populations, data about the evolution of cognition over the millennia, cross-cultural accounts of cognition, psychometric studies..." and the list goes on.

Divide and Conquer (my own term): He physically demonstrates the differences between the different forms of intelligence by completely separating them in his writing. They all get their own section and are not intermingled once.