The Essential Howard Gardner on Education

During his long and distinguished career as scholar and teacher, Howard Gardner has made vast contributions to our understanding of learning and how to create environments that support growth in all learners across their lifespans. In this compelling collection of his writings, Gardner lays out his principal ideas about education. While known primarily for his theory of multiple intelligences, Gardner’s work in education includes substantial contributions in the areas of early childhood, K–12, and postsecondary education. In this volume, Gardner provides readers with a lifetime’s worth of insight into creating purposeful curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, ideas developed at Harvard Project Zero (where he has been a leader and principal investigator for over half a century), as well as in collaborations with educators from around the world, ranging from preschools in Reggio Emilia (Italy) to art classes in China. Gardner includes a timely focus on education in a global era, influenced by continuing technological innovations, yet still grounded in the pursuit of fundamental human values. This is the single most comprehensive survey of Howard Gardner’s writing and thinking about education.

Book Features:

• Offers an unparalleled survey of the principal concerns of a major educational thinker in our times.
• Draws on decades of experience as a teacher, researcher, and public intellectual to present a vision of how quality education can best be achieved for all students.
• Reviews the principal strands of the world-renowned theory of multiple human intelligences, including timely explanations and updates.
• Makes the case for an education that foregrounds and cultivates an appreciation of truth, beauty, and goodness.
• Situates concepts and recommendations within the broader progressive tradition.
• Addresses authentic assessment, the importance of interdisciplinary thinking, the fostering of creativity, the capacity to synthesize powerfully and convincingly, the centrality of deep understanding, and—crucial for our times—the cultivation of an ethical mind.

Howard Gardner, best known for his theory of multiple intelligences, is the Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Among his numerous honors, Gardner received a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, the Grawemeyer Prize in Education, a fellowship from the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Prince of Asturias Award in the Social Sciences, and the American Educational Research Association’s Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award. His book include The Essential Howard Gardner on Mind.

“A fascinating look at educational issues by one of our nation’s finest and most creative academics. This is vintage Howard!”
—David C. Berliner, Regents Professor Emeritus, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University

"For more than 40 years, Dr. Howard Gardner has been one of—if not the—most influential scholar on the American educational system. It is thrilling to see a single volume that brings together Gardner's research and writings on educational institutions ranging from pre-K through the university. Readers who know Gardner best for his work on multiple intelligences theory will benefit tremendously from this exposure to his thinking on topics such as what it means to do good work, the purpose of a liberal arts education, and the role of social media in contemporary young people's development."
—Scott Seider, associate professor of applied developmental and educational psychology, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College

“The Essential Howard Gardner on Education offers a crisp distillation of Gardner's lasting contributions to our understanding of teaching and learning in a complex, ever-changing world. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to Gardner's work, this masterfully crafted narrative provides an accessible overview of Gardner's wide-ranging contributions to the field of education, including his educational philosophy; the provenance, uptake, and legacy of multiple intelligences theory; what it means to educate for truth, beauty, and goodness; and much more.”
—Katie Davis, associate professor, Information School, University of Washington

“This is the book we’ve been waiting for. Here are the pithy, clear, and on-point vistas of one of the leading minds in his field. In the age of education fads and magic bullets, this book will become the indispensable GPS—Gardner Positioning System—to survey vast vistas in education and allied fields. Fasten your seat belt and prepare for an exhilarating journey."
—Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, chancellor, University of Massachusetts Boston

Contents

Acknowledgments  xiii

Introduction  xv

Influences

1.  Jerome S. Bruner as Educator  5
References  10

2.  Harvard Project Zero: A Personal History  11
Events Surrounding the Beginning of Project Zero  11
Project Zero at Its Inception  14
Leadership Transition  16
Comments  18
The Move to Educational Reform  18
A Fateful Car Ride  19
The 1990s: Going National and International  20
Comment  21
Beyond 2000—New Governance, New Opportunities, New Challenges  22
Final Thoughts—The “Symptoms” of Project Zero  22
References  23

3.  The Hundred Languages of Successful Educational Reform  24

China: The Key in the Key Slot

4.  The Key in the Key Slot: Creativity in a Chinese Key  31
I. A Recurring Incident  31
II. Childrearing in China: General Comments  32
III. Life as Performance  33
IV. The Arts as Beautiful and Good  35
V: The Importance of Hierarchy  37
VI. Shaping and Molding From Birth On  38
VII. Basic Skills Before Creativity  40
Toward a Productive Synthesis  41
Acknowledgments  43

Educational Philosophy
Progressivism—The True, the Beautiful, and the Good  45

5.  The Age of Innocence Reconsidered: Preserving the Best of the Progressive Traditions in Psychology and Education  47
Co-authored by Bruce Torff and Thomas Hatch
A Canonical View in Psychology and Education at Midcentury  47
New Insights  49
The Symbol Systems Approach  52
The View From Education  55
Closing the Loop: Innocence Recaptured  60
References  61

6.  Educating for the True, the Beautiful, and the Good  62
Truth  63
Beauty  63
Goodness  64
Threats  66
Villains and Heroes  66
Going Forward  67
Reference  67

7.  The Tensions Between Education and Development  68
I. Memories of Larry Kohlberg  68
II. The Relation Between Development and Education  69
III. Parameters of the Problem  71
IV. Three Principal Ways of Representing Knowledge  72
V. The Disjunctions Among Ways of Knowing  74
VI. Possible Bridges Among Disparate Ways of Knowing  77
VII. Closing Thoughts  78
Acknowledgments  79
References  79

Introducing Multiple Intelligences: Claims, Critiques, and Educational Implications

Overview of MI Theory  83
References  84

8.  Beyond IQ: Developing the Spectrum of Human Intelligences  85
References  92

9.  Reflections on MI Myths and Messages  93
I. Breaking a Decade of Silence  94
II. Myths of Multiple Intelligences  94
III. Messages About MI in the Classroom  98
Reference  102

10.  “Multiple Intelligences” Are Not “Learning Styles”  103

11.  The Crystallizing Experience: Discovering an Intellectual Gift  106
Joseph Walters and Howard Gardner
The Biographies  110
The Interviews  116
Crystallizing Experiences  116
The Issue of Talent  118
In Conclusion  121
References  122

Educational Experiments in the Spirit of Multiple Intelligences

12.  MI Around the World  125
The MI Meme  125
The Nature of the Soil  127
Why MI Takes Hold in Certain Soils  128
The Policy Level  129
Concluding Note: The Personal and the Political  130

Identification and Nurturing of Intelligences in Early Life
Student Projects in the Pods at the Key School  131
The Artistic Intelligences: Can They Be Mastered and Measured in Adolescence?  132
References  133

13.  The Spectrum Approach to Assessment: Nurturing Intelligences in Early Childhood  135
Co-authored With Mara Krechevsky
The Spectrum Approach to Assessment  136
Implementation of the Spectrum Approach  137
Initial Results  139
Working Styles  140
A Comparison of Views: Parents, Teachers, and Spectrum  142
A Comparison of Spectrum Results With the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale  143

14.  Projects During the Elementary Years  149
An MI School  149
Project Assessment  151
Project Scaffolding  154
References  156

15.  Arts PROPEL  157
Disciplined Inquiry in High School: An Introduction to Arts PROPEL  157
Building on the Theory of Multiple Intelligences  157
Alternative Accents in Arts Education  158
Disciplined Inquiry in High School: An Introduction to Arts PROPEL  159
The Project Zero Approach to Art Education  159
Arts PROPEL  162
Two Educational Vehicles  163

Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Assessment
Acknowledgment  175
References  175

16.  The Unschooled Mind: Why Even the Best Students in the Best Schools May Not Understand  177
Reference  191

17.  Understanding Through the Disciplines  192
Three Puzzles  192
Vantage Points: From Puzzles to Concepts  195
The Patterns of the Scientist . . . and the Mathematician  199
The Beauty of the Artist  201
The Accounts of the Historian  203
In the Shopping Mall of the Disciplines  205
Reference  209

18.  Teaching for Understanding Within and Across the Disciplines  210
Howard Gardner and Veronica Boix-Mansilla
Understanding Within the Disciplines  211
From Common Sense to Interdisciplinary Study  212
Disciplinary Powers and Limitations  214
Assessment Within and Across the Disciplines  215
From Disciplinary to Personal Knowledge  215

19.  Assessment in Context: The Alternative to Standardized Testing  217
Binet, the Testing Society, and the “Uniform” View of Schooling  218
Sources for an Alternative Approach to Assessment  220
The Need for a Developmental Perspective  221
The Emergence of a Symbol-System Perspective  221
Emergence of a Multiple Intelligences Perspective  222
A Search for Human Creative Capacities  223
The Desirability of Assessing Learning in Context  224
Locating Competence and Skill Outside the Head of the Individual  225
General Features of a New Approach to Assessment  226
Toward the Assessing Society  230
References  234

Higher Education

20.  If We Were Designing a New College . . .  237
Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner
1. Why College?  238
2. Less Is More  238
3. More Alike Than Different  239
Final Thoughts  239
Reference  240

21.  Why We Should Require All Students to Take Two Philosophy Courses  241

Contemporary Challenges and Opportunities

22.  Education in the Era of the Apps  247
With Katie Davis
Apps for a Better World  254
References  256

23.  The Five Minds for the Future  257
Cultivating New Ways of Thinking to Achieve Important Societal Goals  257
The Disciplined Mind  257
The Synthesizing Mind  258
The Creating Mind  259
The Respectful Mind  260
The Ethical Mind  261
Tension Exists  262
Wake-Up Calls  262
Role-Modeling  263

24.  Synthesis 1.0: A Few Essential Tips  264

25.  Changing Minds  267
80/20 and Seven R’s  267
References  274

26.  On Educating for the Three Virtues: A Hegelian Approach  275
Toward a Synthesis  279
The Beauty of Truth-Seeking  279
The Conception of the Good  280
From Synthesis to Action  281
Lingering Questions  282
Concluding Note  285
References  285

27.  The Myths in “Neuromyths”  287
References  289

28.  Becoming a Good Person, a Good Worker, a Good Citizen in a Democratic Society  290
The Challenge  290
Framework  291
The Lenses of Psychology  292
A Recommended Course of Action  295
Reference  298

29.  To an Aspiring Researcher: Twelve Pieces of Advice  299
A Thought Experiment  299
Acknowledgments  306

Original Publication List  307
Reference List  307

Index  311

Permissions  319

About the Author  320