Publication Date: May 24, 2024
Pages: 336
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:
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
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