RUNNING HEAD: HOWARD GARDNER’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES 1

Howard Gardner: Human Development and Education
“Thinking about Thinking”

University of St. Thomas
School of Education
Counselor Education Cohort Program

Submitted by:
Carolyn Assaad, B.A.
School Counseling Candidate

Submitted to:
Dr. Roman Alvarez, LPC-S, NCC, ACS, LMFT, LSOTP, FAPA, MTAPA
Summer I, 2012

RUNNING HEAD: HOWARD GARDNER’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES 2

Abstract

This paper explores the following: 1) discusses Howard Gardner’s philosophy of education and background; 2) discusses qualities that make him an educational leader including the relevance of his work; 3) examines his theory of multiple intelligences and its relevance in education; 4) addresses pros and cons of his theory and 5) discusses the influence he has had on education in the United States. Implications for current issues in education and counseling are addressed with regards to the theory presented.

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Background and Philosophy In the 1960’s Howard Gardner was a graduate student in Psychology at Harvard University.
He was trained as a developmental psychologist so he was concerned with the nature of human organisms and the stages and laws of cognition as well as the stages of moral judgment and aesthetic evaluation. He had the opportunity to study under individuals such as psychoanalyst
Erik Erikson, sociologist David Riesman, and psychologist Jerome Bruner who all influenced and helped him along his course of investigating human nature. He was also interested in how individuals can use their education in waysthat make sense to them and to their culture (Gardner, 1991). Gardner believed that there exist many different ways of acquiring and representing knowledge and that these individual differences need to be taken into account in pedagogy as well as in assessment of learning. Furthermore, he believed that intelligence, or intelligences, are not predetermined and are always interactive between biology and the environment or culture. His view of the intellect as being “distributed” in the environment lead him to his theory of Multiple Intelligences which claims that there are many ways to understand the world around us (Beliavsky, 2006). His theory of multiple intelligences has been influential in school reform around the globe.
Educational leader qualities and relevance of work Howard Gardner has himself referred to his theory and approach to education as “the under- standing pathway” where he advocates that students ask deep epistemological questions
(Astington, 1998). He believed that school pathways should address all kinds of children.
His theory encompasses eight types of intelligences: linguistic, mathematical/logical, musical, visual/spatial, bodily, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. He believed that no two people have the same combinations of these intelligences. Furthermore, he felt that if both
RUNNING HEAD: HOWARD GARDNER’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES 4

biological and cultural opportunities for learning are not present then certain intelligences may not be realized. His theory has also been referred to as the theory of mind, which states that our social life depend upon the interaction of minds- interactions of our thoughts, wants, and feelings, or plans (Astington, 1998). Gardner wanted children to think about how they think. this is still relevant today as teachers are trained to teach to various “learning styles” in the classroom such as visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic. In the 1980’s Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences was seen by many educators as the basis for the need to approach the explanations of a certain concept in different ways. Although this theory of multiple intelli- gences is not talked about as much now, teachers are being trained to help children construct their knowledge through their own activity and experience and they encourage children to further their understanding by talking and reflecting about their knowledge. For these reasons,
Howard Gardner can be seen as an influential researcher in the field of psychology and education. Because of his interest in researching human nature and how human beings think, our current education system now focuses more on student-centered learning instead of teacher-centered classrooms. Multiple Intelligences explained. To understand the theory of multiple intelligences, one must first understand that Howard Gardner believed that each person’s combination of intelligences must be nurtured to be fully realized. Teachers need to understand how to motivate and promote student’s understanding, creativity, and imagination as well as their personal, academic, and social growth (Beliavsky, 2006). The first intelligence Gardner identifies is linguistic-the ability to think in words and use language effectively both orally and in writing. The second intelligence is mathematical/logical-the ability to think logically and use numbers. The third intelligence is musical-the ability to think musically and recognize
RUNNING HEAD: HOWARD GARDNER’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES 5 rhythm, pitch, and melody. The fourth intelligence is visual/spatial-the ability to imagine spaces, form, color, line, and shape. The fifth intelligence is bodily-the ability to think with the body. The sixth intelligence is interpersonal-the ability to understand other people; the ability to understand another person’s motivations and intentions and respond effectively. The seventh intelligence is intrapersonal-the ability to understand yourself such as making decisions that involve where to live, whom to live with, what work to pursue, what to do if we have to change arrears, spouses, countries, etc. The eighth intelligence is naturalistic-the ability to make fine discriminations in the world of nature and to recognize and classify plants, minerals and animals in nature. Gardner also considered the possibility of adding existential intelligence to his list, which involves the human inclination to ask fundamental questions such as “Who are we?”, “Where do we come from?”, and “Why do we die?” (Scherer, 1999).
Gardner himself believed evolution was the only scientific answer to these questions but he admitted that there are faith-based answers as well. Pros and cons of MI theory. There have been many researchers, scholars, and teachers who
Embraced Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences and its contributions to education.
However, there have also been several critiques of the theory over the years. One such critique comes from John White. While White acknowledges that MI theory has had a huge influence on educational reform, he feels that it has been built on flaky theory (White, 2008). White feels that
Gardner has failed to make the case that his attempt to categorize intellectual abilities has any scientific basis. White does not feel that there is enough empirical evidence to support
Gardner’s theory. On the other hand, Ninah Beliavsky believes that Gardner’s theory of multiple
Intelligences “can help students reach their potentials by developing their particular spectrum of
Intelligence through a multifaceted approach to understanding” (Beliavsky, 2006, p. 9). She
Goes on to state that she believes that Gardner’s MI theory can be used as a tool for bringing
RUNNING HEAD: HOWARD GARDNER’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES 6 to life Vygotsky’s concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (Beliavsky, 2006). She believes that by combining these two philosophies, educators can develop a universal approach to maximizing children’s abilities as their individual intelligences are nurtured. With this kind of learning and teaching being implemented, Beliavsky (2006) believed that the student will be lead to a higher level of cognitive development and place him or her on a new level of intellecutal possibilities. Influence and implications for education. Gardner talks about “points of entry” for topics
Which basically refers to the different ways in which teachers can approach subject matter.
If the teacher uses several entry points, such as linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic, or interpersonal, the teacher can reach more students and model how someone can represent a topic in several different ways. Multiple intelligences offers the opportunity to draw comparisons or analogies from may different viewpoints and captures the idea of a topic in many different ways (Scherer,
1999). Educators have long discussed the benefits of interdisciplinary teaching and of using
“learning styles”. However, too many times in the past schools focused on one aspect of cognition and reduced individuals to a mere IQ score. Students were given assessments that only measured certain aspects of their intelligence and too often students were mis-labeled as mentally retarded or learning disabled because of the narrow criteria used to asses their intelligence. Howard Gardner’s theory helped bring light to this issue and now all types of
“intelligences” are included on these types of assessments in order to gain a better, truer picture of the child’s abilities.
Conclusion
If you understand something well, you can think about it in more than way. If you agree with Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, then you embrace the concept that all humans have strengths and weaknesses which can be categorized into these eight domains. There are
RUNNING HEAD: HOWARD GARDNER’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES 7 many skilled teachers who know how to teach from different perspectives and motivate students without having any formal training in such theories. Many teachers take advantage of their student’s multiple intelligences without conscienciously doing so. Gardner’s theory does have its merits and helps explain why some people are better at some things than others but it also has its faults. We live in a rapidly changing society and the types of information and the types of assessments students are exposed to are too often too narrow and do not accurately assess what a child knows or doesn’t know. But if we can teach children how to assess their own knowledge, how to find out things for themselves, and how to evaluate conflicting sources of information that they may find, then it will help to further the educational process and the growth of human potential. All students are capable of thinking and learning and it is the job of families and edu- cators alike to ensure that they are given the opportunity to articulate and reflect on their learning. How we think and learn is just as important as what we learn.

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References

Astington, J. (1998). Theory of Mind Goes to School. Educational Leadership, 46-48.
Beliavsky, N. (2006). Revisiting Vygotsky and Gardner: Realizing Human Potential. Journal of Aesthestic Education, 1-11.
Gardner, H. (1991). The Tensions Between Education and Development. Journal of Moral Education, 113-125.
Scherer, M. (1999). The Understanding Pathway: A Conversation with Howard Gardner. Educational Leadership , 12-16.
White, J. (2008). Illusory Intelligences? Journal of Philosophy of Education, 611-630.