Howard Gardner, born on July 11th, 1943, is one of modern day's biggest psychologists. (Smith) He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania to parents who escaped from Germany because they were Jewish. (Success) The holocaust was an influential factor in his life. (Gardner) Another great effect in his life is the death of his brother Eric, although his parents seldom talked about the matter, it significantly impacted his thinking and development. (Smith) Quite simply, his family and peer greatly formed who he became today. (Myers 118) He was an excellent youngster, who ended up going to Harvard University or college with a qualification in Regulation but his interest in psychology and the social sciences grew. (Gardner) Eventually he developed his theory of Multiple Intelligence in 1983 in his publication Frames of Mind: theory of multiple intelligences. (Gardner) Throughout that time period psychology was ever more popular. For instance, a prominent field during the 80's and 90's is ethnic mindset which assumes the theory that culture and brain are inseparable. ("Cultural Psychology") Also that time period covered a whole lot of economic, interpersonal and standard change making his new idea more satisfactory. More importantly the fact that he is American means that he grew up in a free thinking contemporary society so he can take from what he discovered and transforms it into what he is convinced is true then pass on his viewpoints.
Three other psychologists who inspired him greatly are Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner and Nelson Goodman. (Gardner 3 of 7) Jean Piaget who deals with the type of knowledge and exactly how humans can little by little to acquire it, create it, and use it. Also, Jerome Bruner contributed to cognitive psychology and cognitive learning theory in educational mindset. Goodman dealt with inductive reasoning based on human behavior. (Gardner 3 of 7) The three of them will go along with Gardner's argument of how children learn knowledge. Also their works induced Gardner to become more enthusiastic about social science.
Waldorf education developed in the early 1900s by Rudolf Steiner was a lot like Gardner's ideas. (Why Waldorf Works) It was about integrating functional, artistic and conceptual elements into learning. This education emphasizes imagination and creativeness so that students can develop into free, morally responsible and designed individuals. The first Waldorf University was opened in Germany in 1919 and today there are many schools beginning to use ways of Waldorf education. (Why Waldorf Works) Finally an idea credited to be developed by Jerome Bruner in the 1960's is finding learning which marketed hands on leaning where learners bring from his / her own experience and previous knowledge. ("Discovery Learning (Bruner)") So there were many factors that inspired his thinking and this pushed him to build up his theory.
His theory handles how humans have many various ways to learn and process information. ("Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences theory") He is convinced that everyone has different degrees of intellect in each category which explains why some children learn some things faster than others. Gardner thinks that intelligence is often identified by psychometrics but it generally does not adequately express people's wide range of cognitive capabilities. IQ tests can often be taken too really but it cannot determine future success (Gardner 3). Even school aptitude exams are "thinly disguised brains testing. " (Myer 432) For instance a kid that takes longer to learn multiplication will not mean the kid is dumb but that the child is more clever in other areas. In the facet of education, Gardner wants to prioritize because he feels the knowledge we learn is superficial, "a mile wide an in. deep". (Guignon) He recognizes that "Students learn with techniques that are identifiably distinctive" so he encourages more student focused instead of teacher focused learning which is a very useful idea.
According to Garner, there are 8 possibly 10 intelligences; spatial, linguistic, reasonable, bodily, musical, social, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. Spatial is the capability to visualize with the mind's eye. (Chapman) Linguistic intellect handles words, spoken or written. These folks learn best by reading, taking records, hearing lectures, and conversation. (Chapman) Logical-mathematical is approximately reasoning, abstractions, reasoning, and volumes, reasoning capabilities methodical thinking and exploration traditional ideas of "intelligence" or IQ. (Chapman) Bodily-kinesthetic is the control of one's bodily movements and the capacity to handle objects skillfully. Musical cleverness deals with noises, rhythms, shades, and music sing, play musical instruments. (Lane) Interpersonal cleverness is about conversation with others. They can be mostly extroverts, seen as a their sensitivity to others' moods, emotions, temperaments and motivations and cooperate well with others. (Lane) Intrapersonal is the introspective and self-reflective capacities. Those individuals are introverted but good at deciphering their own thoughts and motivations. (Lane) Last but not least is naturalistic who offers a whole lot with characteristics relating information to one's natural surroundings. The ninth intelligence is not totally validated yet but it is existential which is approximately contemplating phenomena or questions beyond sensory data. And lastly, the tenth is moral intelligences coping with ethics and the worthiness of life. (Chapman)
His theory greatly evolved the minds of many and started the development of more encompassing colleges. Traditionally, classes have highlighted the development of rational and linguistic brains but many students do not learn well in that environment. (Lane) Gardner's theory argues that students will be better offered with a wider eye-sight of education, wherein teachers use different methods to coach all students not only the few that are brilliant logically or linguistically. (Guignon) Although, many instructors see the theory as simple common sense plus some even say they know that university student learn in various ways, Gardner's system is not accepted by most academics teachings. (Guignon) Some schools however, are suffering from to better fit Gardner's ideas. For example, one of the very most famous classes that put into action Gardner's theory is the brand new City Institution in St. Louis, Missouri. This school has been using the idea since 1988 ("Why New City School")
There has been much criticism for his theory though. Some say he uses the word intelligence instead of capacity. (Gilman) Others say that he has not settled about the same definition of brains though he admits himself that he has no fixed explanation. (Gilman) Lastly & most importantly, he does not have any empirical evidence because of this theory. (Smith) Actually, some neurological research disproves his theory and his prior works has major imperfections. (Smith)
Recently, the existing No Child LEFT OUT act handed by the Bush supervision will not encompass his theory at all because the Take action is about having students all complete standardized lab tests while he needs to eliminate those tests to be able to reach out to every child's needs. ("No Child LEFT OUT Act (NCLB) | ESEA") His theory affects us a lot today since it pertains to education; Gardner goes into how colleges only coach superficial knowledge indicating schools coach a lot of everything however, not in depth into anything so some kids may excel in one area but not the other. (Gardner)There exists too much shallow knowledge so he shows that children should learn and actually understand concepts not merely learn for taking a test. (Smith) If he obtains more support for his theory, the complete education system should be altered. But his notion of an education system should work very well because this will help make the training system more fair and encompassing for any kids. Right now, some children which may seem like they may be failing college but their inability is not because they're dumb but because just how subjects are trained in school is not how they might understand and utilize. (Gardner)
Even though Gardner's theory is attractive, it will most likely not work because there is no common support especially from authorities. (No Child LEFT OUT Act (NCLB) | ESEA) Also, individual teachers especially in lower marks have unconsciously modified parts of his theories but because in higher grades there is more lecture style teaching, his theory rarely applied to higher education. (Guignon) Furthermore there exists very much controversy over this theory because it keeps on changing and there is no proof which makes it hard to totally imagine this theory. (Smith) Additionally, since Gardner continues to be alive, he can keep on changing his theory and getting ultimately more research and support. (Gardner) Lastly, some schools have previously designed his theory including the New city university. This school posted many books about utilizing this theory in more classrooms like the school's instructors have produced two catalogs for professors, Celebrating Multiple Intelligences and Being successful With Multiple Intelligences and the principal, Thomas Hoerr, has written Learning to be a Multiple Intelligences Institution in addition to numerous articles on the practical applications of the theory. ("Multiple Intelligences Resources)The institution has also hosted four conferences, each attracting over educators from surrounding the world. ("Why New City School")The school remains a very important resource for professors interested in performing the theory in their own classrooms.
It is clear that Howard Gardner has already established an important impact on today's psychology world and education. His persistence to "challenge an educational system that assumes that everyone can learn the same materials just as" has definitely made a direct effect on earth as many schools have recognized different ways children learn. (Street) Should his theory become more prevalent, who is aware of what out education system will be like in the future.
