Harvard Gazette Interviews Howard Gardner About His Life and Work

In the summer of 2017, Howard Gardner had a series of conversations with reporters from the Harvard Gazette, Harvard University’s official news website. The topics of these discussions ranged from Gardner’s early life and family to his lifelong scholarly work.

In May 2018, the Gazette released an in-depth profile of Gardner based on these conversations. We are pleased to share this interview with you, accessible by clicking here. In this piece, Gardner talks about the influences, challenges, surprises, and regrets that have influenced his personal life and career trajectory as a scholar and researcher.

(Photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer)

 

MI After 35 Years

On Saturday, March 24, 2018 Dr. Gardner and three of his colleagues, Dr. Branton Shearer, Dr. Thomas Armstrong, and Dr. Tom Hoerr presented at the ASCD Annual Conference in Boston, MA. Below is an excerpt from the ASCD newsletter, Volume 27, Number 6, written by Dr. Hoerr, that provides a portrait of the event.

Last month featured a really interesting presentation at the ASCD Annual Conference, "MI After 35 Years." Yes, it's been 35 years since Howard Gardner's book, Frames Of Mind, changed how we view intelligence. Recognizing that intelligence is problem-solving, Garner identified the many different ways - the multiple intelligences - that people use to solve problems. Real-world problems, Gardner knew, are not limited to multiple-choice questions. Philosophically, understanding MI means that intelligence is not uni-dimensional and that each person possesses an array of intelligences. Pragmatically, understanding MI, we don't ask "Who's the smartest student in the class?" Rather, we ask, "How is each of these students smart?"

Branton Shearer, Thomas Armstrong, and I each spoke about MI from our perspectives, and then we were joined by Howard Gardner, who fielded questions from the audience and facilitated a discussion. I am biased, I know, but it was a great affirmation of the power of MI.

Branton Shearer, creator of the MIDAS, an MI assessment tool, shared his experiences from administering the survey and seeing its utility as a tool to aid in learning. Thomas Armstrong, author of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, talked about how MI is research-based yet many psychometricians find it difficult to grasp. For sure, change is hard! I spoke from the perspective of leading an MI school for 30 years. I saw the power of MI each day, I said, in students' learning and teachers' teaching.

When Howard Gardner spoke, he noted that MI encompasses both individualization and pluralization. In using MI, we can individualize how we teach; we are able to teach to students in the ways that they learn. And MI pluralizes because it offers a variety of ways for students to learn and to show what they know. In using MI, we learn more about our students and we are better able to serve them.

This enthusiasm about MI - both from the four of us who presented as well as the 130+ in the audience - was evident. This causes one to wonder, "What happened to MI? and "Why aren't there more MI schools?" (I used to hear that a lot when I lead New City School.) Branton Shearer offers a very good explanation of this in the following article!

Thomas R. Hoerr, PhD
thomasrhoerr.com
Scholar In Residence at UM-St. Louis
Emeritus Head of the New City School
Facilitator of the ASCD MI Professional Interest Community

To view the entire newsletter, click here: http://custapp.marketvolt.com/cv.aspx?cm=1148481588&x=46336138&cust=24175573

Podcast: Discussing MI Theory with Alanis Morissette

In November 2017, Howard Gardner joined Alanis Morissette on her podcast, "Conversation with Alanis Morissette," to discuss MI Theory. In addition to being a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actress, Morissette is fan of MI and an advocate for integrative learning.

To listen to their discussion, click the following link: https://alanis.com/news/podcast-episode-11-conversation-with-howard-gardner?rq=mul

To read more about Morissette's take on MI Theory, check out her blog posts on MI Theory and Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons:

https://alanis.com/news/multiple-intelligences-by-howard-gardner?rq=multiple%20intelligences

https://alanis.com/news/9-types-of-smart-nurturing-our-multiple-intelligences?rq=

 

Study Finds Game-Based Learning Can Increase Intelligences in Students

In January 2018, M. Esther del Moral Pérez, Alba P. Guzmán Duque, and L. Carlota Fernández García published an article titled, “Game-Based Learning Increasing the Logical-Mathematical, Naturalistic, and Linguistic Learning Levels of Primary School Students” in the Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research. 

Notes by Howard Gardner

In the educational literature, there is continuing discussion of whether games can contribute to learning and, if so, in what ways.  As the title indicates this study of game-based learning provides suggestive evidence that three discrete intelligences can be enhanced by weekly hour-long sessions.

Abstract:

Game-based learning is an innovative methodology that takes advantage of the educational potential offered by videogames in general and serious games in particular to boost training processes, thus making it easier for users to achieve motivated learning. The present paper focuses on the description of the Game to Learn Project, which has as its aim not only to promote the use of serious games and digital mini-games for the development of Multiple Intelligences, but also to analyse whether this methodology results in increased learning. Teachers assessed the level achieved by primary education students (N=119) in each learning category, before and after participating in the project, by means of a qualitative instrument. Finally, after corresponding analysis through descriptive statistical techniques, bivariate correlations, and ANOVA, the results showed significant differences between children’s learning levels in logical-mathematical, naturalistic and linguistic abilities before and after their participation in this innovative project, thus revealing a widespread increase in every indicator.

To read the full article, click here: Game-Based Learning Increasing the Logical-Mathematical, Naturalistic, and Linguistic Learning Levels of Primary School Students.

Naturalist Intelligence in the Age of the iPhone

In January 2018, Laura Jeliazkov published an article titled "An iPhone in Hand...Worth Two in the Bush?" in The Darthmouth newspaper. In the article, Jeliazkov considers the modern attachment--or perhaps addiction--to our mobile devices and the seemingly endless digital media they offer. As a way of understanding our cognitive relationship to our devices, Jeliazkov cites Naturalist Intelligence.

Notes by Howard Gardner

Since the original publication of Frames of Mind, I have added only one intelligence to the original seven—that of the naturalist. (Though, I have speculated about other possible intelligences.) As described in recent publications, the naturalist intelligence initially evolved so that we humans could make consequential distinctions in our natural environment—what to eat, what to spurn, what to hunt, what to avoid, how the weather might change in the next day or the next month.

In the modern era, however, most of us do not have to use the naturalist intelligence to survive in our built-up urban environments. But I’ve argued that the mind and brain capacities that evolved initially for life in the tundra are now readily called upon as we decide what to buy at the supermarket, what clothing to wear, how to decorate our homes, etc.

And now, there is a new powerful force in the environment: our smart devices, with their numerous (soon, innumerable) apps. In dealing with these devices, we not only make available all items for which one could conceivably shop. But also, as is pointed out in the accompanying article by Laura Jeliazkov, we have the opportunity to present and re-present ourselves as often as we want—as well as the chance to get the reactions of others—in words, in still pictures, or in live video. That’s a lot for the naturalist intelligence to do—as Jeliazkov suggests, perhaps too much! While I don’t remember it, she quotes me as saying, “If we went back into the woods to be with our naturalist intelligences, people would have time to think again. But today this may not be possible.”

To read the full article, click here: http://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2018/01/an-iphone-in-hand-worth-two-in-the-bush