About this Guide

This guide is intended to assist in the use of the DVD Multiple Intelligences for instructional purposes.

The following pages provide an organizational schema for the DVD along with general notes for each section, key quotes from the DVD, as well as suggested discussion questions relevant to the section.

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2 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

Summary:

Howard Gardner introduces his theory of Multiple Intelligences; explores the theory’s claims, implications, and common myths; and examines the question of assessment as well as how our thinking about intelligences may evolve.

Structure: Part 1. Intelligence & Intelligences Part 2. MI: The Analogy of 8 Computers Part 3. Claims & Implications Part 4. Myths & Reality Part 5. Assessment Part 6. Intelligences in the Future

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 3 Part 1. Intelligence & Intelligences

Binet’s test reflected and bolstered the traditional Traditional “Western” View Western view of a single intelligence—often referred to as “g,” or “general intelligence”—a quantity that • Single intelligence (“g”) is highly heritable, relatively unchangeable, and • Highly heritable measurable by psychometricians (whether through • Not much you can do about your “g” paper and pencil, electrophysiological measures, • Psychometricians can tell you how or [perhaps in the future] genetic markers). This, smart you are (paper and pencil tests, of course, is not the only way to conceptualize brain waves or activity, perhaps gene complexes some day) intelligence: Gardner notes that in East Asian Confucian societies, the general sentiment is that • Compare to Asian valuing of effort hard work—not native “intelligence”—is the most effective determinant of how “smart” one is. Gardner Howard Gardner opens his presentation by suggests that both genetics and hard work are describing the way most Westerners think about contributors, but holds that overall, the East Asian intelligence. He likens the idea to measuring weight view may be healthier, as it allows us to be agents in or height—a discrete and somewhat indisputable our own intellect. number. But this notion of objective measurement, he continues, is relatively new, dating back to Parisian psychologist Alfred Binet who, at the turn of the Definition: twentieth century, was asked by the Parisian ministry of education to help predict how children would An intelligence is the do in school. Binet asked many questions of many biopsychological potential to process children, then discarded the questions that everyone information in certain ways, in order got right or everyone got wrong. The questions that to solve problems or fashion products remained separated those who did well in school that are valued in a culture or from those who had problems. Still, the most effective community. Think of several prediction of future school performance by far is relatively independent computers, not school performance in the past. a single all-purpose one.

A New Interdisciplinary View Gardner moves on to honing and improving his • Based on evolutionary evidence, argument, as theory of multiple intelligences, describing it as an well as information about brain organization interdisciplinary view that draws together psychology, • Examination of unusual populations (e.g. prodigies, autistic individual) with jagged evolution, anthropology and what we know about cognitive profiles • Recognition of different roles and “end-states” the brain. He recalls that even in the early days of his across cultures, historically and contemporaneously theorizing, when knowledge of the brain was a small • Deliberately inter-disciplinary (biology, fraction of what we know today, he was convinced of anthropology etc), beyond psychometric testing and beyond sensory modalities the independence of various types of intelligences • Set of 8 specific criteria for what is/is not an by the ways they were localized in the nervous intelligence system: the location of an injury could predict which

4 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series cognitive systems would be undermined or spared. In addition to examining the brain and looking at Intelligence vs Intelligences spectrums of intelligence, Gardner studied various cultures at a range of historical periods to determine what abilities they valued and required for survival. This more universal view—achieved by Gardner’s use of different disciplinary perspectives—made his theory distinctive, as did Gardner’s insistence on a high bar for what could count as “intelligence.”

In light of this research. Gardner redefines intelligence as a potential that is both biological and psychological—one that helps us solve problems and create things that are valued in at least one culture. To distinguish between ideas of intelligence, Gardner offers the metaphor of mind as computer system: Those who believe in intelligence as singular see the brain as a single computer; those who believe in multiple intelligences see several different computers in different parts of the brain, and no single computer’s level of function predicts the functioning of others.

Points for discussion related to this section:

Discuss the common idea that intelligence is heritable, quantifiable, and reducible to a single measure. Why might we be motivated to embrace this idea? How might it be self-perpetuating?

Consider, in contrast to the notion of IQ, that we possess many types of intelligence. Why might this be a harder notion for a culture—and for educators and psychologists—to embrace? In what ways might it be threatening? In what ways might it be attractive?

As a researcher looking at many civilizations across many eras, Gardner came up with a complex set of criteria for defining any type of intelligence. What criteria might you pose as requirements for a certain set of skills and proclivities to be considered an intelligence? What do you imagine would be common criteria in our culture?

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 5 Part 2. MI: The Analogy of 8 Computers

Gardner first introduces us to his “current array” of eight types of intelligence and notes the types of Candidate New Intelligences experts who exemplify it:

Linguistic: writers, authors, and poets • Existential Intelligence– the Intelligence of Big Questions Logical/mathematical: mathematicians, scientists, logicians • Pedagogical Intelligence– the Intelligence of Teaching Musical: composers, conductors, performers, acute listeners Gardner notes that here in the West, we privilege Spatial: astronauts, aviators, sailors, chess players certain types of intelligence: When we say that someone is “smart,” we typically mean that their Bodily-kinesthetic: dancers, athletes, linguistic and mathematical/logical intelligences are craftspeople, surgeons very strong.

Gardner adds to this list of intelligences the Interpersonal: teachers, therapists, salespeople, possibility for others, and offers two, in particular, to politicians which he is giving further thought:

Intrapersonal: those with a capacity to Existential: This is the intelligence of big understand themselves, what they are trying to do questions—what is life? What is love? Why do and how best to accomplish it we die? It is important in areas including art and religion. Naturalist: Those who are skilled at making consequential distinctions in the world of nature Pedagogical: This is the intelligence of (or, more recently, in the world of consumer brands) teaching. Gardner notes that as young as three and four, children are natural teachers, changing their style of explaining an apparatus (speed of their speech, number of examples they give, etc.) based on the age of the person they are instructing.

6 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series Points for discussion related to this section:

Looking at Gardner’s array of intelligences, do any surprise you? Which ones and why?

Gardner notes that our typical ideas of “smart” indicate skill in language, logic, or both. What does this privileging of certain types of intelligences indicate about our larger ideas of intelligence and worth? How might this be influenced by Western values?

Discuss the possibility of “existential” intelligence and “pedagogical” intelligence. Do you agree that these are ways of thinking that are both sufficiently common and sufficiently significant to quality as “new” types of intelligence? How do you see each of them coming into play in daily life?

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 7 Part 3. Claims & Implications

methods are matched to intellectual profiles—an Two Scientific Claims approach that is increasingly possible for a wider group of people via technology—and people can be assessed in ways they are comfortable in being 1) We all have these intelligences– they assessed. With pluralization, important lessons are make us human, cognitively speaking taught in multiple ways in order to accommodate 2) No two people– not even identical twins people’s various natural learning styles; in the pro- (or clones)– have exactly the same profile of intelligences cess, this technique demonstrates the type of inter- disciplinary understanding that can be one aim of education. Gardner opens this section by laying out the two scientific claims of his theory of multiple intelligenc- es: First, everyone has all of these intelligences—as a species, that array defines us as human—but no one Important Point #1: has the same configuration of strengths and weak- nesses as anyone else. Even identical twins differ in their intelligences, as they had different environments Multiple Intelligences is not an educational in utero, live different lives, and have been shown end: it is most useful as an educational neurologically to solve problems in different ways. means to a publicly stated goal.

Two Educational Claims Gardner emphasizes that the use of multiple intelli- gences is not an educational end. Rather, it is an ed- 1) We should individualize teaching, learning, and assessing as much as ucational means to a publicly stated goal—whether possible that goal is disciplinary understanding, a democratic society, community service, creative thinking, arts edu- 2) Whenever possible, we should pluralize – cation, or something else. Any research claim, Gardner presenting important ideas in several continues, can lead to very different implications; his ways theory says only that there are many different ways of being smart.

The implications of this are profound. Throughout hu- man history, educators have taught people (excluding the very rich, who have traditionally been tutored) in largely similar ways, trusting that their mental Important Point #2: representations and comprehension would (or You cannot legitimately go from scientific finding could) be the same. M.I. theory suggests that, because to an educational recommendation - any people have different types of minds, such a teaching scientific claim (including MI theory) yields a large number of implications, even ones that may approach may be ineffective. Rather, a more useful appear inconsistent with one another. technique might include individualization and pluralization. With individualization, teaching

8 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series Points for discussion related to this section:

Discuss how individuation might change the way schools operate today. How would the contemporary classroom change in an educational system that individualizes learning? Who might such a system most benefit? Who might be left behind?

Discuss the difference between individualization and pluralization. How might each be applied to modern education?

Discuss how the use of pluralization might change typical ways of teaching—for instance, the teaching of World War II or the American Civil Rights Movement. How might this both complicate and enhance or expand the experience of learning? Imagine you are teaching one of these historical periods, and come up with one way of targeting each of Gardner’s core types of intelligence in your chosen period—linguistic; logical/ mathematical; music; spatial; bodily/kinesthetic; interpersonal; intrapersonal; naturalistic.

Discuss Gardner’s contention that M.I. theory is a theory of how the mind works, and not a theory of what should be taught. How might theories of mind potentially affect teaching, yet not be the aim of it? What, in other words, is the difference between an educational means and an educational end?

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 9 Part 4. Myths & Realities

Myth #2 Myth #1

An intelligence is the same as a An intelligence is the same as a "learning style" or a "working style". sensory system.

Reality #1 Reality #2

Intelligences do not depend on a An intelligence refers to a mental single sensory system. Rather, they computer that works more or less refer to processes that can take place, well. A style implies an approach that no matter what sensory system inputs applies equally to all contents. So- the data. For example, linguistic called styles may or may not obtain intelligence can operate on auditory, across multiple intelligences or visual, tactile information, etc. domains; this matter needs to be established by empirical study.

Gardner begins this section by debunking a common Gardner next takes on what he describes as the most myth about multiple intelligences, emphasizing that common myth about multiple intelligences—that they are not yoked to sensory systems. In other words, an intelligence is the same as a “learning style” or intelligences work on information no matter how that “working style.” He emphasizes that in talking about information reaches the brain. The brain might receive an intelligence, he is talking about the functioning information that has been taken in kinesthetically of a “computer” in the mind/brain: If that works well, or aurally—but its various intelligences can use that the intelligence is strong; if it’s clunky, the intelligence information in various ways. The “language machine,” is less agile (but can grow more skilled through for example, can operate on information taken in discipline). To talk of a “style,” in contrast, suggests through many different modalities. that one approaches all things in the same way—for instance, with a playful style or an obsessive style.

10 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series Myth #3 Myth #4

Intelligences are God-given There is an official, approved "MI" talents that can’t be changed. approach to education and to schools.

Reality #3 Reality #4

MI theory is certainly relevant to Intelligences certainly have a heritable education, and it calls for attention to component. But they are quite flexible individual intellectual profiles. and their development is strongly dependent on adequate resources, However, a whole variety of including effective modeling and educational approaches can follow teaching, and a belief that one can from MI theory and there are no become more intelligent. official "MI" or "Gardner" schools.

Gardner then debunks the myth of the existence of Finally, Gardner dismantles the myth that intelligences an official “M.I. seal” for education and schools. Many are innate and unchangeable qualities. Although approaches grow out of multiple-intelligences theory, intelligences do have a heritable component, they and Gardner refuses to give out “badges” or “demerits.” are flexible, and their development depends on adequate resources (including teaching, modeling, and motivation). In this emphasis on potential, the theory of multiple intelligences may be a more hopeful approach than the IQ test.

Points for discussion related to this section:

Gardner emphasizes that intelligences are not tied to any particular sensory systems—that is, even a blind person can have strong spatial intelligence, even a deaf person can master spoken language. What can you imagine might be an example of such crossover, in which the match-up of experience and type of intelligence is non-intuitive or unexpected?

Consider the notion that one might have a very strong intelligence of a certain type that is rarely stimulated by his or her environment. How might education be designed in a way to tap into types of intelligence that are otherwise neglected by a child’s micro-environment?

Gardner notes that there is no single educational approach created or endorsed by his M.I. movement. If you were to design an approach based on these ideas, what might it look like? What might be the importance of there not being a prescribed approach to capitalize on multiple intelligences?

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 11 Part 5. Assessment

intelligences, but interpersonal intelligence). Halfway through the year, teachers asked students to recreate the classroom in miniature (demonstrating spatial intelligence) and also describe the room’s social dynamics (demonstrating interpersonal intelligence). The children’s response to the environment showed that even as early as ages four and five, children have different configurations of intellect—and educators face the question of how to approach those differences.

In this section, Gardner delvers into the question of how to assess multiple intelligences.

His first example is the preschools of Reggio Emilia in Northern Italy, which rest on the idea of “the one hundred languages of children.” These schools are richly endowed and choreographed, with materials that appeal to children’s various senses and intelligences, from artistic materials to science supplies and animals, calling on children’s openness to and enthusiasm for a wide range of demonstrations. The teaching at these schools is likewise unique: Gardner notes that teachers Finally, Gardner relates the story of his trip to talk each day about what happened with various DanfossUniverse in Southwestern Denmark—in materials, and that their conversations determine particular the Explorama, where the creators had what happens the following day. To nurture children’s implemented many of Gardner’s ideas. There, intelligences early, says Gardner, educators must be Gardner found between forty and fifty different reflective about what they see and how they will games and exercises suited for everyone from respond. children to middle-aged business groups. There were experiments with weights and blocks, a physical Gardner next describes what he sees as his most challenge in which one tried to move through space serious foray into assessment: Project Spectrum. without triggering unpleasant sounds, a sound This experiment, conducted with colleagues late in spectrograph that showed one’s success at recreating the twentieth century, aimed to create a children’s another language, and a range of other activities. environment that was rich and experiential in the Gardner’s contribution during his trip was a test of ways of a good children’s museum. There were intrapersonal intelligence (a dimension that had toys the children could take apart and put back stumped the DanfossUniverse creators)—a hand-held together; tools to make music and make up stories; device on which visitors can predict how they will do a naturalist’s corner; and board games (effective in the various activities. at tapping not only mathematical and logical

12 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series Points for discussion related to this section:

How do you think that the Reggio Emilia preschools compare to American preschools? If you are unfamiliar with American preschools, how do the Reggio Emilia preschools compare to American education more generally? Discuss the similarities and differences.

Discuss the emphasis on reflection at the Reggio Emilia preschools. How might this enhance both the students’ experience and the effectiveness of the educators’ processes? Are there ways that American schools might incorporate such an approach without greatly increased resources?

Imagine you are a teacher at a school along the lines of those in Reggio Emilia. What type of intelligence or activities do you think it would be most difficult to find equipment or ideas for? Would you allocate equal time and materials to each intelligence?

Consider Gardner’s exploration of the Explorama in Denmark. Describe one display or activity you might organize for each type of intelligence—linguistic, logical/mathematical, music, spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic.

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 13 Part 6. Intelligences in the Future

on a single topic or field for long periods of time (here, he uses the example of Mozart). IQ tests are Intelligence Issues likely to be more effective at identifying “searchlight” intellects—particularly if the tests do not tap into the • Breadth of the concept (emotional, area on which “laser” intellects are focused. moral, creative?) • “pure” vs. “contextual” assessment On the spectrum of “pure” vs. “contextual” assessment, • Intelligences in the digital era Gardner falls squarely on the side of context. He • The “graying” of intelligence challenges the common belief that if we ask the • Intelligences for what?? right set of questions (as in a short-answer exam), we will get an accurate and meaningful measure of intelligence; he advocates instead for the creation In looking towards the future of education and of rich environments in which we can watch people of multiple intelligences, Gardner asks several navigate opportunities for engagement … and see core questions: How broad should the concept of both what they do and what they improve at— intelligence be? Where should assessment lie on the giving what he calls a “rough and ready” measure of spectrum of “pure” vs. “contextual”? What may happen intelligence. to intelligences in the digital area? How might we cope with the “graying of intelligences”? And how can we use our knowledge of multiple intelligences Students interacting with SMALLab in education and culture?

Examining first the question—how to conceptualize intelligence—Gardner takes note of the broadening of our ideas of intelligence, principally in Daniel Goleman’s work on “emotional intelligence” and Robert Coles’s work on “moral intelligence. He also considers the proliferation of writing on concepts such as financial intelligence. Although Gardner appreciates the broadening of notions of intelligence beyond the scholastic definition, he cautions that thoughtful and rigorous criteria are essential. He also warns against “conflating the strength of the Reflecting on the future of education, Gardner adds ‘computer’ [the type of intelligence] with whether to school-centered learning the possibility of “free- we like the way it’s being used”—in other words, form” learning, chiefly with digital media—which, classifying an intelligence as strong only when it does he says, offers opportunities for children to create things we appreciate. their own knowledge, works of art, science projects, and so on. Two examples of this are “SMALLab” at Gardner next distinguishes between “searchlight” Arizona State University and “Scratch” (developed and “laser” minds—in other words, an intelligence by the Media Lab at MIT). Small Lab, which practices that moves around broadly (Gardner offers Bill and the idea of “embodiment,” offers a play space in Hillary Clinton as examples) vs. one that can focus which children can move around and play with real

14 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series or virtual objects, exploring important disciplinary research he will treat in detail later in this series of concepts such as momentum and gravity. Scratch presentations. For now, Gardner offers the synopsis helps children to learn a simple programming that, drawing from their study of workers in various language, tapping into different types of intelligence fields, he and his colleagues defined “good work” as it enables children to create and animate symbols, as work that is technically excellent, engaging, then post and share their creations. and carried out in an ethical way (the three “E”s: excellence, engaging, and ethical). He offers as a metaphor a “triple helix” in which the three “strands” A screenshot of the Scratch application. of good work form a metaphorical chemical he The Jots pane is in the lower left corner playfully calls “ENA.”

Turning from childhood to the “graying of intelligence,” Gardner offers his theory that intelligences “go underground” as we age: As we use them more internally (as mental representations and ways to make sense of things), learning and thinking Continuing this theme of “good work,” Gardner offers grow more idiosyncratic. These days, he says, with so as a cautionary tale the story of a group of respected many information platforms and programs available, intellects in former president John F. Kennedy’s we will likely grow better able to accommodate the administration who moved the nation towards and ever-wider range of thought processes that come into the calamitous Vietnam War—a story related about as people age, helping people to make use of in David Halberstam’s 1972 book The Best and the the types of intelligence that are most helpful to their Brightest. It is not enough to simply have intelligence, thinking and action. Gardner says in recalling this period in history; what is most important is how we use that intelligence, and But all this—for what? Gardner asks why our various making sure we employ it in an ethical way. intelligences matter, asserting that both intelligence and creativity are inherently amoral; both can be Gardner reinforces this idea as he closes with a quote used to do either wonderful or terrible things. Here, from philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Character is he brings up his 2002 book Good Work: When more important than intellect.” Excellence and Ethics Meet—an encapsulation of

Discussion questions continued on next page.

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 15 Points for discussion related to this section:

Gardner points to the ways that both “searchlight” and “laser” intelligences make society strong. How might these types of minds be complementary?

Why might Wolfgang Mozart qualify as a “laser” mind while Bill and Hillary Clinton might be “searchlight” minds, and how has each type of thinking been evident in each person’s work?

Gardner notes that our intelligences become more personalized and more idiosyncratic as we age. What might this mean? Accordingly, what challenges might aging intelligences present in terms of measurement?

Discuss Gardner’s contention that both intelligence and creativity are inherently amoral. Do you agree? What contributes to our more typical valuation of each in our culture?

16 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series In a Nutshell by Howard Gardner

The original scene: Paris, 1900—La Belle Epoque. adults with the same short series of items and the The city fathers approached a talented psychologist same format? Only $16.00 complete. named Alfred Binet with an unusual request. Many Now, that’s quite a claim. The American psychologist families were flocking to the capital city, and a good Arthur Jensen suggests that we could look at many of their children were having trouble with reaction time to assess intelligence: a set of lights go their schoolwork. Could Binet devise some kind of a on; how quickly can the subject react? The British measure that would predict which youngsters would psychologist Hans Eysenck recommends that succeed and which would fail in the primary grades investigators of intelligence look directly at brain of Paris schools? waves. And with the advent of the gene chip, many As almost everybody knows, Binet succeeded. In look forward to the day when we can glance at the short order, his discovery came to be called the proper gene locus on the proper chromosome, read “intelligence test”; his measure, the “IQ.” Like other off someone’s IQ, and confidently predict his or her Parisian fashions, the IQ soon made its way to the live chances. United States, where it enjoyed a modest success There are also, of course, more sophisticated versions until World War I. At that time, it was used to test over of the IQ test. One of them is called the SAT. Its name one million American recruits, and—with America’s originally meant the Scholastic Aptitude Test. With victory in the conflict—Binet’s invention had truly the passage of time, the meaning of the acronym has arrived. From that day on, the IQ test has looked like been changed—it became the Scholastic Assessment psychology’s biggest success—a genuinely useful Test, and, more recently, it has been reduced to the scientific tool. plain old SAT—just the initials. The SAT purports to What is the vision that led to the excitement about be a similar kind of measure, and if you add up a IQ? At least in the West, people had always relied person’s verbal and math scores, as is often done, on intuitive assessments of how smart other people you can rate him or her along a single intellectual were. Now intelligence seemed to be quantifiable. dimension. (As of 2005, a writing component has You could measure someone’s actual or potential been added.) Programs for the gifted, for example, height, and now, it seemed, you could also measure often use that kind of measure; if your IQ is in excess someone’s actual or potential intelligence. We had of 130, you’re admitted to the program—if 129, “Sorry, one dimension of mental ability along which we no cigar!” could array everyone. Along with this one-dimensional view of how to The search for the perfect measure of intelligence assess people’s minds comes a corresponding has proceeded apace. Here, for example, are some view of school, which I will call the “uniform view.” quotations from an ad for one such test: A uniform school features a core curriculum, a set of facts that everybody should know, and very few Need an individual test which quickly provides a electives. The better students, perhaps those with stable and reliable estimate of intelligence in four higher IQs, are allowed to take courses that call upon or five minutes per form? Has three forms? Does critical reading, calculation, and thinking skills. In the not depend on verbal production or subjective “uniform school,” there are regular assessments, using scoring? Can be used with the severely physically paper and pencil instruments, of the IQ or SAT variety. handicapped (even paralyzed) if they can signal These assessments yield reliable rankings of people; yes or no? Handles two-year-olds and superior

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 17 the best and the brightest get into the better colleges, let your thoughts run freely over the capabilities of and perhaps—but only perhaps—they will also get humans—perhaps those that would be picked out by better rankings in life. There is no question but that the proverbial visitor from Mars. In this exercise, you this approach works well for certain people—schools are drawn to the brilliant chess player, the world-class such as Harvard and Stanford are eloquent testimony violinist, and the champion athlete; such outstanding to that. Since this measurement and selection system performers deserve special consideration. Following is clearly meritocratic in certain respects, it has through on this experiment, a quite different view of something to recommend it. intelligence emerges. Are the chess player, violinist, and athlete “intelligent” in these pursuits? If they are, The uniform school sounds fair—after all, everyone then why do our tests of “intelligence” fail to identify is treated in the same away. But some years ago it them? If they are not “intelligent,” what allows them to occurred to me that this supposed rationale was achieve such astounding feats? In general, why does completely unfair. The uniform school picks out and the contemporary construct “intelligence” fail to take is addressed to a certain kind of mind—we might into account large areas of human endeavor? call it provisionally the IQ or SAT mind. I sometimes call it “the mind of the future law professor.” The To approach these questions I introduced the theory more that your mind resembles that of the legendary of multiple intelligences (MI) in the early 1980s. As law professor, Dr. Charles W. Kingsfield, Jr., played the name indicates, I believe that human cognitive on-screen by John Houseman in The Paper Chase, the competence is better described in terms of a set better that you will do in school and the more readily of abilities, talents, or mental skills, which I call you will handle IQ-SAT type measures. But to the “intelligences.” All normal individuals possess each extent that your mind works differently—and not that of these skills to some extent; individuals differ in the many of us are cut out to be law professors—school degree of skill and in the nature of their combination. is certainly not fair to you. I believe this theory of intelligence may be more humane and more veridical than alternative views of There is an alternative vision that I would like to intelligence and that it more adequately reflects the present—one based on a radically different view of data of human “intelligent” behavior. Such a theory the mind, and one that yields a very different view has important educational implications. of school. It is a pluralistic view of mind, recognizing many different and discrete facets of cognition, What Constitutes an Intelligence? acknowledging that people have different cognitive strengths and contrasting cognitive styles. I introduce The question of the optimal definition of intelligence the concept of an “individual-centered school” that looms large in this inquiry. And it is here that takes this multifaceted view of intelligence seriously. the theory of multiple intelligences begins to This model for a school is based in part on findings diverge from traditional points of view. In the from sciences that did not even exist in Binet’s classic psychometric view, intelligence is defined time: cognitive science (the study of the mind) operationally as the ability to answer items on tests and neuroscience (the study of the brain). One of intelligence. The inference from the test scores to such approach I have called “the theory of multiple some underlying ability is supported by statistical intelligences.” Let me tell you something about its techniques. These techniques compare responses sources and claims, and lay the ground work for the of subjects at different ages; the apparent correlation educational discussions in the chapters that follow. of these test scores across ages and across different tests corroborates the notion that the general faculty To introduce this new point of view, let us undertake of intelligence, called g in short, does not change the following “thought experiment.” Suspend the much with age, training, or experience. It is an inborn usual judgment of what constitutes intelligence, and attribute or faculty of the individual.

18 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series Multiple intelligences theory, on the other hand, cross-cultural accounts of cognition; psychometric pluralizes the traditional concept. An intelligence studies, including examinations of correlations is a computational capacity—a capacity to process among tests; and psychological training studies, a certain kind of information—that is founded on particularly measures of transfer and generalization human biology and human psychology. Humans across tasks. Only those candidate intelligences have certain kinds of intelligences, whereas rats, that satisfied all or a healthy majority of the criteria birds, and computers foreground other kinds of were selected as bona fide intelligences. A more computational capacities. An intelligence entails complete discussion of each of these criteria for the ability to solve problems or fashion products that an “intelligence,” and the intelligences that were are of consequence in a particular cultural setting initially identified, is found in Frames of Mind (1983b), or community. The problem-solving skill allows one especially chapter 4. In this foundational book I also to approach a situation in which a goal is to be consider how the theory might be disproven and obtained and to locate the appropriate route to that compare it to competing theories of intelligence. goal. The creation of a cultural product allows one An update of some of these discussions is found in to capture and transmit knowledge or to express Intelligence Reframed (1999a), and in the chapters one’s conclusions, beliefs, or feelings. The problems that follow. to be solved range from creating an end for a story In addition to satisfying the aforementioned criteria, to anticipating a mating move in chess to repairing each intelligence must have an identifiable core a quilt. Products range from scientific theories operation or set of operations. As a neurally based to musical compositions to successful political computational system, each intelligence is activated campaigns. or “triggered” by certain kinds of internally or MI theory is framed in light of the biological origins externally presented information. For example, one of each problem-solving skill. Only those skills that core of musical intelligence is the sensitivity to pitch are universal to the human species are considered relations, whereas one core of linguistic intelligence (again, we differ from rats, birds, or computers). is the sensitivity to phonological features. Even so, the biological proclivity to participate in An intelligence must also be susceptible to a particular form of problem solving must also be encoding in a symbol system—a culturally coupled with the cultural nurturing of that domain. contrived system of meaning, which captures and For example, language, a universal skill, may manifest conveys important forms of information. Language, itself particularly as writing in one culture, as oratory picturing, and mathematics are but three nearly in another culture, and as the secret language worldwide symbol systems that are necessary for composed of anagrams in a third. human survival and productivity. The relationship Given the desire of selecting intelligences that are of a candidate intelligence to a human symbol rooted in biology, and that are valued in one or more system is no accident. In fact, the existence of a core cultural settings, how does one actually identify an computational capacity anticipates the actual or “intelligence”? In coming up with the list, I reviewed potential creation of a symbol system that exploits evidence from several different sources: knowledge that capacity. While it may be possible for an about normal development and development in intelligence to develop without an accompanying gifted individuals; information about the breakdown symbol system, a primary characteristic of human of cognitive skills under conditions of brain damage; intelligence may well be its gravitation toward such studies of exceptional populations, including an embodiment. prodigies, idiots savants, and autistic children; data about the evolution of cognition over the millennia;

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 19 The Original Set of Intelligences roles in perception and production of music. These areas are characteristically located in the right Having sketched the characteristics and criteria of hemisphere, although musical skill is not as clearly an intelligence, I turn now to a brief consideration “localized,” or located in a specifiable area, as natural of each of the intelligences that were proposed in language. Although the particular susceptibility of the early 1980s. I begin each sketch with a thumbnail musical ability to brain damage depends on the biography of a person who demonstrates an unusual degree of training and other individual differences, facility with that intelligence. (These biographies were there is clear evidence for “amusia,” or loss of musical developed chiefly by my long-time colleague Joseph ability. Walters.) The biographies illustrate some of the abilities that are central to the fluent operation of a Music apparently played an important unifying given intelligence. Although each biography illustrates role in Stone Age (Paleolithic) societies. Birdsong a particular intelligence, I do not wish to imply that in provides a link to other species. Evidence from adulthood intelligences operate in isolation. Indeed, various cultures supports the notion that music is except for abnormal individuals, intelligences always a universal faculty. Studies of infant development work in concert, and any sophisticated adult role will suggest that there is a “raw” computational ability in involve a melding of several of them. Following each early childhood. Finally, musical notation provides biography I survey the various sources of data that an accessible and versatile symbol system. In short, support each candidate as an “intelligence.” evidence to support the interpretation of musical ability as an “intelligence” comes from many different Musical Intelligence. When he was three years sources. Even though musical skill is not typically old, Yehudi Menuhin was smuggled into the San considered an intellectual skill like mathematics, it Francisco Orchestra concerts by his parents. The qualifies under our criteria. By definition it deserves sound of Louis Persinger’s violin so entranced the consideration; and in view of the data, its inclusion is youngster that he insisted on a violin for his birthday empirically justified. and Louis Persinger as his teacher. He got both. By the time he was ten years old, Menuhin was an Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence. Fifteen-year-old Babe international performer (Menuhin, 1977). Ruth was playing catcher one game when his team was taking a “terrific beating.” Ruth “burst out Violinist Yehudi Menuhin’s musical intelligence laughing” and criticized the pitcher loudly. Brother manifested itself even before he had touched Mathias, the coach, called out, “All right, George, a violin or received any musical training. His YOU pitch!” Ruth was stunned and nervous: “I never powerful reaction to that particular sound and his pitched in my life...I can’t pitch.” The moment was rapid progress on the instrument suggest that he transformative, as Ruth recalls in his autobiography: was biologically prepared in some way for that “Yet, as I took the position, I felt a strange relationship endeavor. In this way evidence from child prodigies between myself and that pitcher’s mound. I felt, supports the claim that there is a biological link to somehow, as if I had been born out there and that this a particular intelligence. Other special populations, was a kind of home for me.” As sports history shows, such as autistic children who can play a musical he went on to become a great major league pitcher instrument beautifully but who cannot otherwise (and, of course, attained legendary status as a hitter) communicate, underscore the independence of (Ruth, 1948, p. 17). musical intelligence. Like Menuhin, Babe Ruth was a prodigy who A brief consideration of the evidence suggests that recognized his “instrument” immediately upon his first musical skill passes the other tests for an intelligence. exposure to it. This recognition occurred in advance For example, certain parts of the brain play important of formal training.

20 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series Control of bodily movement is, of course, localized of the ball to anticipate the point where contact in the motor cortex, with each hemisphere dominant will be made by the racket. Simultaneously, muscle or controlling bodily movements on the contra- orders must be given—not just once, but constantly lateral side. In right-handers, the dominance for such refined on updated information. Finally, the muscles movement is ordinarily found in the left hemisphere. have to respond in cooperation with one another... The ability to perform movements when directed Contact is made at a precise point that depends on to do so can be impaired even in individuals who whether the order was given to hit down the line can perform the same movements reflexively or or cross-court, an order not given until after a split- on a non-voluntary basis. The existence of specific second analysis of the movement and balance of apraxia constitutes one line of evidence for a bodily- the opponent....Even if you are returning the serve kinesthetic intelligence. of an average player, you will have only about one second. Just to hit the ball is clearly a remarkable The evolution of specialized body movements is of feat; to return it with consistency and accuracy obvious advantage to the species, and in humans is a mind-boggling achievement. Yet it is not this adaptation is extended through the use of uncommon. The truth is that everyone who inhabits tools. Body movement undergoes a clearly defined a human body possesses a remarkable instrument developmental schedule in children; there is little (Gallwey, 1976, pp. 33-34). question of its universality across cultures. Thus it appears that bodily-kinesthetic “knowledge” satisfies Logical-Mathematical Intelligence. In 1983 Barbara many of the criteria for an intelligence. McClintock won the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for her work in microbiology. Her The consideration of bodily-kinesthetic knowledge intellectual powers of deduction and observation as “problem solving” may be less intuitive. Certainly illustrate one form of logical-mathematical carrying out a mime sequence or hitting a tennis intelligence that is often labeled “scientific thinking.” ball is not solving a mathematical equation. And yet, One incident is particularly illuminating. While the ability to use one’s body to express an emotion a researcher at Cornell in the 1920s, McClintock (as in a dance), to play a game (as in a sport), or to was faced one day with a problem: while theory create a new product (as in devising an invention) is predicted 50 percent pollen sterility in corn, her evidence of the cognitive features of body usage. The research assistant (in the “field”) was finding plants specific computations required to solve a particular that were only 25 to 30 percent sterile. Disturbed by bodily-kinesthetic problem, hitting a tennis ball, are this discrepancy, McClintock left the cornfield and summarized by Tim Gallwey: returned to her office where she sat for half an hour, In order to anticipate how and where to move thinking: the feet and whether to take the racket back on Suddenly I jumped up and ran back to the (corn) the forehand or backhand side, the brain must field. At the top of the field (the others were still calculate within a fraction of a second the moment at the bottom) I shouted, “Eureka, I have it! I know the ball leaves the server’s racket approximately what the 30% sterility is!”... They asked me to prove where it is going to land, and where the racket will it. I sat down with a paper bag and a pencil and I intercept it. Into this calculation must be computed started from scratch, which I had not done at all the initial velocity of the ball, combined with an in my laboratory. It had all been done so fast; the input for the progressive decrease in velocity and answer came and I ran. Now I worked it out step the effect of wind and of spin, to say nothing of the by step—it was an intricate series of steps—and I complicated trajectories involved. Then, each of came out with [the same result]. [They] looked at these factors must be recalculated after the bounce the material and it was exactly as I’d said it was; it

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 21 worked out exactly as I had diagrammed it. Now, other areas. Child prodigies in mathematics abound. why did I know, without having done it on paper? The development of this intelligence in children has Why was I so sure? (Keller, 1983, p. 104). been carefully documented by Jean Piaget and other psychologists. This anecdote illustrates two essential facts of the logical-mathematical intelligence. First, in the gifted Linguistic Intelligence. At the age of ten, T. S. Eliot individual, the process of problem solving is often created a magazine called Fireside to which he was remarkably rapid—the successful scientist copes the sole contributor. In a three-day period during his with many variables at once and creates numerous winter vacation, he created eight complete issues. hypotheses that are each evaluated and then Each one included poems, adventure stories, a gossip accepted or rejected in turn. The anecdote also column, and humor. Some of this material survives, underscores the nonverbal nature of the intelligence. and it displays the talent of the poet (see Soldo, 1982). A solution to a problem can be constructed before As with the logical intelligence, calling linguistic it is articulated. In fact, the solution process may skill an “intelligence” is consistent with the stance of be totally invisible, even to the problem solver. traditional psychology. Linguistic intelligence also This phenomenon need not imply, however, that passes our empirical tests. For instance, a specific discoveries of this sort—the familiar “aha!”—are area of the brain, called Broca’s Area, is responsible mysterious, intuitive, or unpredictable. The fact that it for the production of grammatical sentences. A happens more frequently to some people (e.g. Nobel person with damage to this area can understand Prize winners) suggests the opposite. We interpret this words and sentences quite well but has difficulty as the work of the logical-mathematical intelligence. putting words together in anything other than the Along with the companion skill of language, logical- simplest of sentences. At the same time, other thought mathematical reasoning provides the principal processes may be entirely unaffected. basis for IQ tests. This form of intelligence has been The gift of language is universal, and its rapid and thoroughly investigated by traditional psychologists, unproblematic development in most children is and it is the archetype of “raw intelligence” or the strikingly constant across cultures. Even in deaf problem-solving faculty that purportedly cuts across populations where a manual sign language is not domains. It is perhaps ironic, then, that the actual explicitly taught, children will often “invent” their own mechanism by which one arrives at a solution manual language and use it surreptitiously! We thus to a logical-mathematical problem is not as yet see how an intelligence may operate independently completely understood—and the processes involved of a specific input modality or output channel. in leaps like those described by McClintock remain mysterious. Spatial Intelligence. Navigation around the Caroline Islands in the South Seas is accomplished by native Logical-mathematical intelligence is supported as sailors without instruments. The position of the stars, well by empirical criteria. Certain areas of the brain as viewed from various islands, the weather patterns, are more prominent in mathematical calculation and water color are the principal sign posts. Each than others; indeed recent evidence suggests that the journey is broken into a series of segments; and the linguistic areas in the frontotemporal lobes are more navigator learns the position of the stars within each important for logical deduction, the visuospatial of these segments. During the actual trip the navigator areas in bilateral parietofrontal lobes for numerical must envision mentally a reference island as it passes calculation (Houde & Tzourio-Mazoyer, 2003). There under a particular star. From that he computes the are savants who perform great feats of calculation number of segments completed, the proportion of the even though they remain tragically deficient in most

22 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series trip remaining, and any corrections in heading that At their first meal together, this scene occurred: are required. The navigator cannot see the islands as Annie did not allow Helen to put her hand into he sails along; instead he maps their locations in his Annie’s plate and take what she wanted, as she had mental “picture” of the journey (see Gladwin, 1970). been accustomed to do with her family. It became Spatial problem solving is required for navigation and a test of wills—hand thrust into plate, hand firmly in the use of the notational system of maps. Other put aside. The family, much upset, left the dining kinds of spatial problem solving are brought to bear room. Annie locked the door and proceeded to eat in visualizing an object seen from a different angle her breakfast while Helen lay on the floor kicking and in playing chess. The visual arts also employ this and screaming, pushing and pulling at Annie’s chair. intelligence in the use of space. [After half an hour] Helen went around the table looking for her family. She discovered no one else Evidence from brain research is clear and persuasive. was there and that bewildered her. Finally, she sat Just as the middle regions of the left cerebral cortex down and began to eat her breakfast, but with her have, over the course of evolution, been selected hands. Annie gave her a spoon. Down on the floor as the site of linguistic processing in right-handed it clattered, and the contest of wills began anew persons, the posterior regions of the right cerebral (Lash, 1980, p. 52). cortex prove most crucial for spatial processing. Damage to these regions causes impairment of the Anne Sullivan sensitively responded to the child’s ability to find one’s way around a site, to recognize behavior. She wrote home: “The greatest problem I faces or scenes, or to notice fine details. shall have to solve is how to discipline and control her without breaking her spirit. I shall go rather Blind populations provide an illustration of the slowly at first and try to win her love.” In fact, the first distinction between the spatial intelligence and “miracle” occurred two weeks later, well before the visual perception. A blind person can recognize famous incident at the pump house. Annie had taken shapes by an indirect method: running a hand along Helen to a small cottage near the family’s house, the object translates into length of time of movement, where they could live alone. After seven days together, which in turn is translated into the size of the object. Helen’s personality suddenly underwent a change— For the blind person, the perceptual system of the the therapy had worked: “My heart is singing with joy tactile modality parallels the visual modality in the this morning. A miracle has happened! The wild little seeing person. The analogy between the spatial creature of two weeks ago has been transformed into reasoning of the blind and the linguistic reasoning of a gentle child” (Lash, 1980, p. 54). the deaf is notable. It was just two weeks after this that the first There are few child prodigies among visual artists, but breakthrough in Helen’s grasp of language occurred; there are savants like Nadia (Selfe, 1977). Despite a and from that point on, she progressed with condition of severe autism, this preschool child made incredible speed. The key to the miracle of language drawings of the most remarkable representational was Anne Sullivan’s insight into the person of Helen accuracy and finesse. Keller.

Interpersonal Intelligence. With little formal training Interpersonal intelligence builds on a core in special education and nearly blind herself, Anne capacity to notice distinctions among others—in Sullivan began the intimidating task of instructing a particular, contrasts in their moods, temperaments, blind and deaf seven-year-old, Helen Keller. Sullivan’s motivations, and intentions. In more advanced efforts at communication were complicated by the forms, this intelligence permits a skilled adult to child’s emotional struggle with the world around her.

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 23 read the intentions and desires of others, even These are three instances of exceptional moments. when they have been hidden. This skill appears in I often tell them over, or rather they come to the a highly sophisticated form in religious or political surface unexpectedly. But now for the first time I leaders, salespersons, marketers, teachers, therapists, have written them down, and I realize something and parents. The Helen Keller-Anne Sullivan story that I have never realized before. Two of these suggests that this interpersonal intelligence does not moments ended in a state of despair. The other depend on language. All indices in brain research ended, on the contrary, in a state of satisfaction. suggest that the frontal lobes play a prominent role The sense of horror (in hearing of the suicide) in interpersonal knowledge. Damage in this area can held me powerless. But in the case of the flower, I cause profound personality changes while leaving found a reason; and was thus able to deal with the other forms of problem solving unharmed— after sensation. I was not powerless. such an injury, a person is often not the “same person.” Though I still have the peculiarity that I receive Alzheimer’s disease, a form of presenile dementia, these sudden shocks, they are now always welcome; appears to attack posterior brain zones with a after the first surprise, I always feel instantly that special ferocity, leaving spatial, logical, and linguistic they are particularly valuable. And so I go on to computations severely impaired. Yet, Alzheimer’s suppose that the shock-receiving capacity is what patients will often remain well groomed, socially makes me a writer. I hazard the explanation that a proper, and continually apologetic for their errors. In shock is at once in my case followed by the desire contrast, Pick’s disease, another variety of presenile to explain it. I feel that I have had a blow; but it is dementia that is localized in more frontal regions of not, as I thought as a child, simply a blow from an the cortex, entails a rapid loss of social graces. enemy hidden behind the cotton wool of daily life; Biological evidence for interpersonal intelligence it is or will become a revelation of some order; it encompasses two additional factors often cited is a token of some real thing behind appearances; as unique to humans. One factor is the prolonged and I make it real by putting it into words (Woolf, childhood of primates, including the close 1976, pp. 69-70). attachment to the mother. In those cases where the This quotation vividly illustrates the intrapersonal mother (or a substitute figure) is not available and intelligence—knowledge of the internal aspects of a engaged, normal interpersonal development is in person: access to one’s own feeling life, one’s range serious jeopardy. The second factor is the relative of emotions, the capacity to effect discriminations importance in humans of social interaction. Skills among these emotions and eventually to label them such as hunting, tracking, and killing in prehistoric and to draw upon them as a means of understanding societies required participation and cooperation and guiding one’s own behavior. A person with good of large numbers of people. The need for group intrapersonal intelligence has a viable and effective cohesion, leadership, organization, and solidarity model of himself or herself—one that would be follows naturally from this. consistent with a description constructed by careful Intrapersonal Intelligence. In an essay called “A Sketch observers who know that person intimately. Since this of the Past,” written almost as a diary entry, Virginia intelligence is the most private, it requires evidence Woolf discusses the “cotton wool of existence”—the from language, music, or some other more expressive various mundane events of life. She contrasts this form of intelligence if the observer is to detect it at “cotton wool” with three specific and poignant work. In the above quotation, for example, linguistic memories from her childhood: a fight with her intelligence serves as a medium in which to observe brother, seeing a particular flower in the garden, and intrapersonal knowledge in operation. hearing of the suicide of a past visitor:

24 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series We see the familiar criteria at work in the represents all kinds of information about a person intrapersonal intelligence. As with the interpersonal and that is at the same time an invention that all intelligence, the frontal lobes play a central role individuals construct for themselves. in personality change. Injury to the lower area of the frontal lobes is likely to produce irritability or Newly Identified Intelligences euphoria; while injury to the higher regions is more For the first ten years after I proposed the theory likely to produce indifference, listlessness, slowness, of multiple intelligences, I resisted any temptation and apathy—a kind of depressive personality. In to alter the theory. Many individuals proposed such “frontal-lobe” individuals, the other cognitive candidate intelligences—humor intelligence, functions often remain preserved. In contrast, among cooking intelligence, sexual intelligence. One of my aphasics who have recovered sufficiently to describe students quipped that I would never recognize those their experiences, we find consistent testimony: intelligences, because I lacked them myself. while there may have been a diminution of general alertness and considerable depression about the Two events impelled me to consider additional condition, the individual in no way felt himself to intelligences. Once I spoke about the theory to a be a different person. He recognized his own needs, group of historian of scientists. After the conclusion wants, and desires and tried as best he could to of my talk, a short, elderly man approached and said, achieve them. “You will never explain Charles Darwin with the set of intelligences that you proposed.” The commentator The autistic child is a prototypical example of an was none other than Ernst Mayr, probably Darwin’s individual with impaired intrapersonal intelligence; successor as the most important 20th century indeed, the child may not even be able to refer to authority on evolution. himself. At the same time, such children may exhibit remarkable abilities in the musical, computational, The other event was the frequent assertion that spatial, mechanical and other non-personal realms. there was a spiritual intelligence, and the occasional assertion that I had identified a spiritual intelligence. Evolutionary evidence for an intrapersonal faculty In fact, neither statement was true. But these is more difficult to come by, but we might speculate experiences motivated me to consider whether that the capacity to transcend the satisfaction of there is evidence for either a naturalist or a spiritual instinctual drives is relevant. This potential becomes intelligence. increasingly important in a species not perennially involved in the struggle for survival. The neural This inquiry led to very different conclusions. In structures that permit consciousness probably form the first case, the evidence for the existence of a the basis on which self-consciousness is constructed. naturalist intelligence is surprisingly persuasive. Human beings like biologists Charles Darwin or E. O. In sum, then, both interpersonal and intrapersonal Wilson and ornithologists like John James Audubon faculties pass the tests of an intelligence. They both or Roger Tory Peterson excel at the capacity to feature problem-solving capacities with significance identify one species from another. An individual for the individual and the species. Interpersonal with a high degree of naturalist intelligence is keenly intelligence allows one to understand and work aware of how to distinguish from one another with others. Intrapersonal intelligence allows the diverse, plants, animals, mountains, and cloud one to understand and work with oneself. In the configurations in her ecological niche. While we tend individual’s sense of self, one encounters a melding to think of these capacities as visual, the recognition of interpersonal and intrapersonal components. of birdsong or whale calls entails auditory perception. Indeed, the sense of self emerges as one of the most The Dutch naturalist Geermat Vermij, who is blind, marvelous of human inventions—a symbol that depends on his sense of touch.

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 25 On the eight criteria of an intelligence, the naturalist And they may be deeply skeptical about God and intelligence scores well. There are the core capacities religion—especially so in the academy. Asked why to recognize instances as members of a species; the I did not instantly endorse a spiritual or religious evolutionary history where survival often depends on intelligence, I once quipped, “If I did so, it would recognizing conspecifics and on avoiding predators; please my friends—but it would please my enemies young children easily make distinctions in the even more!” naturalist world—indeed, some five-year-olds are Quips are no substitute for scholarship. I devoted the better at distinguishing among dinosaur species than better part of a year to reviewing the evidence for are their parents or grandparents. and against a spiritual intelligence. I concluded that When one assumes the cultural or brain lenses, at least two facets of spirituality were quite remote interesting phenomena emerge. Nowadays, few from my conception of an intelligence. First, I do not persons in the developed world are directly believe that an intelligence should be confounded dependent on naturalist intelligence. We simply with an individual’s phenomenological experience. go to the grocery store or order groceries on the For most observers, spirituality entails a certain set phone or via the Internet. And yet I suggest that our of visceral reactions—for example, a feeling that one entire consumer culture is based on the naturalist is in touch with a higher being or “at one” with the intelligence. Those are the capacities on which we world. Such feelings may be fine, but I do not see draw when we are drawn to one car rather than them as valid indicators of an intelligence. A person another, or when we select for purchase one pair of with a high degree of mathematical intelligence may sneakers or gloves rather than another. undergo feelings of “flow” when she solves a difficult problem. But she is equally mathematically intelligent The study of brain damage provides intriguing even if she reports no such phenomenological evidence of individuals who are able to recognize and reaction. name inanimate objects but who lose the capacity to identify living things; less often, one encounters Second, for many individuals, spirituality is the opposite pattern, where individuals are able to indissociable from a belief in religion/God generally, recognize and name animate entities but fail with or even from allegiance to a particular faith or sect. artificial (man-made) objects. It is probably the “Only a real Jew/Catholic/Muslim/Protestant is a case that these capacities entail different perceptual spiritual being” is the explicit or implicit message. This mechanisms (Euclidean geometry operates in the requirement makes me uncomfortable and takes us world of artifacts but not in the world of nature) and far from the initial set of criteria for an intelligence. different experiential bases (we operate on inanimate But if a spiritual intelligence does not qualify on my objects and tools in ways quite different from the ways criteria, one facet of spirituality seems a promising that we interact with living beings). candidate. I call it the existential intelligence— My review of the evidence on spirituality proved sometimes described as “the intelligence of big less straightforward. Individuals have very strong questions.” This candidate intelligence is based views on religion and spirituality, particularly in on the human proclivity to ponder the most the contemporary United States. For many people, fundamental questions of existence. Why do we live? experiences of the spirit are the most important Why do we die? Where do we come from? What ones; they assume that a spiritual intelligence not is going to happen to us? What is love? Why do we only exists but represents the highest achievement of make war? I sometimes say that these are questions human beings. Still others, and particularly those of that transcend perception; they concern issues that a scientific bent, cannot take seriously any discussion are too big or too small to be perceived by our five of the spirit or the soul; it smacks of mysticism. principal sensory systems.

26 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series Somewhat surprisingly, the existential intelligence Evidence from brain research, human development, does reasonably well in terms of our criteria. evolution, and cross-cultural comparisons was Certainly, there are individuals—philosophers, brought to bear in our search for the relevant human religious leaders, the most impressive statesman— intelligences: a candidate was included only if who come to mind as high-end embodiments of reasonable evidence to support its membership was existential intelligence. Existential issues arise found across these diverse fields. Again, this tack in every culture—in religion, philosophy, art, and differs from the traditional one: since no candidate the more mundane stories, gossip, and media faculty is necessarily an intelligence, I could choose presentations of everyday life. Certainly, in any society on a motivated basis. In the traditional approach to where questioning is tolerated, children raise these “intelligence,” there is no opportunity for this type of existential questions from an early age—though they empirical decision. do not always listen acutely to the answers! Moreover, My belief is that these multiple human faculties, the the myths and fairy tales that they gobble up speak to intelligences, are to a significant extent independent their fascination with existential questions. of one another. Research with brain-damaged adults My hesitation in declaring a full-blown existential repeatedly demonstrates that particular faculties can intelligence comes from the dearth, so far, of be lost while others are spared. This independence of evidence that parts of the brain are concerned intelligences implies that a particularly high level of particularly with these deep issues of existence. It ability in one intelligence, say mathematics, does not could be that there are regions—for example, in the require a similarly high level in another intelligence, inferotemporal lobe—that are particularly crucial like language or music. This independence of for dealing with the Big Questions. However, it is intelligences contrasts sharply with traditional also possible that existential questions are just part measures of IQ that find high correlations among test of a broader philosophical mind—or that they are scores. I speculate that the usual correlations among simply the more emotionally laden of the questions subtests of IQ tests come about because all of these that individuals routinely pose. In the latter instances, tasks in fact measure the ability to respond rapidly my conservative nature dictates caution in giving the to items of a logical-mathematical or linguistic sort; ninth place of honor to existential intelligence. I these correlations might be substantially reduced do mention this candidate intelligence in passing, if one were to survey in a contextually appropriate but, in homage to a famous film by Federico Fellini, way—what I call “intelligence-fair assessment”—the I shall continue for the time being to speak of “8 ½ full range of human problem-solving skills. Intelligences.” Until now, I may appear to have suggested that The Unique Contributions of the Theory adult roles depend largely on the flowering of a single intelligence. In fact, however, nearly every As human beings, we all have a repertoire of skills for cultural role of any degree of sophistication solving different kinds of problems. My investigation requires a combination of intelligences. Thus, even began, therefore, with a consideration of these an apparently straightforward role, like playing the problems, the contexts in which they are found, violin, transcends a reliance on musical intelligence. and the culturally significant products that are the To become a successful violinist requires bodily- outcome. I did not approach “intelligence” as a reified kinesthetic dexterity and the interpersonal skills human faculty that is brought to bear in literally any of relating to an audience and, in a different way, problem setting; rather, I began with the problems that choosing a manager; quite possibly it involves an humans solve and the products that they cherish. In intrapersonal intelligence as well. Dance requires a sense I then worked back to the “intelligences” that skills in bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, must be responsible.

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 27 and spatial intelligences in varying degrees. Politics In brief, MI theory leads to three conclusions: requires an interpersonal skill, a linguistic facility, and perhaps some logical aptitude. l. All of us have the full range of intelligences; that is what makes us human beings, cognitively speaking. Inasmuch as nearly every cultural role requires several intelligences, it becomes important to 2. No two individuals—not even identical twins— consider individuals as a collection of aptitudes have exactly the same intellectual profile. That rather than as having a singular problem-solving is because, even when the genetic material is faculty that can be measured directly through identical, individuals have different experiences; pencil-and-paper tests. Even given a relatively and those who are identical twins are often highly small number of such intelligences, the diversity of motivated to distinguish themselves from one human ability is created through the differences in another. these profiles. In fact, it may well be that the “total is 3. Having a strong intelligence does not mean that greater than the sum of the parts.” An individual may one necessarily acts intelligently. A person with not be particularly gifted in any intelligence; and high mathematical intelligence might use her yet, because of a particular combination or blend abilities to carry out important experiments in of skills, he or she may be able to fill some niche physics or create powerful new geometric proofs; uniquely well. Thus it is of paramount importance to but she might waste these abilities in playing the assess the particular combination of skills that may lottery all day or multiplying ten-digit numbers in earmark an individual for a certain vocational or her head. avocational niche. All of these statements are about the psychology of human intelligence—to which MI theory seeks to make a contribution. But of course, they raise powerful educational, political, and cultural questions. Those questions will engage us in later parts of the book.

28 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series Conclusion

I believe that in our society we suffer from three problem lie in one certain approach, such as logical- biases, which I have nicknamed “Westist,” “Testist,” and mathematical thinking, can be very dangerous. “Bestist.” “Westist” involves putting certain Western Current views of intellect need to be leavened with cultural values, which date back to Socrates, on a other more comprehensive points of view. pedestal. Logical thinking, for example, is important; It is of the utmost importance that we recognize rationality is important; but they are not the only and nurture all of the varied human intelligences, virtues. “Testist” suggests a bias towards focusing and all of the combinations of intelligences. We are upon those human abilities or approaches that are all so different largely because we all have different readily testable. If it can’t be tested, it sometimes combinations of intelligences. If we recognize this, I seems, it is not worth paying attention to. My feeling think we will have at least a better chance of dealing is that assessment can be much broader, much more appropriately with the many problems that we face humane than it is now, and that psychologists should in the world. If we can mobilize the spectrum of spend less time ranking people and more time trying human abilities, not only will people feel better about to help them. themselves and more competent; it is even possible that they will also feel more engaged and better able “Bestist” is a not very veiled reference to a book by to join the rest of the world community in working David Halberstam (1972) called The Best and the for the broader good. Perhaps if we can mobilize the Brightest. Halberstam referred ironically to figures, full range of human intelligences and ally them to an such as Harvard faculty members, who were brought ethical sense, we can help to increase the likelihood to Washington to help President John F. Kennedy of our survival on this planet, and perhaps even and in the process launched the Vietnam War. I contribute to our thriving. think that any belief that all the answers to a given

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 29 The Theory of Multiple Intelligences:

As Psychology, As Education, As Social Science by Howard Gardner

Howard Gardner gave this address on the occasion of his receipt of mesmerized and seduced by the life of the mind. an honorary degree from José Cela University in Madrid, Spain and Started to study history but then switched to ‘social the Prince of Asturias Prize for Social Science. October 22, 2011 © Howard Gardner 2011 All Rights Reserved. relations’, an unusual and now largely forgotten academic amalgam of sociology, anthropology, and I have no trouble reconstructing the steps that psychology. Was first entranced by the psychological led to my promulgation of the theory of multiple and historical writings of Erik Erikson, himself intelligences (MI theory). At least in retrospect, those a student of Sigmund and Anna Freud. But then seem clear. At the same time, I have no recollection met and was equally inspired by the cognitive- of what may be the most crucial question: how or psychological orientation of Jerome Bruner, himself why I decided to cast my discussion in terms of a student of Jean Piaget and, more distantly, of ‘intelligences’ rather than some less inflammatory Lev Vygotsky. In 1971, finished doctoral studies in characterization. In my remarks today, I will call how developmental psychology. Worked on three books the theory came into being, and then discuss it from while a doctoral student. Did full time research for the perspective of three different disciplinary areas: fifteen years thereafter, before joining the faculty at As Psychology, as Education, and as Social Science. Harvard, at present the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education. Autobiographical Notes Once we focus on my research as a postdoctoral If I had only a few moments to give my personal fellow, the origins of MI theory begin to emerge. biography, it would run like this. Born in Scranton, As a doctoral student, I had become interested in Pennsylvania in 1943; son of German Jewish the development in children of the capacity to use immigrants, who succeeded in coming to America various kinds of symbols, and particularly those in the just before they would likely have been rounded arts. I was intrigued by how young people become up by the Nazis and killed; growing up in that small able to appreciate the arts and why some of them coal-mining city, as a studious, inquiring, and musical become artistic creators. In 1967, I began to work at a youth; excited intellectually by the atmosphere of newly launched research center called Project Zero, Harvard College in the 1960s; married early, with three where we seriously examined the nature of artistic children; divorced and remarried with an additional thinking. One day we decided to invite a speaker child; have remained at Harvard and in Cambridge, named Norman Geschwind, a neurologist who had Massachusetts for half a century. been studying the breakdown in individuals of various symbol using capacities, including those in If I had only a few moments for an intellectual the arts. As I heard Geschwind speak about the effects autobiography, it would run like this. Always of brain damage on artists, writers, and musicians, I attracted more to language, history, the arts and the had a sudden “A-ha” experience: Perhaps, in the study humanities, than to mathematics or the sciences. of the organization, development, and breakdown of Yet, paradoxically, tended to do better in math and the nervous system, I might find important clues to science standardized tests than in the humanities. the nature and organization of human artistry. As the proverbial Jewish boy who hated the sight of blood, was destined to become a lawyer. In college, And so, ignoring the advice of almost everyone

30 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series (family, friends, mentors), I decided to work in a explicit confirmation of this point. veterans hospital as a researcher at an Aphasia ward, a floor of a hospital composed of individuals The Distinctivesness of MI Theory who suffered strokes or other kinds of damage to the brain. There I observed close up the variety of Since different human faculties had long been syndromes which result from damage to the cerebral recognized, both within and outside of standard cortex. Each day I was also continuing my research psychology, what make MI theory distinctive? With at Harvard, examining the development in young the benefit of hindsight, I would point to two factors. people of different symbol using capacities, no longer restricted to the arts. First of all, in approaching the area of intellect, I deliberately averted the usual move to examining Observations Preceding MI Theory scores on tests. Instead, I put on the lenses of the proverbial visitor from another planet who was trying Without this daily commute between research sites, to understand the human mind. And I asked which involving young learners and older victims of brain factors such an ‘anthropologist from Mars” might disease, I would never have come up with MI theory. attend to. Far from restricting myself to experimental But each day, I would observe unusual configurations psychology, I looked through many lenses: that of of strengths and difficulties. A child might be good the anthropologist, visiting many cultures; that of the (or bad) in musical comprehension but this skill vocational counselor, considering many careers; that level was not predictive of his or her skills with of the expert in “learning differences”, examining language, math, spatial orientation, or understanding the various areas of prodigiousness or isolated of other people. A patient might suffer significant difficulties which young people can exhibit; and aphasia (loss of language) but this did not predict his so forth. Probably most important, I looked at the or her skills in finding the way around the hospital accumulating evidence about the development and or understanding a cartoon or even learning a new differentiation of the cerebral cortex: which areas melody. of human skill and competence were localized in which areas of the brain. In effect, I was observing the limitations of the standard view of intellect. If you believe literally the Having created a working definition of intelligence classical view of intelligence, once you know how and assembled different sources of information, well a person performs in one sphere, you should be I then delineated eight factors of what counts as able to predict that person’s performance in other intelligence and what does not. I reviewed many spheres. Smart in one thing, smart across the board; sample candidates and, after considerable weighing limited in one sphere, limited in all. of evidence, delineated seven candidate intelligences. I now believe that the total number of intelligences is Now examined more closely, almost no one takes somewhat larger, but would be surprised if it came to this view of intellect literally. Teachers, to be sure, more than 10 or 12. The original seven were linguistic, but almost anyone who is reflective, realizes that logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily just because a person is good or bad in learning kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. Some languages, we can’t know whether that person years ago I added an eighth or naturalist intelligence. will be able to learn a dance step with ease or his And I now thing that sooner or later there might be way around a new locus. And nearly everyone is an existential intelligence—the intelligence that willing to speak of different talents. And yet, in the leads human beings to pose big ‘existential questions’ psychological literature around 1980, there was little and a pedagogical intelligence, the intelligence

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 31 that enables human beings to convey knowledge My articles and books got respectful attention but it and skills to other human beings who have varying would be misleading to suggest that either my work degrees of knowledge. Those, then, are the multiple or my name were well known. That situation changed intelligences, circa 2011. with the publication of Frames of Mind. Both the book and the idea became sufficiently well known The other factor proved to be fascinating. Somewhere that I soon realized that—for better or worse—I down the line, I decided to identify these factors would forever be known as “the MI man.” as ‘intelligences’. That decision turned out to be fateful, in a positive sense. Had I delineated the same But contrary to my expectation at the time of faculties, with the same evidence, and called them publication, the work has never garnered much abilities or faculties or skills, I doubt that I would be support within traditional psychology. I think I now standing here today. It was the lexical gamble—of understand why, though it took me many years to taking the prestigious term intelligence, pluralizing figure it out. it, and then applying it to the set of competences, that caught the attention of many audiences in Until 1983, my experimental work was in traditional many parts of the world. As for my definition: an bins of psychology—and so, like the proverbial intelligence is a biopsychological potential to scientist, I was inserting bricks of various sizes into process information in certain kinds of ways, in order the edifice of cognitive, developmental, or neuro- to solve problems or create products that are valued psychology. And my books—with titles like The Quest in one or more cultural settings. for Mind, The Shattered Mind, Art Mind and Brain were largely syntheses of work that had already been So much for the origins and the bare bones outlines done by others or, on occasion, by my colleagues and of MI theory. For the remainder of the talk, I want to me. reflect on the significance of this theory from three different perspectives—that of psychology, education, Frames of Mind was also a synthesis but it was a far and social science. And in the end I’ll try to draw a more original one. First of all, I surveyed a large set few general conclusions. of literatures—empirical and observational—that had not been surveyed en bloc before. To anticipate MI as Psychology a later point, I was not just wearing the hat of the psychologist. Rather, harkening back to my training Until I published Frames of Mind in 1983, my profes- in the field of Social Relations, I was drawing on sional identity was quite secure. I was a psychologist— other areas of social science. And, because of my specifically a developmental psychologist, a cognitive immersion in aphasia and other cortical disorders, I psychologist, a neuropsychologist. My day job was to was also invading the area of the natural sciences— carry out empirical research with these populations tying varieties of intellect to parts of the brain and and to write them up in reports for peer reviewed even speculating about their evolutionary and journals. Indeed, this is what I did for twenty years. After genetic components. This territory was not familiar to hours and on weekends, I wrote books. These books me or to other psychologists. were situated on the boundary between academic and popular volumes—and they were authored at a time Also, unlike my earlier books, I was not simply when so-called ‘midlist’ books were a significant part summarizing the work of others in a relatively of the American market. (That era has ended in the U.S. traditional manner. Instead, I was putting forth a though it is still quite active elsewhere, including Spain). rather bold new theory—namely, that intellect was distinctly pluralistic—and arguing that the

32 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series singular word ‘intelligence’ and the term “IQ’ were of knowing whether the several intelligences were fundamentally limited and misleading. truly independent of one another—or, to use a term favored by psychologists, whether there was a Nor surprisingly, given that I was invading their turf, ‘positive manifold’ among them. What I was confident psychometricians—those charged with measuring of, and remain confident of, is that, with respect to any intelligence—were offended. When they did not individual, one cannot know the strength of weakness ignore my work, they attacked it. This was hardly of a particular intelligence, just because one knows surprising. Economist Paul Samuelson famously the strength or weakness of another intelligence. And quipped that in the academy, change occurs one I have stated from the beginning that I am agnostic funeral at a time. For close to a century, test makers about the reasons for this relatively independence: had defined what intelligence is—indeed, E G Boring, it could be based primarily on biological reasons the leading American historian of psychology, had (brain development, genes), on cultural reasons simply stated ‘intelligence is what the tests test’ as if to (what is valued in particular settings), on motivational close discussion forever after. Sensing this, I published reasons (how much a person wants to develop an in The Atlantic Monthly, a popular magazine, an article intelligence), on resources (how much help there is entitled “Who Owns Intelligence?” And in this article in developing an intelligence), or, in all probability, on I argued that intelligence was too important to leave a complex of these and perhaps other factors. to the psychometricians; it was time to bring other experts and other lines of evidence to bear on this In a word, with one major exception called Project highly valued (and highly contested) phenomenon. Spectrum, I have not devoted energies myself to the development of tests for the individual intelligences. (I should add that the resistance to MI theory among There are many reasons that I have declined to do psychologists has not been echoed in the reactions this, ranging from the expense involved in developing of scholars from other disciplines. Researchers in and trying out new tests to my reluctance to create biology find the approach and the claims much a new kind of strait jacket (“Johnny is musically more congenial, though typically they focus on much smart but spatially dumb”). That said, I have written finer-grained distinctions within each particular extensively about how the intelligences might be intelligence. Mathematicians resist the theory assessed and am innocent of the charge of ignoring because from their perspective, there is only one the importance of assessment. use of mind and that is exemplified by the pure mathematician, with his or her logical-mathematical MI as Education reason. Interestingly, this conceit disappears almost immediately in the event that the mathematician has Just as I had not expected the resistance and even a child with a learning disability!) hostility of my colleagues in psychology, I had not anticipated the extensive interest in the theory on But to be a bit fair to the psychologists, they did have the part of educators—initially in the United States, a valid point. If I were putting forth a new theory of ultimately in many parts of the world. In 2009, my intelligence, it was up to me to ‘operationalize it’—to colleagues and I published a book called Multiple figure out how to test for the various intelligences, Intelligences Around the World. In this collection, and to determine, empirically, whether there was 42 scholars and practitioners, from 15 countries on substance to my claim that these intelligences were five continents, described the ways in which they ‘relatively independent’—a hedging phrase that have used multiple intelligences ideas for various I actually have used for many years. This hedged age groups (from preschool to university), in various characterization was quite deliberate. I had no way educational settings (schools, museums, theme parks,

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 33 after school activities) and with various populations with visitors from dozens of countries. (language learners, gifted students, students with learning or emotional difficulties). Needless to say, Only once did I openly condemn an application in 1983, I could hardly have anticipated this state of of the theory. In the early 1990s, I learned from a affairs. colleague about an MI-inspired educational approach in Australia. No doubt well motivated, this approach Why did MI theory catch on in education, in a way went way too far and violated both scientific and that it has never been picked up in psychology? ethical boundaries. For me, the ‘smoking gun’ was Educators are much less wedded to disciplinary the claim that different racial and ethnic groups in standards of evidence and acceptability. If an idea Australia each exhibited a characteristic intellectual seems plausible and has at least a trace of support profile. I thought that this was nonsense; I went within the academy that suffices. MI passes that test on a television program and said so; happily, this almost everywhere. ill-conceived educational intervention was soon cancelled. MI theory also had the benefit of being a Rorschach test—that is, like a subject interpreting an inkblot, As a result of this experience and of my general educators could use the claim of several intelligences observations, I took two steps. First of all, to support almost any pet educational idea that they I wrote a paper called “Reflections on Multiple had. My original book had very few educational Intelligences: Myths and Messages.” In that suggestions—after all, I was the psychologist, casting essay, probably my most widely specimen of only a sideways glance into the classroom. For that reprinted writing, I delineated seven common very reason, the theory provided ample running room misunderstandings of the theory. These for practitioners to suggest approaches to curriculum, misunderstandings ranged from the terminology pedagogy, assessment, learning differences, use of (MI is not a statement about learning styles) to the computers, place of the arts—indeed, almost any educational (there are no official MI or Gardner issue in which educators are interested. And since I schools). I cannot say that this publication stopped had not precluded any educational use of the theory, all misunderstandings of the theory. But it catalyzed practitioners in many places felt liberated to make a change in me—namely, that I needed to take some use of the theory in whatever way they liked. responsibility for the interpretations of my theory. And in fact, my subsequent involvement in the study and For the most part, this promiscuous use was fine with promotion of “GoodWork” arose most directly from me. After all, as I maintained from the beginning, my own battle scars with reference to the misuse of I am the scholar, not the educator, and it is up to MI ideas. educators to decide how to use the theory. I did not want to be a traffic cop or a rating agency! Also The second step was to state explicitly the most when educators approached me for help in devising important educational implications of MI theory. They curricula or even whole schools, I declined to be a can be captured in two words: Individuation and full fledged member of their team. At most, I agreed Pluralization. Human beings differ from one another to provide feedback when I could. And that explains and there is absolutely no reason to teach and assess my long term involvement with two schools in the all individuals in the identical way. Rather, in the American Midwest: The Key Learning Community future, good practice should particularize the modes in Indianapolis and the New City School in St of presentation as well as the manner of assessment Louis. Happily, those schools, with their long term as much as feasible; and that individuation should practitioners, have shared their ideas and practices be based on our understanding of the intellectual

34 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series profiles of individual learners. my colleague Mindy Kornhaber once quipped “MI theory is a closet organizer. It helps teachers organize Interestingly, such individual education has always their practices and see what is missing.” been possible for one group—the affluent. These individuals hire tutors and the tutor’s job is to make MI as Social Science sure that Pablo and Paloma learn what they need to know, and to use whatever pedagogical approaches I have typically called MI theory a psychobiological work. We are fortunate enough to live in an era where theory: psychological because it is a theory of mind, individualized education is no longer an option biological because it privileges information about only for the wealthy. Computers make it possible the brain, the nervous system, and ultimately, I believe, to provide individualized teaching and assessment the human genome. To be sure, in its attention to options for every person. abilities and skills valued across different cultures and historical eras, it draw on anthropological Pluralization can be undertaken in any era and with evidence; and in its attention to the development of classes of any size. It simply means that important intelligences, it encompasses different institutions, ideas, topics, theories and skills ought to be taught ranging from family to schools to the media. in more than one way, indeed in several ways—and these several ways should activate the multiple In speaking of MI as social science, however, I am not intelligences. When one pluralizes an educational speaking explicitly about the selection of evidence approach, two wonderful things happen. First of from fields other than traditional psychology. Rather, all, one reaches more individuals—since some I seek to characterize my overall approach to the individuals learn better through stories, others study of mind and, more broadly, to other human through work of art, or hands on activities or group phenomena. work—and by argument, each of these approaches activates a distinctive set of intelligences. Second I do not believe that there can ever be a social of all, pluralized education exemplifies what it science that directly parallels the natural sciences— means to understand something well. Because if you physics, chemistry, biology, even astronomy or understand an entity well—be it a school subject, an geology. (Physics envy can only get one so far!) That avocation, your own home, your own family—you is because human beings and their inventions are can think of it in many ways. Conversely, if you can both the scholars of the disciplines and the objects only represent this entity in a single way, using a of the disciplines. Put succinctly, we are studying single intelligence, then your own mastery is probably ourselves. That means we do not and cannot have tenuous. the distance from human beings that we have from chemicals or inorganic materials or subsystems like Note that neither of these educational implications— the visual system or the circulatory system. Also, and individuation, pluralization—depends explicitly more importantly, the very phenomena that we isolate on MI theory. Indeed, dating back to the ancient through the social sciences eventually become part Greeks and Romans, I am certain that you could find of the knowledge base of the subsequent cohort of recommendations for approaches based on the same human beings. And that knowledge—be it troubling underlying ideas. MI Theory provided some scientific or reassuring—can and sometimes does make us and empirical evidence for these approaches. And, perform differently in the future. perhaps more importantly, because of the list of 7-10 intelligences, it gave names for, and made suggestions To use just one, admittedly dramatic example. Around about how to individualize and how to pluralize. As 1960, social psychologist Stanley Milgran asked

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 35 psychiatrists to predict the percentage of human phenomena in terms of a single model. When I beings who would administer shocks to the danger was a student in the 1960s, the chief ‘overarching level to another person involved in a psychological theories’ were psychoanalysis and behaviorism. Both experiment. The modal response was 1 to 2%. In had their areas of appropriate focus—individual fact, in what became known as the Milgram effect, treatment of middle class patients for psychoanalytic typically 60-70% of subjects administered shock treatment, the study of animal learning and behavior to the maximum or dangerous level—a shocking for behaviorism. But when they purported to offer far level, so to speak! Undoubtedly the Milgram broader explanations—psychoanalysis of all human experiment—which would not be allowed today in behaviors, individual as well as group—behaviorism most places—provided an unpleasant indication for all mental activities (including human language) of why subordinates in the Nazi era would engage and for the behaviors of broader institutions in cruel activities. But the very popularization, and overall societies—they became misleading the very notoriety of the Milgram effect holds out caricatures. hope. Perhaps if human beings know of this species proclivity, they (we) can guard against it and not Today, psychoanalysis and behaviorism have blindly follow orders, even if (or especially if) they returned (or been redirected) to their proper areas are administered by someone who seems to be of applicability. But as I argue in Truth, Beauty and authoritative. Goodness Reframed (2011), we are today faced with similar hegemonic explanatory claims from two But just because social science is not identical to quite different ‘pretenders to the throne’: evolutionary natural or physcial science, is hardly a reason not psychology, which seeks to explain all human to pursue it as effectively as possible. When the behaviors on the basis of purported evolutionary field of Social Relations started at Harvard in the factors, and rational choice economics which, in one immediate post-World War II era (and there were guise, posits that all human economic behavior is similar initiatives in the United States at Yale, Johns based on reason, and which, in another guise, posits Hopkins, the University of Chicago), this institutional the self- adjustment of markets as the optimal route to move was made on the basis of a strong conviction: economic prosperity for all. In this recently published our understanding of human beings is most likely book I indicate the limits of these two lenses on to be enhanced if we bring to bear the tools and human behaviors. At the same time, I call attention insights drawn from several fields—which could to the roles of broad historical factors, accidents of include political science, economics, history and the fortune, and individual human agency. Should anyone arts. The experiment of Social Relations failed—but doubt the importance of human individual agency, let I think it did so principally for reasons of institutions them think of the history of the 20th century without and personalities, not because the idea in itself is Hitler, Stalin or Mao, on the one hand, or Mandela, wrong. And I would go so far as to maintain that King, or Gandhi on the other. those of us who were weaned on the field of social relations—(and I could name names!)—often had a Just after my new book was published, I heard the broader and more perspicacious view of human kind wonderful news that I had received the 2011 Prince than those whose training occurred primarily or even of Asturias Award in Social Science. I knew enough exclusively within a single social scientific discipline. about the Award to be aware of its importance; and I was tremendously honored to learn the names and And indeed—and here is my most personal remark- identities of my predecessors. But almost as soon -—I save my deepest skepticism for those theories as learning that I had received the Award, I realized of human kind that attempt to explain all human that I wanted to pay tribute to the kind of social

36 Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series science in which I was trained and to give urge the prescribed theory or metatheory or empirical method; continuation of that kind of work. In my first public rather it is one catholic enough to draw on findings remarks I said from these various theoretical bases and data sources and then, through a human act of synthesis, to weave “I am thrilled and humbled to receive this them together into a compelling narrative. I had such prestigious award. While my training is primarily synthesis in mind in creating MI Theory: whether or not in psychology, I have always considered myself a I succeeded is for others to judge. social scientist, and I feel that much of the best work about human nature and human society Concluding Remarks draws on a range of social scientific disciplines. Also, at this time the accent in Anglo-American Though I focus here on the theory of multiple social science falls almost entirely on quantitative intelligences, my major scholarly interest in the work. I am pleased that this award can recognize past decade and a half has been on the nature of the strand of social science which involves ‘good work’—work in the professions that is at qualitative analyses and broad syntheses of once technically excellent, personally engaging, knowledge.” and carried out in an ethical manner.’ In this work I have been privileged to have as senior colleagues Let me amplify this brief remark. I certainly value Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and William Damon, two rigorous experiments in psychology, and it is great eminent psychologists who also exemplify the broad if one can create randomized controlled studies; and synthesizing view of social science that I have I certainly value large scale surveys where one is embraced here. Telling the story of the ‘good work able to achieve representative samples from the project’ is a task for another day. And yet I feel it population in question. But I think it a grave mistake important to mention that the project was conceived for social scientists to restrict themselves to a single of at the California Center for Advanced Study in the standard, even one that is today considered to be a Behavioral Sciences, and that I am writing these very ‘gold standard.’ When it comes to human spheres, words at the same center, 16 years later. detailed observations of individual cases, careful interviewing, deep probing of individual subjects, The GoodWork Project is a textbook instance of well-designed focus groups, can provide information social science, as described here. It has involved as that is equally valuable. Jean Piaget studied only his researchers individuals across the range of social own three infants in detail, and yet our understanding sciences; it has developed concepts and models of infancy was enormously enhanced by these case that are social-scientific rather than drawn from studies; moreover, Piaget’s major observations have a singular discipline; our major works are broad held up amazingly well. Whatever the limitations, the syntheses; much of our work has been educational case studies carried out by Bronislaw Malinowski in nature; and, most important, we have used a in the Trobriand Islands and by Clifford Geertz in range of methods, from individual case studies, to Bali helped to define the understandings of remote detailed interviews of cohorts of workers, to, most societies; and indeed, since traditional societies recently, broad based surveys involving hundreds of have largely disappeared, there is no way ever to even thousand subjects. And because our original replace them. Erik Erikson’s observations of patients sample consisted of over 1200 subjects, we are able to at the Austen Riggs Clinic, along with case studies of perform statistical tests, and put forth possible causal Amerindian tribes, made lasting contributions to our explanations, on many questions of interest. understanding of the formation of human identity. As mentioned before, applications of MI theory were The optimal social science is not one with a singled for the most part benign but a few examples were

Multiple Intelligences • Learning & Mind Series 37 deeply troubling. Misuse of MI theory was a major tremendously rewarding. And yet at the end of the impetus for the study of good work: my colleagues day, we do not need more people of high intelligence and I came to the conclusion that as scholars, we had or of multiple intelligences, however measured or a responsibility not only to put forth ideas but also labeled; we need individuals who will use their to monitor how they were used and, when necessary, intelligences for positive ends. I anticipate that this to speak up about their misuse. This line of thinking goal will guide me for the rest of my days. led us most directly to undertake the GoodWork project. I have no regrets about my decision to study intelligence and multiple intelligences; it has been

References Chen, J, Moran, S and Gardner, H. ( 2009) Multiple intelligences around the world. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990) Flow: The psychology of optimal experience New York: Harper and Row.

Damon, W. (1995) Greater expectations. New York: Gree Press.

Gardner, H. ( 1983/1993/2011) Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books intelligences: Myths and messages.” Phi Delta KappanGardner 77, , H. 3, (1995) 200-9. “Reflections on multiple

Gardner, H. Csikszentmihaly,M,. and Damon, W. ( 2001) Good work; When excellence and ethics meet. New York: Basic Books.

Gardner , H. (Ed) (2010) Good work : Theory and practice. Cambridge Mass: Harvard University. http://www.goodworkproject.org/ wp-content/uploads/2010/10/GoodWork- Theory_and_Practice-with_covers.pdf

Gardner, H. (2011) Truth, beauty, and goodness reframed: Educating for the virtues in the 21st century. New York: Basic Books.

Milgram, S.. (2009) Obedience to authority. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.

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