Howard Earl Gardner (born July 11, 1943) is an American developmental psychologist who is the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education at Harvard University, Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero and author of over twenty books translated into thirty languages. He is the son of Ralph Gardner and Hilde Weilheimer (Hilde Gardner since her marriage to Ralph Gardner). Since 1995, he has been the co-director of the GoodWork Project. He is best known for histheory of multiple intelligences, as outlined in his book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983). He received the Prince of Asturias Award 2011 in Social Sciences for the development of this theory.^[2]

Contents   [hide]  1 Multiple intelligences 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Furthering education 5 Achievements and Awards 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links

[edit]Multiple intelligences

Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences states not only do human beings have several different ways of learning and processing information, but these methods are relatively independent of one another: leading to multiple "intelligences" as opposed to ageneral intelligence factor among correlated abilities. Since 1999, Gardner has identified eight intelligences: linguistic, logic-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. Gardner is still considering a ninth, existential intelligence (the posing and pondering of "big questions"), but has not, as of yet, added it. He thinks it will have something to do with seeing what you're working with.^[3][4]

[edit]Career

Most of Gardner's post secondary education has taken place at Harvard University. He was inspired by his readings of Jean Piaget to be trained in developmental psychology; he also studied neuropsychology. Gardner has also worked closely with the psycholinguist Roger Brown and during his undergraduate years worked with renowned psychoanalyst Erik Erikson. Gardner studied for an bachelor of arts degree in social relations at Harvard (1965) with thesis titled The retirement community in America^[5] and read philosophy and sociology at the London School of Economics from 1965 to 1966. He was awarded a doctor of philosophydegree in social and developmental psychology from Harvard in 1971^[6] for thesis titled The development of sensitivity to figural and stylistic aspects of paintings.^[7]

In an effort to synthesize his two lines of work, one dealing with cognitive and symbol using capacities of normal and gifted children and the other dealing with brain damage in adults, he developed and introduced his theory of multiple intelligences in his 1983 book Frames of Mind. He began teaching at Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1986. While he is widely traveled and has conducted research in China throughout the 1980s, his entire adult career has been spent in Cambridge. The focus of his work for the past fifteen years has been in the Good Work Project. Gardner's work is often described as "an effort to understand and explicate the broadest and highest reaches of human thought, with a particular focus on the development and breakdown of intellectual capacities, broadly construed."^[1] By choice, Gardner has not undertaken any major editorial or professional roles. He sees himself as an independent scholar and a public intellectual.^[1]

[edit]Personal life

Gardner is married to Ellen Winner. They have one child, Benjamin, born in 1985. Gardner has three children from an earlier marriage: Kerith (1969), Jay (1971) and Andrew (1976) and two grandchildren, Oscar, born in 2005, and Agnes, born in 2011.^[8] Gardner described himself as "a studious child who gained much pleasure from playing the piano".^[8]

He is also currently a board member at Amherst College and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). He served on the board of the Spencer Foundation for 10 years (2001-2011).

[edit]Furthering education

Howard Gardner has been heavily involved in school reform efforts in the United States since 1980s. His theory of multiple intelligences has not been readily accepted within academic psychology. According to Gardner, standardized tests used in the current American education system do not measure all of his multiple intelligences, which vary from person to person and thus determine the ways in which each person learns most effectively. Gardner's theory argues that students will be better served by a broader vision of education, wherein teachers use different methodologies, exercises and activities to reach all students, not just those who excel at linguistic and logical intelligence.^[9]

In 1967, Professor Nelson Goodman started an educational program called Project Zero through Harvard University which began in the area of arts education but now does a variety of work in developing education. Howard Gardner and David Perkins were founding Research Assistants and Gardner and Perkins later Co-Directed Project Zero from 1972-2000. Project Zero's mission is to understand and enhance learning, thinking, and creativity in the arts, as well as humanistic and scientific disciplines at the individual and institutional levels.^[10]

[edit]Achievements and Awards

Gardner was the recipient of a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 1981 and in 1990 he became the first American to receive the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Education. In 2000 he received a fellowship from the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Four years later he was named an Honorary Professor at East China Normal University in Shanghai. He was selected by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines as one of the top 100 most influential public intellectuals in the world in the years 2005 and 2008. In 2011 he won the Prince of Asturias Award in Social Sciences.^[11] He has received honorary degrees from twenty-nine colleges and universities, including institutions in Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, and South Korea.^[12]

[edit]References

[edit]Further reading

• Kincheloe, Joe L., ed. (2004). Multiple Intelligences Reconsidered. Counterpoints v. 278. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-0-8204-7098-6. ISSN 1058-1634. Lay summary (4 September 2010).
• Howard Gardner (2006). Schaler, Jeffrey A.. ed. "A Blessing of Influences" in Howard Gardner Under Fire. Illinois: Open Court. ISBN 978-0-8126-9604-2.
• Howard Gardner (1989). To Open Minds: Chinese Clues to the Dilemma of American Education. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-08629-0.
• Howard Gardner, Vea Vecchi, Carla Rinaldi, Paola Cagliari (2011). Making learning visible. Italy: Reggio Children. ISBN 978-88-87960-67-9.
• M. Kornhaber (2001). Palmer, Joy. ed. "Howard Gardner" in Fifty Modern Thinkers in Education. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-22408.
• Tom Butler-Bowdon (2007). "Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind" in 50 Psychology Classics. London & Boston: Nicholas Brealey. ISBN 978-1-85788-386-2.
• Gordon, L. M. (2006). Howard Gardner. "The encyclopedia of human development." Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2, 552-553.
• Gardner, Howard (2011). Truth, beauty, and goodness reframed: Educating for the virtues in the 21st century. New York: Basic Books.

[edit]External links

• The GoodWork Project
• Booknotes interview with Gardner on Extraordinary Minds, October 5, 1997.
• Gardner's Frames of Mind: a commentary from 50 Psychology Classics ISBN 978-1-85788-386-2