Gardner, Howard

Howard Earl Gardner (1943–) is the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is also adjunct professor in the Harvard psychology department, adjunct professor of neurology at the Boston University School of Medicine, and senior director of Harvard Project Zero (whose primary goal is to develop understanding of and enhance learning, thinking, and creativity in the arts). He has published over 20 books, translated into over 20 languages, and over 100 articles. Gardner is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences, first introduced in his 1983 book Frames of Mind.

Gardner was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1943, after his parents fled Nazi Germany seeking refuge in the United States. He began his postsecondary education at Harvard as a history major to prepare him for a career in law school. While there, however, Gardner's interests were changed as a result of his studying under noted psychologist Erik Erikson, sociologist David Riesman, and cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner. Working with them sparked his interest in human nature and specifically how humans learn. Gardner received his postsecondary education at Harvard University, graduating summa cum laude in 1963, and went on to receive his doctorate in 1971. He is recognized internationally for his contributions and has received honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He has received numerous awards, including the MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 1981, the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Education in 1990, and a fellowship from the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 2000. Gardner continues to work at Harvard in Project Zero, where he is currently codirector.

Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences challenged the existing belief that intelligence is a single stagnant entity, inherited from one's parents, and measured using psychometric instruments. His theory postulated that there are many intelligences (originally, he identified seven), independent of each other, and that individuals think and learn in different ways. He further recounted that schools have traditionally valued only two of the intelligences (linguistic or word smart, and logical-mathematical, or number/ reasoning smart). He argued that there were at least five other intelligences that should be valued as well: (1) spatial intelligence or picture smart, (2) bodilykinesthetic intelligence or body smart, (3) musical intelligence or music smart, (4) interpersonal intelligence or people smart, and (5) intrapersonal intelligence or self-smart. In 1993, Gardner added naturalistic intelligence (or nature smart) to the original seven, and continues to refine his work.

Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences has had significant impact in the field of education. Teachers and administrators embraced his theory as a rationale for the many children they encountered that were extremely gifted in areas such as sports or music but were either average in traditional academic work or often even struggled in those areas. His work in human learning and his theory of multiple intelligences has had a significant impact on teaching and curriculum.