Reviews for Myths in education

The average rating for Myths in education based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-03-20 00:00:00 Mike Wander Working on a daily basis with children who have been diagnosed with deficits'problem learners'I'm attracted to educational theory which holds that individuals are amalgam of unique characteristics. Strengths as well as weaknesses. My conception of Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences played into that attraction. School is in large part based on psychometrically determined intelligence quotients and the ability to apply intelligence to written language and mathematics. Stretching that view a bit might allow kids who are academically unsuccessful to see that they have capabilities that can be realized with effort, and allow society to make use of unrecognized potential. After reading 'Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons,' I find my conception was fairly accurate, but I remain confused about how to translate theory into practice. I'm also more skeptical about the theory itself, while still agreeing with Gardner that we need 'to nurture all of the varied human intelligences.' It's interesting that Gardner has been surprised by his audience. He originally formulated his theory in 1983 as 'a psychologist who thought he was addressing his fellow psychologists.' However, he did not find a warm welcome among his colleagues, to whom 'Frames of Mind' 'seemed somewhat exotic.' Among those whom Gardner, perhaps with a hint of derision, labels 'psychometricians,' 'the book aroused antipathy.' However, the book was a huge hit with another constituency. 'For reasons that I do not fully understand,' writes a baffled Gardner, 'the theory of multiple intelligences spoke immediately to educators'loudly and quite clearly.' The dichotomic reception of 'Frames of Mind' set off warning signals in my mind to approach the theory of multiple intelligences with caution. I came to 'Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons' after reading Daniel Willingham's excellent 'Why Don't Students Like School?' The cognitive psychologist's critical view of Gardner's work increased my wariness. The presentation of 'Multiple Intelligences' didn't help. It's not an updated edition of 'Frames of Mind,' but a poorly organized mish-mash of collected essays, some written with co-authors, and randomly ordered reflections on a theory by its creator a quarter of a century down the road. Readers looking for an outline of that theory need go no further in this book than its first chapter, twenty-five pages aptly titled 'In a Nutshell.' Or, with even more brevity, you could note that Gardner posits seven intelligences: musical, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, intrapersonal and interpersonal. Maybe an eighth, too'a naturalist intelligence. Most readers, I would think, come to this book with that outline more or less already in place. Gardner does contextualize his work and its effect over the years, and acknowledges an impediment to widespread acceptance of his ideas'a lack of supporting clinical evidence for multiple intelligences. While it's hard to argue with his plea that 'psychologists should spend less time ranking people and more time trying to help them,' it leaves a question unanswered. How? Good teachers have long recognized that different students learn in different ways. I'm not really sure that determining which intelligences are in which classrooms will make for an improved version of tailoring instruction to varying needs and abilities, even to the moment. To be fair, Gardner does address the issue of application in the second part of this book where he discusses the Project Spectrum elementary school program, learning through projects, the Arts PROPEL high school program, and using broader, more inclusive forms of assessment. The problem is that the information is sketchy. Gardner repeatedly reminds readers of the positive reaction to his theory among educators, rather than tell them exactly how educators can put theory into practice. A chapter called "Multiple Entry Points Toward Disciplinary Understanding" offers an interesting and helpful way of framing instruction'narrational, logical, quantitative, foundational, aesthetic, experiential, or collaborative. Likewise, while considering Project Spectrum, Gardner includes a questionnaire which puts forward useful criteria for determining a child's learning style through observation. But is connecting learning styles to teaching really have much to do with intelligences as separate categories? Gardner says no, that 'style and intelligence are really fundamentally different constructs.' Ironic, given that I found the questionnaire and entry point framework the most practical takeaway from 'Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons.' Gardner tackles those 'new horizons' in a final section that I thought was pretty much fluff. A chapter on multiple intelligence theory and the workplace seemed downright goofy. The ostensible goal of this book is to re-introduce Gardner's theory and to explain its application. It fails on both counts.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-09-08 00:00:00 Antonio Morales As an author, I have mixed feelings about Gardner. His ideas, theories and sensitivities are top-drawer. But his writing has remained stilted and academic, for my taste, and that is off-putting when he's got so many good things to say. This one is worth rating, however, because it was truly a breakthrough book on a new way to look at intelligence -- as a collection of intelligences (including physical intelligence, for you sports fans), and it has gone on to enter the popular culture and spawn a mini-industry of educational materials and approaches. Whether his theory holds together tightly or not, he was a good antidote to the Bell Curve propogandists of the world.