HOWARD GADNER Hobbs professor of Cognition and education. Harvard University FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS =日本語翻訳版= |
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■Q: How might your multiple intelligences have a
positive impact on public schools in the U.S.? ■Q: Do you think we should be able to freely choose
what courses we take? Or do you favor a uniform curriculum for all
students? In other words, should I be able to decide to take four
humanities courses and zero classes in the sciences, or should somebody
tell me I HAVE to take two science coursesIhave totake two science courses
and two in the humanities? ■A: In
general at the secondary level, everyone should study some history,
science,mathematics, and the arts. It is not important to mewhichscience
is taught?I am muchmore interested in students learning to
thinkscientifically.Similarly, it does not matterthat much which history
students learn, though they certainly ought to be acquainted withtheir own
country. What matters is that the student have some sense of how
historicalstudies are carried out; what kinds of evidence are used; how
history differs fromliterature on the one hand, and from science, on the
other; why each generation rewriteshistory and there can never be
adefinitivehistory. ■Q: You mention that you prefer depth over breadth.
Don't you think students might not learn enough with this approach? I
agree that studying only a few topics in depth is good, but lots of
important material might not get taught. Let's say in a U.S. History
course that follows your beliefs, the American Revolution, the Civil War,
and World War II are covered in depth. What about the Great Depression?
What about the Cold War? I think these are all important topics that
should be covered. People will have some major gaps in their knowledge of
many things once they graduate. Even if all these things can be looked up
on a computer, do you trust them to do so? We study history so we can
learn from our mistakes, but we won't know our mistakes if we don't learn
about them. ■A: Your point has some validity. However, it is more important
that students learn how to think like a historian, and how historians
handle data and draw conclusions. This can only come from in depth study
of a manageable number of topics. If the teaching of history were well
coordinated throughout K-12., we could certainly learn about all the
topics that you mention. The problem now is that a student might study the
American Revolution four times and never learn about the French or Russian
revolutions at all. ■Q: You mention that you believe "cultural education
is better left to after school or weekend options" for learning about
one's own background culture. I don't believe you talked about HOW people
should learn to deal with individuals of different backgrounds. You say
that it's important, but not how it should be handled. ■A: The
best way to learn about diversity of cultures is to spend actual time
withindividuals from different backgrounds, and to see adults from
different backgroundswork together with oneanother productively. Reading
and lecturing have little meaning,apart from this face to face contact and
interaction. ■Q: You state that most students do not want to
continue with school after the age of 15 or 16 and that society would be
better served if they did something productive in the real world. Do you
suggest that we should just do away with high schools? Since this is
probably too radical, do you think there should be less time spent in the
classroom and more time spent in the "real world?" Should students spend
time as apprentices or interns gaining experience instead of listening to
a lecture? ■A: I love school and at age 60 have never left. I am delighted
at those who like to learn in an academic way. But that is not for
everyone, and it is certainly not for every 16 year old. I am much more
interested in youngsters being productive and learning SOMETHING well than
remaining in school when they want to be elsewhere. When they are ready to
return to school and to learn what you learn best in school-whether they
are 16 or 61-that is the time to return. ■Q: Where can I learn about applications of the Theory
of Multiple Intelligences in schools? ■A: Many people have tried to develop MI schools and there is a
lot of information available about, for example, the Key Learning
Community in Indianapolis and the New City School in St Louis. My
colleague Mindy Kornhaber is publishing a book, called Multiple
Intelligences, this year, and it covers the successes and problems at 41
schools. One of the best ways to learn about MI is to come to a Project
Zero Summer Institute or to take a WIDE course. Details are available at
pzweb.harvard.edu. ■Q: Can you recommend techniques for teachers to
identify their students' strengths? ■A: If you want to get to know your students intelligences
during the first weeks of school, I have two suggestions: l. Take them to
a children's' museum a few times (or some other kind of rich experience
like a playground with many kinds of games) and watch them carefully. This
will complement what you observe in class. And 2.Give a small
questionnaire about their strengths to the students themselves AND their
parents AND, if possible, last years teacher. To the extent that all three
report the same strengths and weaknesses, you are on pretty safe ground. I
don't trust self reports unless they are corroborated. ■Q: How can I teach multiple intelligences in a
creative and innovative way to a group of new teachers? ■A: See the writings of Tom Hoerr at the New City School in St
Louis. ■Q: Do you have scholarship or grant funding available
for visitors or external projects? ■A: Unfortunately, my office does not have access to any grant
or scholarship funding for education or research projects, whether at
Harvard or elsewhere. ■Q: We were wondering what you might say to an
adolescent who tends to get high grades and seems ambitious, but who is
doubting himself/herself because of poor SAT and IQ test scores. ■A: In response to your query: SATs measure a certain blend of
linguistic and logical intelligence. Your SAT score has a tiny bit of
predictive power about college success in the first year of college, but
your class rank and school grades are a much better predictor. There are
ways to 'prep' for the SAT and you should avail yourself of those
opportunities. The far more important questions are: What do you want to
do with your life? Are you learning the kinds of things that will allow
you to be successful? While no one should ignore 'selection instruments'
like the SAT, you should not permit them to obscure these far more
important questions. If you are learning and making progress toward your
life goals, then you should not worry too much about your scores on one
instrument. If you are not learning and not making progress toward your
life goal, neither a high SAT score nor a high IQ will do you much
good. |