about twenty five years ago or something like that in the early eighties there was a minority
of psychologists not affiliated necessarily but independently said look enough
we don't really think there's enough theory behind IQ tests which is really a major
criticism of IQ tests is there really isn't much there they were developed as we've
been talking about because of historical circumstance
so howard gardner %uh is
really the most prominent of these and he's the fellow who started starting at the %uh
early nineteen eighties came up with this idea of multiple intelligences and i think
in the beginning he had seven nine might get up to nine or something like that but they really
they're far broader than what the traditional psychologists view was so it would include %uh
interpersonal intelligence intra %uh personal intelligence
and musical intelligence bodily kinesthetic
so %uh
the old guard of psychology can't stand the idea still of course because
what they're interested in is something that they called g which stands for general intelligence
IQ tests don't work obviously if there are multiple intelligences there has to be just
one if they want to rank all six billion of us they've got to have this
test and intelligence that is just one thing
that operates regardless of what you're doing or where you are so if you're figuring out
a complex
physics problem it's the same intelligence that's operating if you're having a difficult conversation with
your mother or whatever it would be the same gardner would say I couldn't do either hahahaha
you know gardner would say they're different kinds of intelligence and you're good at some maybe and bad at others
that we're far more varied
what's interesting about gardener's he's not %uh i wouldn't imagine he's particularly pro test he didn't
he didn't do this to devise tests
so
as we've been talking about this a lot of what's going on is the it's the institutions that
use IQ tests in the SAT's and stuff like that
so institutions haven't grabbed onto howard gardner's
version of what intelligence is how could they
who the people who grabbed onto howard gardner are the educators
this excerpt is brought to you by the massachusetts school of law