Multiple Intelligences - An Interview With Howard Gardner
test, because those tests are so high-stake both for students and for teachers. Now, in principle, one could have assessments which probe understanding, and they could even be standardized. I would be much more in favor of those assessments. But those assessments would have to give people lots of choices. Because, say you're doing American history, you have to say to people, I want you to discuss, let's say, the role of immigration in America, but you can discuss it with reference to any one of 20 different groups or 20 different issues." If, on the other hand, you require people to know all 20 different groups and all 20 issues, then obviously, they can't know very much about any one of them. It's just a very superficial, Jeopardy-style knowledge.
Now let's be clear about this: Assessment is fine. Even standardized assessment is fine, if it looks at things which are important and allows us to probe in-depth what people understand. But if it's just whether you memorized the encyclopedia and can spit it out, it's of no value, because a year later, even six months later, you'll have forgotten everything because you will not have had any kind of understanding.
How do you respond to those who say that MI theory is appealing, but there's no proof to back it up?
There's no short answer to that question. To begin with, it's a scientific theory, and so it needs to be evaluated on the basis of the science on which it draws. And I think it does quite well in terms of the scientific evidence, even the evidence that's accumulated since the theory was first propounded 20 years ago. I have a new book coming out this fall called Multiple Intelligences Reframed, where in fact I discuss a few new intelligences, and also discuss the scientific evidence for it. So when people say it hasn't been proved, we first have to say what's the scientific evidence for and against it--and I think the scientific evidence stacks pretty well.
Now, I've never espoused a particular program in schools. There are no Gardner schools, and there is no MI approach. So when people say it hasn't been proved, it's a senseless statement. What you have to say is, Has this particular implementation of MI theory, in this particular place, produced better student learning?
Mindy Kornhaber at Project Zero has been investigating 42 different schools which have been
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