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Highlights 2008

Howard Gardner

Opening Plenary Session
Thursday, July 17, 5 p.m.

Harvard professor and author of over 20 books translated into 24 languages, as well as several hundred articles, Howard Gardner is best known in educational circles for his theory of multiple intelligences, a critique of the notion that there exists but a single human intelligence that can be assessed by standard psychometric instruments. During the past two decades, he and his colleagues at the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Project Zero have led research projects in subjects including the design of performance-based assessments; education for understanding; the use of the theory of multiple intelligences to achieve more personalized curriculum, instruction, and assessment; and the nature of interdisciplinary efforts in education.

Over the last decade, in collaboration with psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and William Damon, Gardner has embarked on a study of "good work"—work that is at once excellent in quality and socially responsible. The GoodWork Project includes studies of outstanding leaders in several professions-among them journalism, law, science, medicine, theater, and philanthropy—as well as examinations of exemplary institutions and organizations.

Gardner received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1981. In 1990, he was the first American to receive the University of Louisville's Grawemeyer Award in Education, and in 2000 he received a fellowship from the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Gardner, who holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, has received honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities, including institutions in Ireland, Italy, and Israel. In 2004 he was named an honorary professor at East China Normal University in Shanghai. In 2005 he was selected by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines as one of the 100 most influential public intellectuals in the world.

Gardner's books include Responsibility at Work: How Leading Professionals Act (or Don't Act) Responsibly; Five Minds for the Future; Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons; The Disciplined Mind: Beyond Facts and Standardized Tests, the K-12 Education that Every Child Deserves; Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People's Minds; Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century; and (with Wendy Fischman, Becca Solomon, and Deborah Greenspan) Making Good: How Young People Cope with Moral Dilemmas at Work.

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