Howard Gardner's Reframing Intelligence

Howard Gardner is a cognitive and educational psychologist at Harvard University and is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences (Howard, 2006). An author of several books on intelligence, Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences is controversial. In this theory, Gardner argues that conventional tests and measures of intelligence "do not capture the full range of human intelligences," (Howard, 2006, p. 1). Gardner was born in 1943 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and was awarded the MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 1981.

The origins of Gardner's multiple intelligences theory stem from the authors study of people from different walks of life in everyday occupations and experiences. From prodigies and stroke victims to autistic individuals, Gardner's study helped him formulate the theory that people tend to learn across a number of different intelligences that standardized tests and measures fail to recognize. In his 1983 book Frames of Mind, Garner counted seven such intelligences, including: 1) verbal-linguistic intelligence; 2) mathematical-logical intelligence; 3) musical intelligence; 4) visual-spatial intelligence; 5) bodily-kinesthetic intelligence; 6) interpersonal