Understanding with Howard Gardner

Howard Gardner argues that a principle goal of developing the human mind must be "disciplinary with memorization. At the same time, he illustrates how intuitive theories of the "unschooled mind" make disciplinary understanding both counter-intuitive and difficult to develop--from the sciences and math, to the arts and humanities.

Moving toward the goal of key understandings across the academic, artistic, and even moral domains, Gardner demonstrates the four necessary components of educating for understanding. In turn, he proposes how MI can yield multiple entry points to the mastery of skills and concepts. Using vivid images, he illustrates why only deep immersion, not the accumulation of facts, will get us to "understanding".

Looking to the future, Gardner argues that globalization and the digital revolution will demand even more challenging interdisciplinary thinking along with new models of synthesis to cope with unprecedented amounts of information.