Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences
62 pages • 2-hour read
Howard GardnerFrames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences
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Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “Implications and Applications”
Part 3, Chapter 13 Summary: “The Education of Intelligences”
Gardner returns to the examples he presented in the first chapter of the book: the Puluwat child training to be a sailor in Micronesia, the young Islamic scholar memorizing large tracts of the Koran, and the Parisian teenager using a computer to compose a piece of music. All three of these children were socialized distinctly, engaging in culturally dictated forms of education that shaped them and allowed their intelligences to flourish in specific ways. Education and the transmission of cultural practices thus seem to be a fundamental building block of culture: Humans pass on their knowledge and their traditions to their children in a way that is “as natural as breathing” (348). However, intelligence research, particularly IQ research, has shaped education in very particular ways, some of which Gardner views as unhelpful to society as a whole.
Gardner warns that his framework for analyzing educational processes is both comprehensive and complex. Methods of transmitting knowledge are as multifaceted as intelligence itself, so a framework that can adequately analyze education has to be multifaceted as well. Different methods of teaching engage different intelligences, giving them opportunities to flourish. For instance, many children learn via example, or by watching adults perform a task without giving any other instruction. In this type of learning, spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences are important.
However, other forms of instruction take place outside of the context of the activity. For instance, the Puluwat sailor may sail with an adult tutor but then retreat to his home and practice astro-navigation by placing pebbles on the floor in a pattern that represents the stars, engaging logical-mathematical and spatial intelligences. More complex and regulated symbol systems like writing or mathematics engage logical-mathematical and linguistic intelligences, utilized in specialized learning institutions like schools. Later, children may learn more concepts in apprenticeships in shops, laboratories, or factory or studio settings.
The agent who transmits the knowledge also forms a fundamental part of the framework. Parents and grandparents are some of a child’s first teachers, supplemented by siblings and peers. Later, youths are trained in more specialized study and labor by practitioners within their community. The cultural setting of the education is also important: Some settings emphasize the survival benefits and practical rewards of knowledge, while others task learners with acquiring knowledge as part of their religious experience. Gardner presents a chart that explicates the different aspects of education, emphasizing that this model is “preliminary and tentative” (354).
Gardner then explores the history of educational practice. In pre-industrial settings, most energy was reserved for providing for basic needs, and knowledge necessary for survival was widely shared since it benefited everybody to have a flourishing and resilient community. Initiation rites, bush schools (schools that took place in their relevant contexts, like in the forest), and apprenticeships formed the basis of education. Later, schools that prioritized reading and writing, along with memorization and linguistic skill, started to introduce literacy on a wider scale. These schools were staffed by religious figures who conveyed sacred texts and who were expected to be of high moral character. However, these schools also tended to present education as separate from the practical aspects of life, and the separation between the literate and educated and the rest of society grew more distinct. Asian, European, African, and Middle Eastern cultures began to distinguish those who pursued “higher education” from the rest of humanity, both honoring and isolating them. Additionally, students with great talent were singled out early for more rigorous education, winnowing the communal pool of knowledge even within those rarefied spaces. Memorization and logic ruled those spaces, with little attention paid to bodily-kinesthetic or spatial reasoning. Schools like this would shape the Islamic scholar Gardner previously cited.
Later, the modern secular school rose to prominence. These were no longer populated by religious figures or people seen as exceptionally moral, but by civil servants who were selected for their intellect. Education was, and is now, used to “foster productive labor and proper citizenship” (368). Memorization is no longer at a premium in a highly literate society, and criticism and synthesis are expected from readers. The use of computers has become more prominent (as in the example of the Parisian composer), which emphasizes the logical-mathematical intelligence used in programming. This model of schooling is much more globally prominent than the other two and has relegated practical spatial and bodily-kinesthetic activities to after-school programs at most. Religious education, in the same way, has become supplementary to “real” education. This form of schooling emphasizes functional job-related skills, literacy that focuses on communication and analytic skills, and scientific thinking that verges on intrapersonal intelligence, or interrogation of one’s own limitations and biases as part of its analysis.
Gardner returns to the three youths. Now, he points out, the reader can track the different students as products of the three different educational systems he defined in this chapter, with the Puluwat sailor belonging to the pre-industrial school, the Islamic scholar belonging to the memorization and literacy school, and the Parisian computer composer belonging to the modern secular school. Gardner emphasizes the interpersonal nature of the first two types of learning and the relative isolation of the third but also points out that the Parisian scholar is benefiting from a complex interaction of different societal specializations that make her composition possible. He warns the reader not to fall into the trap of seeing the Puluwat sailor, Islamic scholar, and Parisian composer as stages of intellectual progress but rather as cultural situations that systematically value and devalue particular intelligences.
Part 3, Chapter 14 Summary: “The Application of Intelligences”
Gardner begins by relating an anecdote about his visit to a Suzuki Talent Education Center in Japan. He saw children as young as three or four skillfully playing pieces that seemed much too complicated for them to have mastered. He realized that these children were benefiting from enthusiastic parental instruction, an ingenious and disciplined teaching method, and perhaps some individual genetic factors that allowed their musical intelligence to flourish. In this educational system, mastery and even genius could develop within a specific cultural context.
He uses this example of educational success to introduce other attempts at using education to positively shape human futures. The Machado Project in Venezuela, an ambitious government program meant to raise the intelligence of all Venezuelan people, is based on the belief that all people, if properly educated, can attain genius-level intelligence. While Gardner admires the thrust of the program, he believes that it is too general and does not take into account predispositions to certain types of intelligence. The Suzuki method teaches a specific series of exercises that utilize many different types of intelligence to correctly perform music. It begins with a child witnessing music being played; then the parent plays an instrument in front of the child, acclimating them to it. Lessons are simple and very parent-involved in the beginning, though later the child learns to play independently. The steps are “carefully structured so [they] advance[] the child” without being frustratingly impossible (393). The educational method is well-constructed, and it takes place at a crucial point in a child’s life, when they are soaking up methods of creating meaning. However, the Suzuki method has provoked criticism due to its choice of music (Western Baroque) and insistence on repetition instead of interpretation of musical pieces. Additionally, the child dedicates a huge chunk of their time to playing their instrument, potentially at the cost of developing other forms of competence.
This is the challenge of intelligence study and educational approaches: It is difficult to tell whether an educational method actually positively affects a child’s intelligences or just produces an impressive result. Gardner expands on the flaws in the Suzuki method to suggest flaws in the post-World War II Japanese education system, in which success in academics is all-consuming and dictates everything in a child’s life. This leads to adverse psychological effects and limited emotional growth. However, leaving education to individual caregivers and small communities also seems problematic. Illiteracy is prevalent in places without state-supported education. In the US, TV programs like Sesame Street encourage literacy for children in a mode that harnesses children’s fascination with television to teach them to read. This method seems highly successful in introducing young children to literacy, even in spaces lacking formal education. These types of intervention appear useful in encouraging intelligences without consuming a child’s life.
Gardner advises policymakers, touting the potential of creating flexible intellectual profiles for young children. These profiles would allow caregivers and teachers to understand their needs, strengths, and weaknesses and accommodate them. He warns against using IQ tests to do so; instead, musical instruments, physical education and art, reading, writing, speaking, and math can all indicate a child’s predilections. This requires less of the student and more of the person who is studying the child, who should analyze not to categorize the student or block them from growth opportunities but to help craft a system that accommodates their talents. Educational plans, Gardner states, should focus more on the child’s nature than on the needs of the culture surrounding the child. He warns educators against forcing children to engage in particular specialized tasks like programming simply because it is highly desirable and lucrative. Children who are talented at programming, he states, will reveal themselves. Likewise, students with learning disabilities should be presented with lessons in forms that appeal to all seven of the intelligences to see what best suits them.
Gardner concludes by stating that the goal of Frames of Mind is to raise awareness of both the societal responsibility to educate children and develop their minds and of the benefits of using multiple methods to promote the most positive outcomes. He emphasizes that education is a continually evolving task, so his theory of multiple intelligences should not be seen as definitive but as a jumping-off point for a new way of understanding children, education, and the human experience.
Part 3 Analysis
In the final chapters, Gardner applies The Model of Intelligence as Multifaceted Rather Than Singular to the field of education, articulating both a critique of existing educational models and a new framework for reimagining teaching and learning.
Gardner reinforces the foundational premise of his theory by returning to the three archetypal learners introduced at the beginning of the book: the Puluwat navigator, the Islamic Koranic scholar, and the Parisian computer composer. These figures are not merely examples of culturally bound skills; they represent distinct expressions of intelligence. The Puluwat child exemplifies the interplay of bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, and logical-mathematical intelligences. The Islamic scholar’s memorization and recitation highlight linguistic intelligence and mnemonic precision. The Parisian teen’s music composition on a computer invokes musical, logical-mathematical, and intrapersonal intelligences.
Recapitulating these examples introduces the idea that educational systems, like intelligence itself, are not universal or monolithic, but are contextually shaped and engage different aspects of human cognition. trained in astro-navigation through both direct instruction and symbolic practice (placing pebbles to represent stars), the scholar learns the Koran through religious and cultural practices that place a premium on oral mastery, and the composer’s work is shaped by access to technology and a modern secular education. These examples challenge any singular, IQ-based model of intelligence by demonstrating that intelligence cannot be meaningfully understood outside of its cultural and educational context. Gardner’s framework thus recognizes intelligence as both innate and cultivated—diverse in form and mutable in expression—which bears on The Implications of Multiple Intelligences for Teaching and Learning.
Gardner’s critique of traditional educational paradigms centers on modern societies’ narrow emphasis on linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences, often to the exclusion of other forms. He traces the history of educational institutions to show how contemporary systems’ prioritization of standardized, testable outcomes is culturally contingent rather than indicative of objective progress. That it also aligns poorly with the diverse cognitive capacities of learners reveals, for Gardner, the necessity of pedagogical pluralism.
Gardner’s praise for the Suzuki music education model as an example of a system that is developmentally sensitive and multisensory offers a concrete example of what that pluralism might look like. It is notable that the method engages most overtly with one form of intelligence: musical. By showing that the Suzuki method also involves interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, and intrapersonal intelligences, Gardner suggests that reconceptualizing education to suit a broad variety of learners need not be as daunting as it might sound; most tasks require multiple forms of intelligence, and instructors and caregivers can leverage this fact to their advantage. However, Gardner also critiques this method’s intensity and cultural specificity, noting its focus on Western music and its tendency to prioritize technical mastery over interpretive freedom. This duality—celebrating innovation while warning against rigidity—illustrates Gardner’s broader point: Education must be adaptive, culturally aware, and holistic.
At the same time (and as Gardner’s recourse to highly specific examples—e.g., the programmer-composer—suggests), learning is highly individual, even within a given culture. Indeed, rather than tailoring education to the goals or needs of a community, Gardner recommends developing individualized intellectual profiles for children to inform responsive instruction that empowers each student’s unique capacities. Anticipating criticism that such profiles would stymie other growth opportunities, Gardner suggests that this is precisely what the current educational model does. Unlike IQ tests, which often sort children into fixed tracks, such profiles would guide educators in offering opportunities that cultivate emerging intelligences.
A crucial outcome of Gardner’s educational philosophy is thus The Empowerment of Individuals Through the Recognition of Diverse Talents and Abilities. This has particular resonance, Gardner suggests, for those marginalized by traditional definitions of intelligence. In cultures or school systems that elevate only a narrow band of abilities, students whose strengths lie in music, bodily expression, interpersonal insight, or spatial reasoning may find themselves undervalued. Gardner’s framework reclaims these talents as valid and vital. In both chapters, he foregrounds the importance of recognizing and cultivating children’s natural inclinations and strengths. This recognition not only fosters academic achievement but also affirms personal identity. Gardner’s reflections on initiatives like Sesame Street underscore his optimism about the possibility of low-cost, media-driven interventions to promote literacy and other intelligences in under-resourced communities. By using television—a technology often maligned—as a tool for education, these programs demonstrate how culturally situated, multimodal instruction can make a profound difference in children’s intellectual lives.
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