Outsmarting IQ: The Emerging Science of Learnable Intelligence

by David N. Perkins

Since the turn of the century, the idea that intellectual capacity is fixed has been generally accepted. But increasingly, psychologists, educators, and others have come to challenge this premise. "Outsmarting IQ" reveals how earlier discoveries about IQ, together with recent research, show that intelligence is not genetically fixed. Intelligence can be taught. David Perkins, renowned for his research on thinking, learning, and education, identifies three distinct kinds of intelligence: the fixed neurological intelligence linked to IQ tests; the specialized knowledge and experience that individuals acquire over time; and reflective intelligence, the ability to become aware of one's mental habits and transcend limited patterns of thinking. Although all of these forms of intelligence function simultaneously, it is reflective intelligence, Perkins shows, that affords the best opportunity to amplify human intellect. This is the kind of intelligence that helps us to make wise personal decisions, solve challenging technical problems, find creative ideas, and learn complex topics in mathematics, the sciences, management, and other areas. It is the kind of intelligence most needed in an increasingly competitive and complicated world.

Using his own pathbreaking research at Harvard and a rich array of other sources, Perkins paints a compelling picture of the skills and attitudes underlying learnable intelligence. He identifies typical pitfalls in multiple perspectives, and neglecting evidence. He reveals the underlying mechanisms of intelligent behavior. And he explores new frontiers in the development of intelligence in education, business, and other settings.

This book will beof interest to people who have a personal or professional stake in increasing their intellectual skills, to those who look toward better education and a more thoughtful society, and not least to those who follow today's heated debates about the nature of intelligence.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Psychology, Self Help, Science

Hardcover

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

David Perkins is a founding member of Harvard Project Zero, a basic research project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education investigating human symbolic capacities and their development. For many years, he served as co-director, and is now senior co-director and a member of the steering committee. Perkins conducts research on creativity in the arts and sciences, informal reasoning, problem solving, understanding, individual and organizational learning, and the teaching of thinking skills. He has participated in curriculum projects addressing thinking, understanding, and learning in Colombia, Israel, Venezuela, South Africa, Sweden, Holland, Australia, and the United States. He is actively involved in school change. Perkins was one of the principal developers of WIDE World, a distance learning model practitioners now embedded in programs at HGSE. He is the author of numerous publications, including fourteen authored or co-authored books. His books include; The Eureka Effect, about creativity; King Arthurs Round Table, about organizational intelligence and learning; Making Learning Whole, a general framework for deepening education at all levels; and Future Wise, about what's worth teaching for the contemporary era.

Reviews

[Joseph Schrock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was, overall, pleased with the book “Outsmarting IQ”. The book included lots of really good ideas about how to maximally utilize one’s “neural intelligence”. I was inclined, however, to think that David Perkins might have failed to acknowledge how great a factor innate intellectual potential really is versus one’s ability to “outsmart” one’s innate limitations. Is the book a bit overly (unrealistically) optimistic? I lean toward a “Yes”, but still regard the ideas provided to have substantial value – especially for parents and educators.
The book was worth my buying and reading.

[Nirvanafish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the reasoning process to search for the meaning of IQ(or intelligence in the wide sense) quite convincing and supporting evidences sound. It also promote myself to focus more on the controlling and emotional aspects of the mind. Great to know I can learn more and better!

[Susan]

This book gives suggestions on how to teach strategies that will give the learning disabled the ability to perform more intelligently.