Disciplined Mind: What All Students Should Understand

by Howard Gardner

A renowned educator and author of Frames of Mind reassesses the ultimate goals of education, exploring the nature of learning and arguing that education should promote an understanding of the physical, biological, and social worlds from a personal as well as social and cultural perspective. 25,000 first printing.

Genres: Education, Psychology, Nonfiction, Teaching, Philosophy

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Howard Gardner is the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He also holds positions as Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero. Among numerous honors, Gardner received a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 1981. He has received honorary degrees from 26 colleges and universities, including institutions in Bulgaria, Chile, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, and South Korea. In 2005 and again in 2008, he was selected by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines as one of the 100 most influential public intellectuals in the world. The author of 25 books translated into 28 languages, and several hundred articles, 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 adequately assessed by standard psychometric instruments.

During the past two decades, Gardner and colleagues at Project Zero have been involved in the design of performance-based assessments; education for understanding; the use of multiple intelligences to achieve more personalized curriculum, instruction, and pedagogy; and the quality of interdisciplinary efforts in education. Since the middle 1990s, in collaboration with psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and William Damon, Gardner has directed the GoodWork Project-- a study of work that is excellent, engaging, and ethical. More recently, with long time Project Zero colleagues Lynn Barendsen and Wendy Fischman, he has conducted reflection sessions designed to enhance the understanding and incidence of good work among young people. With Carrie James and other colleagues at Project Zero, he is also investigating the nature of trust in contemporary society and ethical dimensions entailed in the use of the new digital media. Among new research undertakings are a study of effective collaboration among non-profit institutions in education and a study of conceptions of quality, nationally and internationally, in the contemporary era. In 2008 he delivered a set of three lectures at New York's Museum of Modern Art on the topic "The True, The Beautiful, and The Good: econsiderations in a post-modern, digital era."

from http://www.howardgardner.com/bio/bio....

Reviews

[di · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nauseating. I expected so much more from this book--I mean, it's HOWARD GARDNER. Of multiple intelligences fame! This was the theory that I most resonated with in college, & although I got it second-hand (through textbooks) I have always wanted to read Gardner's theory in his own words. I expected enlightenment. I expected originality. What I got was CONCEITEDNESS.

I truly can't understand why Gardner published this book. Most of it is just self-aggrandizement & ideas that are completely unpractical & unoriginal. Gardner makes the point that what schools should be teaching are the true, the beautiful, & the good. Now, I realize that the education world on a large scale is NOT set up to do this today. I realize that schools are pressured to cover the topics (superficially)...but that does not mean that everyone involved in education is on board with it. I know plenty of teachers who believe in narrowing the curriculum & teaching deep. These same teachers have been doing so for decades. It's just good sense...nothing ground-breaking.

Gardner's next "ground-breaking" idea is even less original. According to "him," teachers should evaluate for understanding, not by administering a test, but by requiring a PERFORMANCE (aka project.) OH MY GOSH! A PROJECT?!!! I never would have thought of that in my wildest dreams! Now, let's be clear: Do multiple choice tests exist in schools? Yes. Are they the best way to evaluate students? No. Are they overused? Yes. Do most teachers know this? Yes. Did Gardner break any new ground in this book? No.

Gardner's remedy for remaking US schools then takes an idealistic, but utterly unpractical turn. After "modeling" how he would teach three topics (aligned with the true, the beautiful, & the good), he says that all subjects should be handled this way, by teachers who have mastered their disciplines. I'm not talking about educators who have their bachelor's degrees, or teaching certifications, or who have even passed a nationalized teaching test. He's talking about teachers who have mastery level of teh subjects they teach at the level of doctorate degrees. Don't get me wrong, I think it is important that teachers are curious, smart, & active learners. I wish there were no mediocre teachers in schools today. And it certainly is IDEAL to have a teacher who has deep mastery of her/his subject. But Gardner fails to address two problems with his solution: first, every year in virtually every state there is a battle over funding for education. How does Gardner expect to attract the talent his solution demands? On this he is silent. (Memo to Howard Gardner: we've all been trying for decades to get highly-qualified teachers, but the problem is that there is no money! Why not chew on that for a while & write up a book for us?) Second, Gardner totally overlooks the fact that teaching requires its own set of skills. A great physicist may make a lousy teacher. I know some fabulous parents with little or no formal education who are amazing teachers. It's awesome when the mastery of the subject coexists with the talent for teaching...but if I had to choose between a superb teacher with only a decent grasp of the subject matter versus a superb scholar with only decent teaching skills, I'd opt for the former. The demand for teachers means that every teacher just can't be a scholar. At least, not in public schools. And that's where Gardner is silent again. He SAYS he wants this great education for every child, but only the wealthy could really afford what he calls for. Making better schools for the wealthy is not the kind of book I was really interested in reading about.

Last of all, I have to just mention the total arrogance Gardner displays in this book. He spends a good amount of time defending himself against the critics of his earlier publications. I don't mind some of this--in all honesty, I usually find myself on the same page with him. But he's sooooo condescending it makes me want to throw up. After reviewing the pros and cons of establishing a national curriculum & national standards, he states that he supports the measure...but ONLY if HE and s handful of LIKE-MINDED INDIVIDUALS (whom he names) get to write the standards! And he's serious about this, as if he is the only person who is competent to do such a thing, & nobody else (except those who fawn over him) has anything else to bring to the table. Ugh. Even his idea on having separate pathways is so condescending. His pathway is called the one for "understanding." As if another pathway isn't devoted to understanding. Arrogance! I was disgusted in a similar way to his handling of religion/spiritual matters. It's not even that he doesn't believe in it (there are many atheists that I respect), but he scorns those who do. His explanation (I tell my students to slice up the brain & look for a "spirit" to prove there is none) was totally illogical. (How much else would we have to eliminate if we couldn't find physical material of it?) No wonder he is having such a hard time recognizing "existential intelligence" as a ninth addition to his multiple intelligences!

Finally, a word about his favorite word. I'm talking about the word idiosyncratic. This word appears once or more on virtually every page of the book. Why? There were certainly times when "many" or "peculiar" or "various" or "multiple" would have been an improvement in the text. Why then did he insist on using & using & using this word? (The same went for the word "antipathy" for about twenty pages.) I didn't understand it...but I guess a six syllable word sounds more intelligent? I guess?

Oh well. After all this...I probably still might try to read Gardner's book "Multiple Intelligences." But I won't invest so much time into it unless I feel it has more to give me right from the start. I kept reading this book because I thought there would be some nugget somewhere...but in the end I thought it was a 1/5 stars from beginning to end.

[Amber]

My mind is never going to be disciplined, or at least not in the Howard Gardnerian way. Admittedly I read this to try and apply it to me. His approach sure sounds nice -- almost too good to be true. ...Yeah, we all know that the implementation of sweeping, pivotal changes in public schools nationwide towards understanding the nature of the True, the Beautiful, and the Good is never, ever going to happen, considering that Truth, Beauty, and Goodness are values that historically have always been diametrically opposed to a country like the United States hahahaha. My memo here says these values are actually Money, Even More Money, and Shitting in a Gold Toilet Filthy Rich Money.

And he makes it sound so simple. Just change yourself, and then change everyone and everything around you lol. It doesn't matter that Florida governor Ron DeSantis recently passed a new law forcing teachers to remove books about LGBT+ topics from their libraries, or that pointing out white people enslaved black people is Critical Race Theory woke nonsense to a portion of the population significant enough to complain about it all the time now. Ignore underfunding and severe structural and cultural defects. Be the change!!!

He concedes that the current aim of schooling worldwide is to absorb whatever flavor of nationalistic modes of thinking and crank out competent future workers who have acquired enough literacy to eventually effectively contribute to the labor force. I would add another systemic goal of this machine would be pushing high schoolers towards four-year universities so they can come out with the gifts of deteriorated mental health and crippling debt. This is all assuming the majority of students make it out alive without once being shot in the classroom. What else are schools good for to a nation like the United States?

Look, now I'm mad. No more books on anything even remotely touching on pedagogy for me.

[Sean Goh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very convoluted with a bunch of listicle chapters.
Didn't really dig it, perhaps because it's aimed at K-12 education.

People are better able to chart their life course and make life decisions when they know how others have dealt with pressures and dilemmas.

We need an education that is deeply rooted in two apparently contrasting but actually complementary considerations: what is known about the human condition, in its timeless aspects; and what is known about the pressures, challenges and opportunities of the contemporary (and coming) scene.

Continuing illiteracy in the world is not due to ignorance on how to teach the 3 R's, but rather failure to devote adequate resources to these tasks.

With lengthening lifespans and rapidly evolving body of knowledge, lifelong self-directed learning is now a necessity. The goal of education should be to inculcate a love of learning such that it will continue to take place even outside of the system.

Everyone must become as comfortable as possible with change.
And one must remain ever conscious of the constant of human experiences - the things that do not change, either because they cannot or because we do not want them to.


Decisions about what to teach, when to teach and even how to teach entail value judgements. Such decisions can never be dictated by knowledge of brain (e.g. even if children learn languages better when young is no reason to do so)

Young children have distinctive moral outlooks; for example, they focus on the amount of damage an act results in, rather than on the intention of the actor.

The persistence of early misconceptions is due to a number of factor: the unexpected strength of early representations; the fact that educators have not appreciated that strength and so ignored them; the tendency on the part of many adults to confuse the accumulation of factual information or cultural literacy with the alteration of robust mental representation; the pressure to cover too much material in a necessarily superficial manner. Solution: Depth over breadth.

*Singapore gets a mention!*
Forty years ago, Singaporeans were so poor that many children went to bed hungry each night. Singapore has virtually no natural resources, just the minds and energy of its 3 million citizens (circa 1999). Today, Singapore ranks among the top nations in the world in productivity and income, and students regularly occupy the number one slot in international comparisons.

On understanding:
An individual understands a concept, skill, theory or domain of knowledge to the extent that he or she can apply it appropriately in a new situation.

The more a person knows about how music and drama work, the more value they are likely to glean from a performance.

Lack of appreciation has no meaning if no effort has been made to understand.


Begin with entry points (compelling examples to lead in), offer analogies (bridging to current knowledge), and converge upon multiple representations of the core idea.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who works with kids and pays attention must realize that many of them are talented--even brilliant--in ways that are not recognized or valued in schools. The concept of "multiple intelligences," first proposed by Howard Gardner twenty-five years ago, helps to explain why most schools, heavily weighted as they are in favor of linguistic intelligence, are an uncomfortable fit for many, if not most, students.

The Disciplined Mind is a thoughtful and interesting meditation on what Gardner believes schools should do to be meaningful for most children and to achieve the goals we want for education. His argument begins with a basic principle--that schools should foster deep understanding of what is true, what is beautiful, and what is good--and proceeds to demonstrate what that means in terms of the various academic disciplines. I was most interested in Gardner's frank discussion about the profound differences between his theories and practices and those of E. D. Hirsch, whose notions of "cultural literacy" and a prescribed body of essential knowledge have had a huge impact on educational policy in the United States.

For readers who are somewhat academically inclined and interested in educational theory, this is an excellent book. For those who labor under the handicaps imposed by politics and wrong-headed approaches to "education reform," Gardner's common-sense approach may be a refreshing reminder that, somewhere, sanity still prevails.

[Gea · Rating 3 out of 5]

His theories on what 'schooling' should look like. Good book for debates and discussions. I don't like Gardner - as he does believe that education and schools (he is not pro-home schoolng) should train children how to be successful workers in big buisness (and learn the 'classics') - however, he does present good ideas for learning ways and ideas based in book learning.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

nonostante l’abbia letto per studio e non per piacere mi è piaciuto molto. Molto scorrevole e semplice in quanto scritto in un’ottica abbastanza divulgativa.
I concetti sono pochi, si ripetono e sono spiegati a fondo.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out strong, but then got convoluted. Quotable points:

"Effective education can take many different forms, but certain features must be present. Those who run the school -- or network of schools -- must have a clear vision of what they want to achieve. Mission statements may be helpful, but they are essentially signs of the current thinking, not agents of change. The school's stakeholders must have a clear idea of how its classes should operate, what its graduates should be like, how to determine whether the classes and graduates are up to par, and what correction in course is to be recommended should these goals not be realized." (p. 112)

"People would smirk, rightly, if the mastery of a young art student, musician, or athlete were assessed in an examination hall on a Saturday morning, with a standardized paper-and-pencil or computerized test. Rather, what typically happens in these realms is illuminating. From the start of their training, youngsters observe more proficient (usually older) individuals performing the required actions and understandings: playing new pieces of music, practicing dance steps, engaged in scrimmages or in games against tough and wily opponent.s The youngsters can see the moves that must be mastered; they can try them out; they can monitor their improvement and compare it with that of peers; and they can benefit from timely coaching." (p. 129)

"To teach for understanding, the teachers themselves must be comfortable with and understand the material. Teachers need to feel expert, and they need to embody expertise in the eye of their students. They must also believe that understanding is important and be prepared to embody that understanding in their own lives. Nothing more impresses students than the opportunity to see informed adults make apt use of the material being introduced. That is why young musicians love to watch their teachers perform, and tennis students want to play with their instructors. And that is why students soon become disenchanted with teachers who fail to 'walk the talk.'" (p. 133)

"The purpose of education is not to provide ultimate answers; it is to enhance one's sense of understanding without dashing one's sense of mystery and wonder." (p. 185)

[Mark Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fortunately for readers (and anyone connected to education), Gardner has not been idle since he first published his benchmark book Frames of Mind. I sincerely appreciated reading how he has continued to develop his thinking in cognitive psychology and his suggestions for education need to be taken seriously as a blueprint for change. Along with Postman, Kohn, Ravitch, Darling-Hammond, Allen, and Perrone, Gardner takes the position that education relates cultural values as much as anything. Further, those values need to engage the student in sustained, meaningful encounters in science, art, and narrative that produce a vigorous, cognitive growth. His candid suggestions for educators to assimilate units on truth, beauty, and goodness suggest that Gardner is not only willing to make a radical suggestions for the advancement of learning among children (in the spirit of Dewey and Bruner), but also that the humanitarian interests in education are worth sustaining; that is, for Gardner, meaning needs to take ascendancy in our instruction.
Gardner is a fantastic writer. He has a gift for explanation and explication; I recommend the book if only for the Appendix. He delineates between two world views in education and it is worth the price of the book itself.

Yes, his suggestions are radical and extreme, but being normal is only taking education down to a new nadir. I heartily endorse this book.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

For more than two years, I have read this book, slowly. While I stopped reading for months at a time, I never stopped thinking about Gardner's ideas. I have emerged with greater clarity about what type of school I wish to help create.

Gardner's text is both challenging and inspiring, as he guides us through the history of educational psychology, advances three models for how an education "in the disciplines" might work, and ends with an argument for multiple pathways to a constructivist approach in American education. This argument is about much more than teaching truth, beauty and goodness, but rather about teaching "ways of knowing" that will serve students well through their entire life.

I created an image with one of the more inspiring/summative passages: https://twitter.com/timidstone/status...

Note: Readers unfamiliar with Reggio Emilia or the Suzuki method are in for a treat. This was my first serious introduction to both.

Anecdote: I made a rule that I would only read the book while walking, not just because of Gardner's groundbreaking work on multiple intelligences (including kinesthetic), but as a way to ensure that I walked more often. I would have finished the book much faster without this rule, but the

[JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't imagine a better single explanation about what education should be. He hints at just enough of his own worldview to tell me we wouldn't agree on everything. But in a way, that is the point, because Gardner adeptly conveys that an educated mind is one that can intelligently assess ideas at a level beyond initial impressions and patterns. The antithesis of his ideal is the "cultural literacy," which Gardner equates as a "barn full" of facts absent the cognitive powers to abstract meaning and project into other problems. He uses three scenarios (evolution, The Marriage of Figaro, and the Holocaust) as subject matter for demonstrating his point that education must achieve depth before breadth. He also advocates truth, beauty, and good as the primary themes for education.

[Moriah Day]

It's a look at addressing multiple intelligences and learning styles and adapting to them as a teacher without letting things slide into mediocrity.

[Jeanine Marie Swenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A follow-up to Intelligence Reframed, Dr. Gardner presents more intelligent and evidence-based ways to foster the growth and evolution of the American educational system.

[Brad Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thoughtful, noble vision for education, but one that does not adequately address the political, economic, and social complexities associated with American education in the twenty-first century.

[Titik Musyarofah · Rating 4 out of 5]

buku bagus, terutama bagi yang konsep dengan konsep, pola dan struktur berpikir...

[Tulanegradliz Hotmailcom]

Howard Gardner is at the forefront of American education. If you are interested in his Multiple Intelligence theory this book is definitely worth reading.

[dv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chiaro e ottimo compendio di un'educazione basata sui principi del cognitivismo delle intelligenze multiple elaborate da Gardner. Centrale l'idea della necessaria ricerca e definizione (relativa) di ciò che è bene, bello, vero (vale a dire etica, arte, scienza).