Howard Gardner

Psychologist Class of December 1981
location icon Location
Cambridge, Massachusetts
age iconAge
38 at time of award

About Howard's Work

Howard Gardner is a psychologist who studies the development, deployment, and nurturance of different forms of human intelligence.

Biography

Trained in developmental psychology and neuropsychology, Gardner has carried out extensive research on the development of different kinds of symbol-using skills, and has investigated the disruption of these symbolic competencies under conditions of brain damage.  Drawing on his theory of“multiple intelligences,” he has undertaken a number of initiatives designed to improve the quality of instruction, learning, and assessment in precollegiate education.  He is the author of hundreds of articles and eighteen books, including Frames of Mind (1983), The Mind’s New Science (1985), The Unschooled Mind (1991), Creating Minds (1993), Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership (1995), Intelligence Reframed (1999), The Disciplined Mind (2000), and Changing Minds (2004).

Gardner received an A.B. (1965) and a Ph.D. (1971) from Harvard University.

Recent News

Howard Gardner continues to serve as the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is a recipient of the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Education (1990) and the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences (2011), and he has received honorary degrees from thirty colleges and universities. Gardner has studied and written extensively about intelligence, creativity, leadership, and professional ethics and is senior director of Project Zero and co-founder of the Good Project (1994). For the last several years, he has worked in various capacities with Harvard undergraduates and is now undertaking a study of liberal arts and sciences in the twenty-first century. Gardner’s books include Good Work (co-author, 2002), The Development and Education of the Mind (2005), Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons (2006), and Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed (2011). His latest co-authored book, The App Generation: How Today’s Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World, was published in 2013.

Updated July 2015

Published on December 1, 1981

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