The Disciplined Mind
The Disciplined Mind: What All Students Should Understand by Howard Gardner. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.
Once again, Gardner raises our vision about what education can be and offers a new lens for understanding. This lucid book addresses both the goals of education and the way we educate.
Gardner believes that education should help students pursue determining what is true, what is beautiful, and what is good. He illustrates with three topics: the truth of Darwin's theory of evolution, the beauty of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and the opposite of good, the evil of the Holocaust. Examining such ideas develops students who are academically prepared and accept their role in making the world better. He notes that each community should identify its particular truths, beauties, and virtues and dedicate resources to helping its youth gain these understandings.
The arts, sciences, and humanities can be taught within this pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness, although Gardner notes that rote memorization and the acquisition of facts also have roles. He offers specific examples for pursuing these goals, using powerful entry points (Darwin's voyage on the HMS Beagle or a mathematical model of evolution), apt analogies (how Mozart's opera compares with the movies The Big Sleep or Chinatown), and multiple representations of core ideas (videotaped testimony of Holocaust eyewitnesses or photographs and films). He views the teacher as a "master orchestrator."
Gardner contrasts his approach, which seeks depth rather than mere coverage, with the cultural literacy model of E. D. Hirsch, which prepares students for success on multiple-choice tests and quiz shows. Gardner exhorts educators to prepare students to appropriately draw on their skills, concepts, or theories to demonstrate their understanding in new situations. He touches on various pathways to understanding; schools formed around different models of education; national standards; the importance of leadership; and ways of using his theory of multiple intelligences. This thought-provoking book has relevance for classroom teachers, administrators, and policymakers, who will finish it with more questions than answers, to Gardner's credit.
Published by Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Price: $25.
—Reviewed by Tom Hoerr, Director of the New City School, St. Louis, Missouri.
How People Learn
How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. National Research Council. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1999
A two-year project by the National Research Council, this book summarizes recent developments in cognitive science research and proposes recommendations for schools. The authors argue that a "new science of learning" is essential in our increasingly complex, information-overloaded society where coverage of the sheer magnitude of knowledge is an impossibility. They propose that an educational system for the 21st century must produce learners who read and think critically, express themselves clearly and persuasively, are able to solve complex problems, and become self-sustaining, lifelong learners.
Given this premise, the authors explore (and extensively document) several major areas of research that have direct application for educational practice: expert performance, transfer of learning, learning in early childhood, the brain and learning, learning environments, effective teaching, and new technologies.
- We need to focus on "conditionalized" knowledge that reflects not just content knowledge but the contexts within which it is applicable.
- Knowledge transfers best when students understand its underlying principles and can apply this knowledge to problems in new contexts.
- Infants and young children have many competencies that build foundations for later learning.
- Learning changes the physical structure of the brain, and different parts of the brain may be ready to learn at different times.
- Effective learning environments are learner centered, knowledge centered, and community centered.
- Teachers need "pedagogical content knowledge."
- New technologies can enhance the learning of teachers and administrators as well as that of students.
The book's illustrations of classroom practice increase the understanding of how the research can be applied, making it relevant for practitioners as well as for policymakers, preservice educators, and school administrators.
Published by National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20418. Price: $39.95.
—Reviewed by Pat Wolfe, Napa, California.
