hankyoreh

the Harvard educational psychology professor

By Jeon Jeong-yoon, staff reporter

“Parents and teachers should reject such claims.”

Howard Gardner, the Harvard educational psychology professor widely known for his multiple intelligences (MI) theory, urged South Korean parents to beware of dodgy marketing tactics by preschools and educational supply companies marketing products as “developing multiple intelligences” for their children, supposedly based on Gardner’s own theory.

The civic group World Without Worries About Private Education (WWWPE) released an email exchange with Gardner on Aug. 4. In a letter to the professor, the group asked if he believed South Korean private education products purportedly based on his MI theory were actually helpful in the development of multiple intelligences.

“Since its inception, MI Theory has been misused and misrepresented,” Gardner wrote in his reply.

“Although I was not aware Shadow Education Companies [in South Korea] were making unsubstantiated claims about MI Theory, unfortunately I am not surprised [because of many similar instances],” he continued. “I have never endorsed specific products.”

Before giving his reply, Gardner looked at examples of so-called “multiple intelligence” products from South Korean private education companies that were collected by the group. In its study, WWPE found eight leading textbook and educational material company selling items costing hundreds of dollars to “develop all eight intelligences” in the theory. The materials and texts were also reportedly used at seven franchises with over 160 branches nationwide, where students pay between 680,000 and 1,270,000 won (US$660-1,230) a month.

After being presented with the South Korean situation, Gardner took the opportunity to restate his theory, citing the importance of individuation and pluralization.

“The first, individuation (also termed personalization), suggests that since human beings have their own unique configuration of intelligences, we should take that into account when teaching, mentoring or nurturing,” he wrote.

“As much as possible we should teach individuals in ways that they can learn and we should assess them in a way that allows them to show what they have understood and to apply their knowledge and skills in unfamiliar contexts,” he added.

Pluralization, in contrast, is “a call for teaching consequential materials in several ways,” Gardner said.

“Whether you are teaching the arts, sciences, history, or math, you should decide which ideas are truly important and then you should present them in multiple ways,” he wrote.

According to WWWPE, the items supposedly based on MI theory do not conform to the principles outlined by Gardner.

“These aren’t products that are based on in-depth observation or study of individual children,” the group said. “They are about forcing the children to adapt to standardized and structured products.”

Song In-su, the group’s co-chairman, added that it plans to continue monitoring examples of companies marketing children’s education products with misrepresentations of Garden’s theory.

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