Howard Gardner: Brief Biography and Synopsis of Work

Submitted by joshbader on 21 February 2010 - 5:35pm

Howard Gardner's work on multiple intelligences has been cited as an important reference in the advancement spatial literacy. Specifically, he identified spatial intelligence as one of the seven (now eight) distinct human intelligences.  The following link comes from the Encyclopaedia of Informal Education, and provides a good synopsis of Gardner's work and it's relation to education practices.

  

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm

Comments

Why is spatial thinking important to educators?

Submitted by jfitter on 22 March 2010 - 6:27am.

I know I am a visual spatial thinker/learner. I can't remember something without having seen it or made a picture in my mind of how the idea connects to something I already know or understand.

But how do I convince my Curriculum Director who is verbal and educated many years ago?

Where is the science reported that a K-12 educator can understand?

good resource

Submitted by joshbader on 28 March 2010 - 3:16pm.

One great resource would be the National Research Council's findings published in Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K-12 Curriculum (see link).  The book makes the case for why spatial thinking should be taught more extensively in K-12 schools and how geographic information systems could be used as an effective instrument to accomplish that goal. 

 

http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11019