Synopses & Reviews
Since the turn of the century, the idea that intellectual capacity is fixed has been generally accepted. But increasingly, psychologists, educators, and others have come to challenge this premise.
Outsmarting IQ reveals how earlier discoveries about IQ, together with recent research, show that intelligence is not genetically fixed. Intelligence can be taught.
David Perkins, renowned for his research on thinking, learning, and education, identifies three distinct kinds of intelligence: the fixed neurological intelligence linked to IQ tests; the specialized knowledge and experience that individuals acquire over time; and reflective intelligence, the ability to become aware of one's mental habits and transcend limited patterns of thinking. Although all of these forms of intelligence function simultaneously, it is reflective intelligence, Perkins shows, that affords the best opportunity to amplify human intellect. This is the kind of intelligence that helps us to make wise personal decisions, solve challenging technical problems, find creative ideas, and learn complex topics in mathematics, the sciences, management, and other areas. It is the kind of intelligence most needed in an increasingly competitive and complicated world.
Using his own pathbreaking research at Harvard and a rich array of other sources, Perkins paints a compelling picture of the skills and attitudes underlying learnable intelligence. He identifies typical pitfalls in multiple perspectives, and neglecting evidence. He reveals the underlying mechanisms of intelligent behavior. And he explores new frontiers in the development of intelligence in education, business, and other settings.
This book will be of interest to people who have a personal or professional stake in increasing their intellectual skills, to those who look toward better education and a more thoughtful society, and not least to those who follow today's heated debates about the nature of intelligence.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 363-380) and index.
About the Author
David N. Perkins is a senior research associate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, co-director of Project Zero, and the author of several books, including Smart Schools: Better Thinking and Learning for Every Child (Free Press, 1992).
Table of Contents
Contents Acknowledgments
1. Telescopes and Intelligence
An Apple Cart Waiting to Be Upset
Reconstructing the Universe
Goddard's List
The Revolution We Need
An Evolutionary Double Bind
Three Mindware Questions
Isn't the Revolution Over Yet?
The Affirmative Revolution
PART I: IN SEARCH OF INTELLIGENCE
2. The Mind's Apple Falls
A Number for the Mind
Intelligent Behavior
Visible Intelligence
The Fundamental Experiment
Inside the Mind's Apple
3. The Empire of IQ
The One and Only Intelligence
Fast Neurons
Your Destiny Written in Your Genes
Is IQ Fair?
Intelligence as Essence
4. The Great IQ Roast
Multiple Intelligences
Changeable Intelligence
Intelligence as Expertise
Strategic Intelligence
From Clarity to Chaos
5. True Intelligence
Three Rival Theories
The New Intelligence
How the Three Dimensions Work Together
The Prospects of Learnable Intelligence
PART II: LEARNABLE INTELLIGENCE ON TRIAL
6. What's Wrong with My Neighbors' Thinking?
If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It!
The March of Folly
John Wayne Reasoning
Mindlessness
A Study of Everyday Thinking
A Sampler of Other Evidence
My Thinking
7. The Intelligence Paradox
Is the Paradox Real?
Intelligence Traps
The Pattern Machine
Why Homer Thrives
Why Homer Nods
More Causes of Defaults in Thinking
Hope for a Better Homer
8. Intelligence Can Be Taught
Project Intelligence
Reuven Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment
Edward de Bono's CoRT
Matthew Lipman's Philosophy for Children
Teaching Content and Thinking Together
Should We Be Satisfied?
9. The Great Debate
Before the Fall: The Golden Age of General Strategies
The Argument from Expertise
The Argument from Weak Methods
The Argument from Transfer
The Case for Reflective Intelligence
PART III: WHAT THE MIND IS MADE OF
10. The Right Stuff
The Right Stuff Question
Beyond Mental Strength
Beyond Mental Processes
Beyond Expertise
How Experiential and Reflective Intelligence Relate
11. Mapping the Mindscape
Mirrors of Mystery
The Soul of Intelligence
The Mind's Ladder
The Shape of the Mindscape
12. How the Map Matters
The Reaction Against g: Psychometric Boundaries
Gardner's Multiple Intelligences: Neural and Social Boundaries
Mike Anderson's Model: Boundaries Between Information Processing Mechanisms
Feuerstein's Model: Boundaries Between Phases
Baron's Search-Inference Framework: Boundaries from the Logic of Search
Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence: Boundaries from Context and Subtask
Why Different Maps Are Different
13. Mindware and the Millennium
The Evolution of Intelligence
Distributed Intelligence
Embracing Complexity
Dialectical Thinking
The Metacurriculum
The Artificial Intelligence of Human Beings
Notes
References
Index