Case Study

understand his perspectives and probable motives for writing this chapter.

Howard Gardner was born on July 11, 1943 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Gardner started as a History major at Harvard, but he ultimately studied Cognitive Developmental Psychology at Harvard University. There were a few individuals who became inspirational role models in Gardner’s life. They included Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner, and Nelson Goodman. Gardner became intrigued with Piaget’s studies in developmental psychology. Jerome Bruner, one of Gardner’s mentors, was a cognitive psychologist at Harvard who became a role model for Gardner. Gardner was an enthusiastic students and found the university setting an exhilarating place to learn. He also was lucky enough to have Eric Erikson as his tutor. Erikson was a world-famous psychoanalyst and one of the leading reasons Gardner wanted to pursue a career as a scholar. In regards to these figures, Gardner said he,

After receiving his undergraduate degree from Harvard, Gardner worked for a short time with Jerome Butler; and he then went on to get his PhD in Social Psychology and Developmental Psychology. During this period, he joined the Project Zero, which was a research group that focused on human cognition with a special tie to the Arts. Currently, Gardner is the Senior Director of this group. Throughout his career, one of Gardner’s main goals has been educational reform.

Dr. Gardner is famous for his theory of multiple intelligences. In this theory there are eight areas with criteria that reflect “signs” of intelligences. Gardner formulated a list of seven types of intelligences. These lists appealed to different academic disciplines (such as psychology and education) because these intelligence types could serve as a basis of educating children and designing curricula to use in their education. The life experiences and research conducted throughout Gardner’s student years