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.

Autorentext

David Perkins, Ph.D., is co-director of Harvard Project Zero, one of the foremost research centers in the country on children's learning, and a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Inhalt

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