“Schools of tomorrow will not exist the way they do today. The line between school, home and community will blur. Instead, a lot of education will take place on the streets and through computers. Young people will learn skills from applications available digitally,” said Howard Gardner, professor, Harvard University, who is best known among education circles for his theory of Multiple Intelligences.
He was speaking via video-conference to a gathering of educationalists, teachers and school entrepreneurs at XSEED’s inaugural conference on ‘School of Tomorrow’ organised by iDiscoveri here on Wednesday.
Speaking on his scientific theory on multiple intelligences, the professor said that human beings are intelligent and that no two individuals have the same profile of intelligence. “This theory has been relevant in many areas, including education. But, what should drive multiple intelligences is individualisation and pluralisation,” he said. While individualisation says that every child must be taught in his/her way, pluralisation talks about teaching the important things and in a number of ways. “The really complicated ideas should be taught not just by lecture, but my mind-mapping, group interactions, humour and art. The advantage here being you teach more number of students and you think in a lot number of ways,” he said.
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Building on the five kinds of mind that one needs to cultivate, he elaborated on each of them – discipline, synthesis, creativity, respectfulness and ethical mind. The five minds must be nurtured digitally, virtually and in all possible ways.
Dr. Gardner said that home and neighbourhood cannot cultivate the various minds and in the digital era the challenge is how best information can be best used. “Schools need to spend more time, and in the end it is important that one synthesise these five minds,” he added.