In Reply to: Re: Critical intelligence posted by MG on September 24, 2004 at 02:31:13:
Constructivism sees learning as the acquisition of external information in building blocks, which form knowledge structures when integrated with other blocks already in memory. This is the broader theory within which Gardner works.
Constructivism also sees the cognitive system as a conglomerate of inter-related sub-systems. There is no consensus on the subsystems and their functions but the theory serves as a good way to investigate mental processes.
As opposed to behavioral approaches, constructivism is a useful framework in educational psychology because it helps the instructional design, delivery and evaluation.
Gardner uses this framework to advance his views on MI, which has inspired much research and modifications. In my opinion his contribution is important in the identification of a diversity of categories related to individual differences. I can also see how these categorizations have value, particularly in education. Gardner's seminal book is called "Frames of mind".
The main criticism has to do with the methods he describes to test his ideas but no actual data is included. That made him vulnerable to other people advancing ideas on the same frame of reference and adding to the initial set of multiple intelligences.
In my opinion is an interesting approach to study the issue but its value is more practical than theoretical in that allows the separation of instructional objectives according to discrete categories.
My personal critique to MI is also to all the so-called intelligence tests. They don't know what the tests really measure because we don't really know what intelligence is (or which is what when and why).