Psychologist howard gardner refuted the traditional concept of intelligence theory. He believes that the frequent use of intelligence tests makes people classify and mark them to judge their weaknesses and shortcomings, not their advantages. Intelligence is not something that can be easily measured. At present, only language and mathematical logic can be measured. If we must measure intelligence, we should focus on the problems that intelligence wants to solve, or on the creative ability shown when using intelligence. Intelligence is always carried out in a combined way. Everyone is an individual with multiple combinations of abilities, not an individual with a single problem-solving ability that can be measured by a paper-and-pencil test. Gardner put forward the viewpoint of knowledge pluralism. In the book "The Structure of Intelligence: Theory of Multiple Intelligences" (1983), Gardner defined intelligence as "the ability that individuals need to solve their own practical problems or produce and create a certain product under the value standard of a certain social and cultural environment". He believes that, on the one hand, intelligence is not a kind of ability but a group of abilities; On the other hand, intelligence does not exist in an integrated way, but in an independent way. On this basis, he expounded the theory of multiple intelligences about the types of intelligence and its basic nature.
This emerging intelligence theory, in terms of theoretical orientation, neither uses factor analysis to determine the components of intelligence, nor uses intelligence tests to identify the level of intelligence. Gardner believes that the content of the current intelligence test, because it focuses on the measurement of knowledge, leads to the narrowing of human intelligence and even the misinterpretation of human intelligence. According to Gardner's explanation, intelligence is the ability that individuals need to solve problems and create under the value standard of a certain literati environment. As for the diversity contained in the connotation of intelligence, Gardner believes that intelligence consists of the following eight abilities: linguistic intelligence, mathematical logic intelligence, spatial intelligence, physical movement intelligence, musical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, self-cognitive intelligence and natural cognitive intelligence.
Obviously, Gardner's intellectual pluralism puts forward a new explanation to the traditional concept of intelligence. According to the seven abilities listed, only the three abilities listed above can be regarded as intelligence from the traditional intelligence theory. The latter four abilities have never been tested in intelligence tests. Gardner integrated these abilities into intelligence, showing the new changes in the direction of intelligence theory in recent years. Another emerging theory to be discussed next has the same characteristics.
In Gardner's multiple intelligence framework, the human intelligence structure consists of at least nine intelligence elements:
Regarding the essence of intelligence, Gardner believes that everyone uses nine kinds of relatively independent intelligence at the same time, and these nine kinds of intelligence are combined in different ways and degrees, which makes everyone's intelligence have their own characteristics. This is the difference of intelligence, which is caused by environment and education. Although these nine kinds of intelligence exist in individuals under various environmental and educational conditions, the direction and degree of individual intelligence development are obviously different under different environmental and educational conditions. As far as the development direction of intelligence is concerned, the culture that lives by sailing attaches importance to "visual-spatial intelligence", and people living in this environment regard the relative development of spatial cognition and direction recognition as the same characteristics of intellectual development; Modern industrial culture environment characterized by mechanization and large-scale reproduction of products attaches importance to "speech-language intelligence" and "logic-mathematics intelligence". People living in this environment regard relatively developed written language ability and logical operation ability as the same characteristics of intellectual development. As far as the degree of intellectual development is concerned, the level of intellectual development is completely influenced or even restricted by education and environment. Gardner believes that under normal conditions, as long as there are appropriate external stimuli and individual efforts, each individual can develop and strengthen any kind of intelligence.
Gardner also believes that because everyone's intelligence has a unique way of expression, and each kind of intelligence has multiple ways of expression, it is difficult for us to find a unified evaluation standard suitable for anyone to evaluate a person's intelligence and success.