COMMEMORATING THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF HOWARD GARDNER’S THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES VIA RESEARCH OF HIS APPROACH ON DIFFERENT LEVELS OF EDUCATION SYSTEMS IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN

Abstract

Individual and social well-being is a priority of the OECD 2030 Learning Compass aiming at contributing to generally more livable societies. One of the thought leaders of this international professional innitiative and guidelines is Howard Gardner, the father of the theory of multiple intelligences (MI). This approach implies that human intelligence should be differentiated into modalities, rather than be accepted as a general ability. The present publication aims at commemorating the 40th birth anniversary of MI theory, illustrating different ways of its possible educational implications in the Carpathian Basin, that have been carried out in the past fifteen years by a team of researchers lead by Dezső and attached to the doctoral school in education sciences at the Faculty of Hunmanities and Social Sciences of the University of Pecs, Hungary. The teams’ professional results contain edited compilations of lesson plans, and thematic projects using Gardner’s theory, testbook analysis from adequate aspects, and relevant research on coopretion between pre-service teacher education and schools with socially disadvantaged pupils. One of the most longitudinal researches of the field is Schmidt’s development focusing on pre-scool education. Her work is built on one of the US «Project Zero» Project Spectrum methods, and is called EIDW (Everybody is Intelligent in Different Ways). Schmidt adopted games and activities in different locations in the Carpathian Basin and observed different children’s intelligence profiles as well as those of their educators’. Abraham and Kolip’s researches are in their emerging stage. Whereas Abraham has investigated possible manifestations of inter-, and intrapersonal intelligences in a Vojvodinan kindergarten, as part of MI, aiming at illustrating how socialization in the education system affects these components of children’s personalities, Kolip has focused on even younger children and their educators concerning these areas in a South-Transdanubian village nursery. Although the participants of the research team have issued their findings several times, this is the first publication their work is presented as a common achievement. Keywords: the theory of multiple intelligences, individual and social well-being, educational development, professional cooperation.