Developmental psychologist Howard E. Gardner '65 will deliver the keynote address at the 2024 convocation of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, HGSE Dean Bridget Terry Long announced April 15.
Gardner, a longtime professor at HGSE, is scheduled to address graduates at a convocation ceremony on May 22, the day before the university-wide commencement ceremony at Harvard Yard.
Although Gardner retired from teaching several years ago, he remains actively involved in research at Harvard University.
“I used to joke that I had the most medical records in the university because I've been in the medical service for 60-odd years,” Gardner said.
Gardner is world-renowned for decades of pioneering research in the field of cognitive psychology.
He is best known for his multiple intelligence theory, which theorizes that individuals possess multiple forms of intelligence beyond intellectual abilities, such as verbal, interpersonal, and spatial-visual.
Gardner said the overarching theme of his convocation speech was that to bring about lasting change in the field of education, students and leaders must balance long-standing continuity with rapidly changing circumstances. I'm saying that.
Gardner said HGSE students are generally “idealistic.”
“They want to improve education and, as the school's slogan says, 'Learn to save the world,'” he added. “We need to have two eyes, and one eye must be focused on continuity, the human needs that will always exist as long as there are young people we want to help develop. Many changes, intellectual, political, technological, etc.”
Mr. Gardner was one of the founding members of Project Zero, an important HGSE research center dedicated to enhancing learning in the arts and other disciplines, where he served as co-director for 28 years and currently serves on the steering committee. I am the chairperson of the committee.
In a press release announcing Gardner as the keynote speaker, Long said he is “an insightful voice in the field of education and a proud member of the HGSE community.”
“His scholarly contributions have been immeasurable, from the theory of multiple intelligences to the Good Project to his long service as co-director of Project Zero,” Long added. “But what stands out to me is his endless curiosity and generosity, and what better way to carry a message of hope, good work, and civic engagement to the next generation of educators and leaders.” People can't think.”
In 1996, Gardner co-founded The Good Project with psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and William Damon '67. This project aims to design tools for facing everyday ethical decisions, with a focus on effective collaboration, digital citizenship, and citizen participation.
Gardner explained that he and his colleagues define good citizenship as “having the three E's.”
“It has to be good, it has to be attractive and it has to be done in an ethical way,” he said.
Gardner said today's researchers and leaders have access to unprecedented levels of knowledge and increasingly powerful computing equipment, requiring them to rethink education “from cradle to grave.”
“The Ed School is uniquely poised to consider education from the beginning of life until people are no longer able to function,” Professor Gardner said.
“Any good teaching school should do that,” he added. “But as a lifelong Harvard guy, I want us to lead in that regard.”
—Staff writer Katie B. Tian can be reached at katie.tian@thecrimson.com.
