Professional Documents
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This post was first published on Pete Laburns blog in Feb 2011
Gardner feels that these 5 minds are particularly at a premium in the world of
today and will be even more so in the future. They span both the cognitive
spectrum and human enterprise and are therefore comprehensive, global and
can be cultivated. Education is the key to developing these 5 minds for the
future, and while traditional forms of education will bear the burden of training
young minds, parents, peers and the media also play an as important role in
influencing and developing minds of tomorrow. Moreover, it is important to
note that in a world that shows no signs of slowing down, no individual or
organisation can afford to rest on his or her intellectual laurels. The future
belongs to those that have made an active lifelong commitment to continue to
learn. Gardner believes that in the workplace we should be seeking people
who possess disciplined, synthesising, creating, respectful and ethical minds,
but should all continue to perennially develop all five minds ourselves.
For the most part, traditional forms of education have remained quite
conservative. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, Gardner believes that it
is time for undertaking new educational practices. He believes that the current
practices are not working and that we are not educating young people who are
literate, immersed in the arts, capable of scientific theorising, tolerant of
immigrants or skilled in conflict resolution. Secondly, he feels that conditions in
the world have changed and are continuing to change so significantly that
certain goals, capacities and practises might no longer be beneficial, but in
fact counterproductive. We live at a time of vast changes. Most of these
changes entail the power of science and technology and globalization. These
changes call for new educational forms and processes.
Education is inherently and inevitably an issue of human goals and human
values. One cannot begin to develop an educational system unless one has in
mind the knowledge and skills that one values and a vision of the kind of
individuals one hopes will emerge at the end of the day. Educators need to
decide what traits they want to develop in youngsters before developing an
education system.
Recent years have seen the dominance of science and technology in
importance in education to the detriment of the social sciences, the
humanities, the arts, civics, civility, ethics, health, safety and fitness. Science
on its own can never constitute a sufficient education, no matter how valuable
the skills are to industry, and science is not the only important area of
knowledge that young people should be taught.
Globalization features four unprecedented trends:
1. The movement of capital and other market instruments around the
globe, with huge amounts circulating virtually instantaneously each day;
2. The movement of human beings across borders, with well more than
100-million immigrants scattered around the world at any time;
3. The movement of all matter of information through cyberspace, with
megabytes of information of various degrees of reliability available to
anyone with access to a computer;
4. The movement of popular culture such as stylish clothing, foods and
melodies readily across borders so that teenagers the world over look
increasingly similar, even as the tastes, beliefs and values of their elders
may also converge.
Gardner believes that current formal education still prepares students primarily
for the world of the past, rather than for possible worlds of the future. To be
specific, educators assume that educational goals and values are self-evident
without stating their precepts explicitly. We acknowledge the importance of
science and technology, but do not teach scientific ways of thinking, let alone
how to develop individuals with synthesising and creative capacities essential
for continual scientific and technological progress. In addition, we think of
science as the prototype for all knowledge, rather than one powerful way of
knowing that needs to be complemented by artistic and humanistic and
spiritual stances. We acknowledge the factors of globalisation but have not
figured out how to prepare youngsters so that they can survive and thrive in a
world different from anything we could imagine.
Turning to the workplace, we have become far more aware of the necessity of
continuing education. Nonetheless, much of corporate education is narrowly
focused on skills with innovation outsourced and ethics discussed in
occasional workshops. Few corporate settings embrace a liberal arts
perspective. We do not think deeply about the human qualities that we want to
cultivate at the workplace.
The 5 minds for the future are the main characteristics that we will need to
cultivate if we are to have the kinds of managers, leaders and citizens needed
to populate our planet.
Yet the forces that stand in the way of synthesis are formidable. Developing a
disciplined mind that can think systematically within one scholarly discipline or
profession is difficult, never mind trying to master a number of perspectives
and then piece them together in a useful way. In addition, individual cognition
is remarkably domain-specific and is predisposed to learn skills in certain
contexts. Few individuals have expertise in inculcating the skill of synthesis.
Some common examples of synthesis could take the form of narratives,
taxonomies, complex concepts, rules and aphorisms, powerful metaphors,
embodiments without words, theories and metatheory. In general, any
synthesis entails four loosely ordered components:
1. A goal a statement or conception of what the synthesiser is trying to
achieve.
2. A starting point an idea, image or any previous work on which to build.
3. Selection of strategy, method and approach here the synthesisers
disciplinary training comes into play. The Synthesiser must choose the
format of his ultimate synthesis, and drawing on his discipline, must
proceed toward the goal.
4. Drafts and feedback eventually the synthesiser must develop an initial
synthesis and receive feedback on it.
The mind of the young person is characterised by two powerful but
contradictory features. On the one hand, preschool children readily discern
connections between many things, using their imaginations to use every day
objects as imaginary props in their adventures. Preschool children love using
metaphors to describe things. While they are excellent connectors, their
connections are superficial and cannot be continued when trying to synthesise
things in adulthood. The natural human connecting ability is charming but
hardly sufficient for adult life.
On the other hand, by middle childhood, the human connecting impulse, while
still there, has been chastened or corralled to where we shy away from
proposing fresh comparisons for fear of them being inexact or illegitimate. In
this way human beings turn out to be creatures that are quite context or sitespecific and do not apply skills or concepts widely. Professional training only
reinforces these tendencies, making people more set in their ways of doing
things and making it more difficult to transfer lessons from one area or
discipline to another. Aristotle deemed the capacity to create apt metaphors as
a sign of genius as it is such a difficult task for the average person to make
comparisons between two differing fields.
So how do you develop a synthesising mind, and is it possible to develop a
disciplined mind while still keeping alive the potential for synthetic thinking?
We have already noted the strong tendency of young children to see and
make connections easily. This cognitive skill constitutes an invaluable deposit
in ones intellectual bank that can be drawn upon at a later stage of life.
Therefore we should be careful to celebrate and not censor or curtail the
connections that are effortlessly made by young minds.
For the most part, the synthesising mind achieves little formal attention during
the school years. Exposure to the occasional adult synthesiser, mass media
presentation and the reading of a wide range of books might prove productive
in the development of connections in the long run. School projects and themerelated curricula can also help to aid the formation of connections, but it is
important to provide explicit standards in judging these projects, taking care to
explain that good connection need to come from the appropriate domain or
discipline. Educators must keep open the possibilities of connection making
and honour the plurality of appropriate connections while identifying those
syntheses that are lacking or flawed.
Explicit instruction about forms of synthesis and hints about how to create
them will be beneficial for young synthesisers to learn. Also, the more ways
that an individual can represent the same idea or concept, the more likely they
are to come up with a potent synthesis of those ideas, so children should be
encouraged to find as many ways as possible to represent an idea from
different angles. In addition it is important for young people to be exposed to
multi-perspectivalism. This involves students acquiring a better understanding
children observe from others, they have already begun to adopt stances
towards the groups to with they belong and those they dont. What is important
is whether young people attach moral significance to group membership. Is
group A simply different from group B which is ok, or is group A better or
worse than group B?
The task of educators is to fashion persons who respect differences. In order
to do this we need to provide models and offer lessons that encourage a
sympathetic stance. Messages of respect or disrespect or intolerance are
signalled throughout society. Genuine measures of respect are detectable
every day when no one is actively looking. If one wishes to raise individuals
who are respectful of differences across groups, a special burden is placed on
education in the social sciences, the human sciences, the arts and literature.
These subjects cannot bypass issues of respect as they are not pure
disciplinary studies, but need to confront directly the value of respect, the cost
of respect and the greater costs of disrespect in the long run. Terrorism has
many causes, but surely a feeling of alienation in ones current abode often
felt be the millions of immigrants from Africa, Asia and the poorer regions of
Europe is chief among them. As one passes through the years of middle
childhood and enters adolescence, a significant amount of time should be
spent dealing with issues of group membership and conflict.
In the workplace and in civil society respect is equally important. It is evident
that organisations and communities work more effectively when the individuals
within them seek to understand one another, to help one another, and to work
together for common goals. Examples of positive leadership are crucial here
and clear penalties for disrespect. Also, respect within an organisation is
difficult to maintain when those outside the organisation are deemed the
enemy. After all, ones competitors are human too and after the next merger or
takeover, you might find yourself inside the former rival.
Also important in the workplace is how successful teamwork depends more on
the management skills than the technical expertise of their leaders. Team
members respond favourably when their suggestions are taken seriously and
if they are encouraged to ask questions of one another, to weigh the pros and
cons of alternatives and to advocate positions other than their own, as this
approach promotes buy in once a decision has been made.
There is also the case of false respect when people will act respectfully when
they have something to gain from it, or who show respect in public settings,
but revert back to stereotypical jokes when they are in private. Political
correctness refers to speaking and acting positively toward a certain group just
because that group has in the past been subjected to mistreatment.
A truly respectful individual offers the benefit of the doubt to all human beings.
They avoid thinking in group terms and remain open to the possibility that their
past judgement of others may have been wrong. They are alert for a change in
behaviour that will reinstate a feeling of respect towards others.
The Ethical Mind
The Ethical mind is able to merge roles at work and as a citizen and act
consistently with those conceptualisations, striving towards good work and
good citizenship.
We all want to live in a world characterised by good work that is excellent,
ethical and engaging. Many people might look the picture of professionalism in
an expensive suit with impeccable manners, but if they are executing
compromised work they are not ethical members of society. We all need to be
committed individuals who embody an ethical orientation in our work. This
ethical manner should also include civic roles where each of us should have
the commitment to personally work towards the realisation of a virtuous
community that one can be proud of.
An ethical orientation begins at home where children observe their parents at
their work and play and in civic responsibilities. In contemporary society, peers
and colleagues also assume importance from an early age, and the quality of
that end when the going gets tough. There are four Ms that can help in the
achievement of good work.
1. Mission an individual should specify what he/she is trying to achieve in
their activities. The explicit knowledge of ones goals will help the person
to move forward in the right direction and avoid trouble.
2. Models it is important to have exposure to individuals who themselves
embody good work.
3. Mirror test (individual) the aspiring good worker must, from time to
time, look into the mirror and see whether they are proceeding in ways in
which they approve and can feel proud of.
4. Mirror test (professional responsibility) while a young worker may be
doing good work oneself, each person has a professional responsibility to
report the unprofessional behaviour of colleagues. There is an obligation
to monitor what peers are doing and when necessary to call them to
account.
In conclusion, regarding the development of these 5 minds in the lives of a
young children, parents and teachers should focus first on instilling a
respectful mind, then a disciplined mind, followed by a synthesising mind and
finally, in secondary school, an emphasis on ethics. Creativity goes hand in
glove with disciplinary thinking. In the absence of relevant disciplines, it is not
possible to be genuinely creative and in the absence of creativity, disciplines
can be used only to go over the status quo.
While each person may have strengths in one or more area, we should all
endeavour to develop a balance of all 5 minds. Those who succeed in
cultivating the pentad of minds are most likely to thrive in the world.