Since the turn of the century, the idea that intellectual capacity is fixed has been generally accepted. But increasingly, psychologists, educators, and others have come to challenge this premise. Outsmarting IQ reveals how earlier discoveries about IQ, together with recent research, show that intelligence is not genetically fixed. Intelligence can be taught.
David Perkins, renowned for his research on thinking, learning, and education, identifies three distinct kinds of intelligence: the fixed neurological intelligence linked to IQ tests; the specialized knowledge and experience that individuals acquire over time; and reflective intelligence, the ability to become aware of one's mental habits and transcend limited patterns of thinking. Although all of these forms of intelligence function simultaneously, it is reflective intelligence, Perkins shows, that affords the best opportunity to amplify human intellect. This is the kind of intelligence that helps us to make wise personal decisions, solve challenging technical problems, find creative ideas, and learn complex topics in mathematics, the sciences, management, and other areas. It is the kind of intelligence most needed in an increasingly competitive and complicated world.
Using his own pathbreaking research at Harvard and a rich array of other sources, Perkins paints a compelling picture of the skills and attitudes underlying learnable intelligence. He identifies typical pitfalls in multiple perspectives, and neglecting evidence. He reveals the underlying mechanisms of intelligent behavior. And he explores new frontiers in the development of intelligence in education, business, and other settings.
This book will be of interest to people who have a personal or professional stake in increasing their intellectual skills, to those who look toward better education and a more thoughtful society, and not least to those who follow today's heated debates about the nature of intelligence.
Howard Gardner Harvard University, Author, Frames of Mind Moving beyond the tired debates within the IQ community, David Perkins daringly places mindfulness and reflection at the center of intelligence. With insight and humanity he shows us how we can all use our minds more effectively.
Robert J. Sternberg Yale University, Author, Defying the Crowd and Beyond IQ: The Triarchic Mind Outsmarting IQ, more than any other book currently available, combines in an integrative and exciting way what we know on the one hand about thinking, and on the other about intelligence. Perkins argues that theorists of intelligence need to go beyond not just IQ but mental processes as well, and to look at dispositions in thinking, which are both teachable and readily learnable. This is a book that anyone interested in intelligence will want to read.
Israel Scheffler Harvard University A brilliant and also a hopeful book about learnable -- and even teachable -- intelligence. Everyone concerned with finding a path through the IQ wars -- and that means parents and policymakers as well as teachers -- ought to read this book by a master educator.
Matthew Lipman Montclair State University, Director, Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children For years now, David Perkins has been commenting insightfully on developments in the field of cognitive education. How appropriate now that he brings us this long-awaited study of the contrast between the increasingly problematic concept of intelligence and the rapid strengthening of the concept of thinking! Parents, teachers, and administrators will all enthusiastically welcome this popularly written introduction to the educational approaches that, in the years ahead, will shape the way we learn and think. Outsmarting IQ provides a useful map of the newly emerging terrain that responsible educators should know.
