Customer Reviews

Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book is a very good synthesis of Sternberg's work about intelligence, creativity and wisdom (a good option for someone who is not yet familiar with it) but it provides nothing but a combination of the previous contributions of the author. Its emphasis on the broadening of the concept of intelligence is not new in Sternberg's work. The main issue of the book is neither the relationships between the concepts, as I was expecting judging by the title, nor the new levels of analysis and explanation that could have emerged from those relationships. In the last chapter I felt really disappointed because it finished even before I thought it had started...

I enjoyed Sternberg's history of the concept & how people have fought over what to measure and how to measure it. "Intelligence" turns out to be quite a loaded notion! I found Sternberg's distinction between analytic, creative,and practical intelligence very helpful. It helped me understand why people with a high measured analytic intelligence sometimes fall short of what we think they could achieve.

A COMPREHENSIVE INTRODUCTION. BUT AS AN EDUCATOR I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE ACCESS TO THE TOOLS THAT HE USES TO MEASURE THE DIFFERENCE INTELLIGENCES - AS WELL AS MORE MATERIAL ON HOW TO USE THIS IN THE CLASSROOM - GUESS I WILL HAVE TO BUY ANOTHER OF HIS BOOKS FOR THIS... ONE DAY.

Added Jan 2010

Perhaps the most useful reason to buy the book is that it broadens ones perspective of intelligence is... or could be. Sometimes those who are academically adept are not able to function when other aspects of intelligence are called upon to get the job done. Sternberg presents another way of looking at intelligence in terms of:

Intelligence - more or less what one would expect it to be

Wisdom- a type of social/organisational situational awareness where one assesses whether you should persist to bring about change, change yourself or exit an organisation/problem or situation

Creativity - going beyond what currently is - various levels of this are discussed.

Considering we are in an age dominated by educational testing, data collection and analysis to determine who should be promoted, or accepted into university, or who a good teacher is etc, this book is informative in that it challenges us to question the basic assumption behind all measures of 'intelligence' and the exams/test derived from such assumptions are valid.

However even the very notion of the tri-archic intelligence promoted by Mr. Sternberg should also be in question. Basically intelligence is a construct developed by psychologists - and the notion of what it is and what it means has been a matter of considerable debate for a long time.

Intelligence is in the eye of the beholder- and Sternberg has invented, tested and validated his own version of it... equally as valid I guess as many other notions.