The world is getting quite ruthless and the competition is fierce, and made even harder by the globalization. In order to survive the era to come, we need to have an edge over everyone by equipping ourselves with skills to give us the extra mile we sorely needed to excel and thrive. When it comes to that, nothing is more powerful than the right mindset or mental framework. In Five Minds for the Future, Howard Gardner, explores five dimensions of intelligence or thinking that require to be mastered in order to succeed.
Discipline Mind- can be developed via training to perfect a skill which means able to systematically approach problems in one’s area of expertise, as well as gathering and mastering the broad knowledge areas of one’s profession. The process to get the Discipline is lengthy and gruelling as it needs time and effort to master it and continue to hone it without stop beyond formal education. However, it can be fashioned if one is diligent enough.
Synthesizing Mind- able to gather up separate or seemingly unrelated parts of information and mesh them into a cohesive explanation that can be understood by one and other. This calls for the ability to analyse the data from vast sources of information which come in at a rapid rate, sort it accordingly and form it into something that make sense. Synthesizing will be mush efficient when one master the Discipline Mind as the information can be distinguished with expertise.
Creating Mind- going beyond the existing knowledge, able to look at the details of a situation or profession (product of synthesizing mind) and create incremental and significant changes that are original and out-of-the-box to benefit their organization or the profession as a whole. Creating mind is interlinked with Discipline and Synthesizing Mind. One must possess the first two before proceeding to the creating level.
Respectful Mind - ability to sidestep the common stereotypes of people or groups, acknowledge the differences and tolerate divergence. It’s tough to find the common ground with other but can be achieved through Discipline Mind.
Ethical Mind - how one interacts with oneself, trying to understand the role and act beyond self-interest, and society, doing what is the correct thing to be done for the good of all.
He is correct in his view that current education laid emphasis on science, technology and mathematics. Students are accumulating the factual or subject matter knowledge and memorizing formulae. Yet these students unable to answer when ask a question outside their familiar subject matter, meaning that they are unable to master it fully. The current concept of education needs to be revisit in hope to cope with the changing world. Students need to be exposed to social sciences, the humanities, arts, civics, ethics, health, safety as well with equal hours in the curriculum.
I however, personally disagree when
“Any talk of understanding the world- let alone adding to current understanding through further work in a discipline- would have seen exotic. Folklore, common sense, an occasional word from the wise sufficed. (Some varieties of Islamic education still embrace this vision.)”. [2]
Here, he assumes on the premise that education Islam relies on the Words of Holy Quran and Al-Hadith, passing the knowledge from generation to generation, accepting the knowledge uttered by the wise without any question, any judgement. Whereas in Islam, we know that the Words of Holy Quran are the truth and the knowledge in it explains the science which the world knows today. And to compare it to folklore or depending on the word of the wise is an erroneous judgement because those who study Al-Quran and analyse the words and the meaning it conveys would be successful in life just like those geniuses of the past, Al-Khwarizmi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina and Al-Battani. Therefore, Muslim does not merely accepting the ‘words of the wise’ –as
Reviewed by Cipan 01 September 2009
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