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.