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Instructional Design Theories Gardner’s Five Minds clearly elucidates the cause for a radical, yet methodical change in today’s educational system. To cultivate individuals who: are capable of thinking through the scholarly disciplines beyond their formal education; are able to critically make meaning of and utilize mass amounts of information; creatively construct new knowledge and ideas derived from previous learning; are respectful and seek to understand situations and individuals outside of their immediate tenure, and strive to be good citizens and do good work, is a societal imperative. Educators must have a clear set of goals and values when undertaking the task of cultivation as well as the contextual understanding of the five minds. With respect to the order in which the five minds can and should be cultivated, Gardner (2008) suggests an order based on psychologist Erik Erikson’s (as cited by, Gardner 2008) idea of epi-genesis. Just as Erikson’s idea begins with infancy, Gardner’s follows. The respectful mind begins to form during infancy and continues to grow throughout the elementary years with a disciplined mind. The secondary years brings the synthesizing mind into development and the ethical mind is able to develop as a result of the cultivation of the previous minds. These periods of development are rather synergistic and the creative mind is subject to the respective place creativity holds within individual societies.
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