The Yale Herald :: Ace it with PACE: Making testing actually matter
BY DANIEL LEVIN BECKER
...THE GUIDING PRINCIPLE OF The Yale University PACE Center is what Dr. Robert Sternberg calls the triarchic theory of successful intelligence, which suggests that there are three kinds of intelligence - analytical, practical, and creative - and that each is a crucial element of success in and beyond education. (Mental flexibility, as it turns out, is essentially determined by one's ability to selectively switch between the three modes of thinking in order to best deal with unfamiliar situations.) PACE stands for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise, and it is the traditional perception of these three things as distinct and innate constructs which the center is committed to defeating; it aims instead to ease transition between them. "You need to be creative to have ideas, analytical to judge them, and practical to get them to work," Sternberg explains. "The logic applies to any field. Let's say you're a writer: It takes creative intelligence to develop ideas for novels and poems, analytical intelligence for the plotting and internal coherence of what you're writing; and practical intelligence to write something people are going to want to read."
The center's directorate body consists of Sternberg, IBM professor of psychology and education at Yale and current president of the American Psychological Association, his wife and deputy director Elena Grigorenko, and associate directors Linda Jarvin and Steve Stemler. While Sternberg and Grigorenko oversee nearly all of the center's projects, a small but growing handful of multinational consultants and research assistants take more involved roles at the helm of each.
The members of the center are busily directing the idea of triarchic intelligence toward research in a variety of academic areas; with the exception of the leadership projects, which are sponsored by the U.S. Army and explore ideas like the development of effective military leaders through explicit and tacit knowledge, PACE's projects are devoted to educational advancements. Its research is focused on creating successful teachers, developing better ways to nurture the talents of gifted students, and improving the overall structures of schools themselves...
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