Learning Styles (3167 words) Essay Example For Students

Learning Styles (3167 words) Essay Learning StylesLearning Styles Throughout our lives, we are faced with many different learning experiences. Some of these experiences have made a better impact than others. We can attribute this to our learning style. A persons learning style is the method through which they gain information about their environment. Research is going on all over the world to help explain learning styles. As teachers, it is our responsibility to learn about these different learning styles so that we can appeal to every type of learner in our classrooms. Howard Gardner has elaborated on the concept of learning style through what he calls ?multiple intelligences? (Gardner 3). Understanding these intelligences will help us to design our classrooms and curriculum in a way that will appeal to all of our students. We may even be able to curb negative behavior by reaching students in a different way. If we implement activities that call upon the use of all these ?intelligences? (Gardner 2) we will get the best out of all of our students (Santrock 311). Their grades will improve and they will retain more information for a longer period of time. Learning styles can also help us to determine possible career paths so that we can help to steer children in the right direction. Discovering our own learning styles can potentially maximize our own information processing and teaching techniques. Howard Gardner is a professor at Harvard who has studied the idea of intelligence in a way that links research and personal experience (Traub 1). He began speaking about ?multiple intelligences? in 1983. Since then, he has won a MacArthur ?genius? grant, he has written books which have been translated into twenty languages, and he gives about seventy-five speeches a year (Truab 1). His ideas have been backed and popularized by many groups seeking to reform the current educational system. The idea is that we know a child who scores well on tests is smart, but that doesnt mean a child who does not score well is not getting the information or is incapable of getting it (Traub1). Gardners goal is to turn what we normally think of as intelligence into a mere aspect of a much wider range of aptitudes (Traub 1). Most of us believe that doing well in school requires a certain amount of intelligence. School work usually focuses on only two avenues of intelligence. Traditional teaching focuses on verbal and mathematical skills. A person who is weak in both of these will probably do poorly in school. Gardner suggests that their is eight different aptitudes or ?intelligences? (Gardner 3). Each individual has the ?eight intelligences? in various amounts. Our strengths and weaknesses in the ?intelligences? influence how we learn (Gardner 5). They may even affect how successful we are in life. ?Verbal- linguistic? is the first of Gardners proposed ?intelligences? (Gardner). A linguistic learner thinks in words. This person uses language to express and understand meaning (Gardner 24) Linguistic learners are sensitive to the meaning of words, their order, and their inflection (Gardner 24) This type of person uses writing to express themselves, often through poetry, stories, and letters. ?Verbal linguistic? (Gardner 24) learners are usually very skilled readers. Speaking is another strength that they possess. Oral communication is used often for persuasion and memorization (Gardner 133). They are often eloquent speakers and have wonderfully developed auditory skills. This type of intelligence tends to pick up foreign languages with ease. Identifying a ?verbal linguistic? (Gardner 24) learner in your classroom is not difficult. Because of their talents at expressing themselves their class work will stand out. They tend to do well at expressing themselves through writing. The will often speak their mind and can easily explain an event that happened through words, both speaking and writing. Planning lessons that appeal to the ?verbal linguistic? (Gardner 24) learner is very easy. The traditional curriculum appeals best to this kind of learner. They are very good at reading and writing which is already the main method of teaching in most classrooms. Some activities that appeal to this kind of learner are storytelling, writing essays, joking, debating, story problems, and crossword searches. These activities will allow the student to use words to learn material and express what they have learned through words. The ?visual spatial intelligence? has the ability to think in pictures (Gardner 65). They perceive the visual world accurately and are able to think in three dimensional terms. According to Gardner visual learners can easily recreate something that they have seen (Gardner 67). Art is usually a strong area for a student who learns this way. Constructing things is another activity that come easily to this type of learner. They have a knack for turning ideas into concrete examples (Gardner 67). An example of this type of student is some one who can bring an architectural design from their minds to paper and then into a model. A person strong in this type of ?intelligence? (Gardner 133) has a keen awareness between space and objects. The student who learns best visually will most often sit near the front of the class. They need to see the teachers body language and facial expressions to fully understand the content of a lesson. This type of learner learns best from visual display. Diagrams, illustrated text books, videos, flipcharts, and handouts are crucial to the learning of this type of ?intelligence? (Gardner 24) . Activities that this type of learner will excel at include: creating collages and posters, storyboarding, painting, and photographing. People who are strong in the ?visual spatial?(Gardner 17) type of intelligence are indispensable when it comes to professions. We rely on them to be aware of the big picture with the knowledge that each element relies on another. They seem to have an instinctual awareness of what is going on around them and are wonderful navigators, mechanics, engineers, architects, interior designers, and inventors. ?Body kinesthetic? (Gardner 88) learners have the ability to control body movements and handle objects skillfully (Gardner 88). These learners express themselves through movement. They have a good sense of balance and hand eye coordination. Interacting with the space around them is the way that the ?body kinesthetic?(Gardner 144) learner processes information. This learning style involves a sense of timing and coordination. Michael Jordan, for example would most likely have a well developed ?body kinesthetic intelligence? (Gardner 144). His ability to move quickly across a basketball court, while dribbling a ball, with a roaring crowd, while processing the whereabouts of five opponents and four teammates shows that there is a specific intelligence in his movement and perception of the basketball courts layout (Santrock 292). The Atomic Bomb in World War II Essay The ?naturalist? (Gardner 150) has an understanding of the natural world. This persons interest and understanding lies in plants, animals, and scientific studies (Gardner 155). They are able to recognize and classify individuals, species, and ecological relationships (Gardner 155). Interacting with living creatures comes easily to the naturalist. Gardner says that these types of learners have a certain skill for understanding animal behavior, their needs, and characteristics. The ?naturalist intelligence? (Gardner 156) will tend to have a green thumb and are able to grow plants with ease. In the classroom the ?naturalist learner? (Gardner 156) will often be an observer. They will enjoy field trips to places like the zoo and to farms. They will often have collections of insects and rocks which they could share with the class. They will benefit from activities such as collecting leaves, growing plants, doing experiments, and participating in field studies. Cooking and home economic related activities can also be a strength for the ?naturalist? (Gardner 156). One of the first interventions that can be used by the classroom teacher to accommodate individual learning style of students is changes in the classroom design. Many classrooms are formal in design with all students facing frontin rows. ..in desks. For the students whose preference is informal this often is a hindrance to learning. Offering optional seating in groups, pairs, and on couches can accommodate individual learning preferences and increase student success. Gardner believes that each of the intelligences can be destroyed by brain damage. According to Traubs article, Gardner studied brain damaged patients at Bostons Veterans Administration Hospital (Traub2). He found that patients who had profound damage to a main intellectual function, leaving them barely able to speak, could still recognize a metaphor or even tell a joke (Traub 2). I recently saw a news segment on the actor Dudley Moore who has a disease that is deteriorating his brain. He reported that he can no longer play the piano: ?I can not bring the sounds from my head out through the piano? (ABC News). This is perhaps an example of how brain damage or neurological diseases can affect intelligence. Each of the intelligences involve unique cognitive skills and shows up in exaggerated fashion in both the gifted and idiot savants (Gardner 168). Studies are being done concerning autism and learning styles. It appears that people with autism are more likely to rely on only one style of learning. Having worked with autistic children, I am able to say that each autistic child has his or her own way of interacting with the world. This can easily be translated into their primary learning style and can be very helpful for those who work with autistic children. By observing the autistic person, one may be able to determine his or her primary learning style. For example , if an autistic child enjoys looking at books, watching television, and tends to look carefully at people and objects, then he or she may be a visual learner (Santrock 433). Once a persons learning style is determined, then relying on this modality to teach can greatly increase the likelihood that the person will learn and possibly communicate. Some people have problems with Gardners theories about intelligence (Traub 3). Many say that there is no concrete research behind Gardners ideas (Traub 5). The problem may lie in the term ?intelligence? (Traub 3). Intelligence is not often viewed as a concept, but as a measurement, a term of value. (Traub 3). Gardner says that his use of the word ?intelligence? (Traub 3) is intentional. He chose to challenge the traditional view of the concept of intelligence. There are many different avenues available to help people discover their own learning style and assess their intelligence. Mainly there are questionnaires to help assess the way that people process information. Looking through a few of the assessment which can be found easily online, I found that they are pretty standard. They call for you to check statements that you find are true about yourself. These statements are then put into their appropriate ?intelligence? (Traub 3) category. The category with the most true statements is ranked as your strongest intelligence. Each of the other intelligences are put in order accordingly. As teachers, we can quickly assess our students at the beginning of the school year by performing a similar inventory. We can take the statements and re word them so that they appeal to a younger audience. We can also assign activities and let our children choose how they are going to present them. A fun activity that is often used is ?What I did over summer vacation?. The children are asked to present what they did over summer vacation. They are able to present this any way they like and are given suggestions such as ?Write a song about your summer vacation? for the musical learner; ?perform a skit about your Summer vacation? for the ?body kinesthetic? (Gardner 12) learner; and ?tell us what you learned about yourself over your Summer vacation? for the intrapersonal learner. Getting to know the learning styles of the children in your classroom at the beginning of the year will help you to plan your curriculum effectively for the rest of the year. Knowing about learning styles and multiple intelligence is helpful for everyone, especially for people with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder. Although there is not concrete research to back up Gardners theories; we know that using learning styles in the classrooms is working. Knowing your own learning style and the learning styles of your students will help to develop coping strategies, compensate for weaknesses, and capitalize strengths. It is every teachers duty to make the learning process a pleasurable one for all students; becoming familiar with the different learning styles will help us to do just that. BibliographyGardner, Howard. Frames of Mind. New York: Basic Books, 1988 Santrock, John. Child Development. McGraw-Hill, 1998 Special Report on Dudley Moore. Channel Seven News, ABC Network. Nov. 1999 Traub, James. ?Multiple Intelligence Disorder?. The New Republic (1998). 5 pgs. 24 November 1999Psychology