Understanding Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences
Module One

Jack Drury - Instructor
E-mail: jack@realworldlearning.info
Tel: 518-891-5915
Cell: 518-524-0732
Fax: 518-891-6989
Sandy Hildreth - Course Designer

Understanding Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences - Module 1 "How Learning takes Place"

INTRODUCTION:

Can you remember how you learned how to ride a bicycle? You probably weren't given a 40 minute lecture and then told to do it for homework. There wasn't a video followed by an essay question. Most children, when ready to learn how to ride a bike, have probably observed other children, or family members riding. Maybe they had tricycles or other small pedal toys that they rode on. A parent or other adult probably explained and demonstrated the different steps to riding a bicycle. Perhaps training wheels were used, but the most common technique is having the child get on the bike and then someone holds onto it while they learn how to get their balance. This can take weeks! Then there is usually a fairly long time for practice before the new rider goes out on the road. This is a pretty successful way to learn how to ride a bicycle. It's also an approach that addresses multiple learning styles. What does this have to do with classroom teaching? People learn in different ways. Strategies that reach different learning styles help children become more successful learners.

You are welcome to go ahead and read the rest of the course information on this page, but before you leave the page, please send an email to jack@realworldlearning.info and respond to the questions following this paragraph. If you want to highlight, copy, and paste these questions into the email, and then type your responses after each one, that will make it easier for me to read and respond. For participants to gain the most from this course, it is expected that there will be regular email communications with the course designer in order to make this an interactive, online course.

Module 1 Reflective Responses

1. What is your name, what do you teach (content & grade level), where do you teach, and how long have you been teaching?
2. What is your level of understanding with regard to Learning Styles & Multiple Intelligences? novice? some familiarity? reasonable proficiency? or extensive experience using numerous strategies? Explain
3. Is there anything related to the course topic that you really are interested in learning about?

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Participants will:

1) Increase their knowledge and understanding of various Learning Styles and the theory of Multiple Intelligences;
2) Integrate strategies that address Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences into existing instructional activities;
3) Examine and reflect upon how the new strategies impacted the success of learners;
4) Assemble a Final Course Product that serves the purpose of sharing a successful strategy/project with other teachers.

COURSE TASKS:

Each month there will be a description and supporting information on a specific strategy that addresses Learning Styles or Multiple Intelligences. Participants will be asked to try the strategy in their classrooms and reflect upon its effect on learning before accessing the course site the next month. Links to internet resources can be used at any time, and questions or comments can be emailed to the course designer whenever they come up.

NOTE: Modules were designed to be completed sequentially, but please feel free to look them over in advance.

Course tasks will include, but may not be limited to, strategies such as: 1) using a Graphic Organizer to visually organize new information for learners; 2) teaching students a new concept or skill and then asking them to come up with their own way of teaching it to someone else; 3) designing "options" for student products that allow for various Learning Styles; 4) the creation of Rubrics; and 5) using some online Learning Styles Inventories or Multiple Intelligence Tests to assess and analyze learners.

FINAL COURSE PRODUCT

The final product for this course can be any of the following:

1) a learning unit or lesson plan that addresses multiple learning styles;
2) an in-depth set of directions that would explain a specific strategy and how to apply it in the classroom;
3) a collection of student work that illustrates a variety of learning styles;
4) a narrative that describes specific strategies and how they successfully impacted a specific learner (unnamed) over time; or
5) a unique, original product that clearly addresses the topic (to be agreed upon in advance after consultation with course designer).

Module 1

READING:

While it would be impossible to use a long, individualized procedure (like that needed for learning how to ride a bike) to teach new knowledge and skills in the classroom, that procedure is directly related to the content of this course. A number of educational researchers have come up with a variety of names and approaches that address Learning Styles, but they all point to the fact that people essentially learn in these three ways: visually, auditorily, and hands-on. There are tests that can show that individuals have clear preferences and skills in one method of learning more than in the others. In real world situations, learning often takes place simultaneously in all three modes. Think about how we teach toddlers to interact with their environment. Yet when school children reach a certain age, it is often assumed that oral or written directions are perfectly suitable for entire groups of learners. Or that a complex procedure can be taught through explanation only. Research indicates those are false assumptions.

In successful classrooms, most teachers have found ways to present information in multiple formats, so they provide opportunities for all types of learners. A very simple way to include all learning styles when teaching is to " say it, show it, and do it". When introducing a new concept or skill, it needs to be explained, written on the board, overhead, or hand-out, and demonstrated or modeled. If the learners can actively participate in those activities, by talking about the new information, writing about it or drawing it, and doing it in a hands-on activity, there will be a higher percentage of success, sooner.

If more background information is needed, below are some links to internet sites for optional readings. There are also some links to online Learning Styles Inventories, Brain Hemisphere Preference Tests, and Multiple Intelligence Tests that can be accessed at any time throughout the course. If there is an interest, tests can be given to students, family members and/or colleagues. The results are often quite insightful. It is hoped that new experiences will be shared with other participants through the chat room or bulletin board, Questions or comments are encouraged at all times. Don't wait until the 10th of the month if there are concerns or confusion.

ACTIVITIES:

Check some of the websites below and take at least 1 of the teaching or learning styles inventories. If you teach older students, you might even consider having them take 1 of the learning styles surveys.

Within the next month:

1. Visit one or more of the suggested websites and compare the DMS/IP3 inventory we did together to what you learned about learning styles at the website.
2. Select a topic you were already planning to teach
3. Modifying your lesson so that during some portion of the lesson it attempts to reach each of the 4 IP3 styles discussed in our first meeting.
4. Monitor the effects of this lesson on your students' learning.

Upon completion submit to Jack the following:

1. The lesson plan you used
2. A clear and concise explanation of how you modified it to meet the needs of the four IP3 quadrants
3. A clear and concise assessment of how it worked, how the students reacted and how it differed from how you previously presented the lesson
4. What did you particularly like about the lesson and if you were to do the lesson again – describe anything you would do differently
5. Describe how the IP3 descriptions are similar or different to one or more of the learning styles you read about in the websites you visited.

OPTIONAL READING:

"How do People Learn? Right Brain vs. Left Brain Thinking"
http://www.funderstanding.com/right_left_brain.cfm

INTERNET LINKS:

Take one of the learning or teaching style inventories and see if it is reasonably accurate.

Teaching Style Inventory (Needs to be printed out).
http://snow.utoronto.ca/Learn2/mod3/tchstyle.html

Learning Styles Survey (May be taken online)
http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire

Understanding Collaboration and the IP3
http://www.realworldlearning.info/collaboration.pdf