Molly Hale's List: Week 2 Identifying Tools to assist student learning

• Information about learning styles and Multiple Intelligence (MI) is helpful for everyone especially for people with learning disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorder. Knowing your learning style will help you develop coping strategies to compensate for your weaknesses and capitalize on your strengths. This page provides an explanation of what learning styles and multiple intelligence are all about, an interactive assessment of your learning style/MI, and practical tips to make your learning style work for you.

• Felder and Silverman's Index of Learning Styles

   

  One of the most widely used models of learning styles is the Index of Learning Styles developed by Richard Felder and Linda Silverman in  the late 1980s. According to this model (which Felder revised in  2002) there are four dimensions of learning styles. Think of these  dimensions as a continuum with one learning preference on the far  left and the other on the far right.

• Figure 1 – Learning Styles Index

       

  Sensory

  Intuitive

      

  Sensory learners prefer concrete, practical, and procedural  information. They look for the facts.

  Intuitive learners prefer conceptual, innovative, and  theoretical information. They look for the meaning.
•    

  Visual

  Verbal

      

  Visual learners prefer graphs, pictures, and diagrams. They look  for visual representations of information.

  Verbal learners prefer to hear or read information. They look  for explanations with words.
•    

  Active

  Reflective

      

  Active learners prefer to manipulate objects, do physical  experiments, and learn by trying. They enjoy working in groups  to figure out problems.

  Reflective learners prefer to think things through, to evaluate  options, and learn by analysis. They enjoy figuring out a  problem on their own.
•    

  Sequential

  Global

      

  Sequential learners prefer to have information presented  linearly and in an orderly manner. They put together the details  in order to understand the big picture emerges.

  Global learners prefer a holistic and systematic approach. They  see the big picture first and then fill in the details.

• Once you know where your preferences lie on each of these dimensions,  you can begin to stretch beyond those preferences and develop a more  balanced approach to learning. Not only will you improve your  learning effectiveness, you will open yourself up to many different  ways of perceiving the world.

   

  Balance is key. You don't want to get too far on any one side of the  learning dimensions. When you do that you limit your ability to take  in new information and make sense of it quickly, accurately, and  effectively.

• Key Points

   

  Learning styles and preferences vary for each of us and in different  situations.

   

  By understanding this, and developing the skills that help you learn  in a variety of ways, you make the most of your learning potential.  And because you're better able to learn and gather information,  you'll make better decisions and choose better courses of action.

   

  And by understanding that other people can have quite different  learning preferences, you can learn to communicate your message  effectively in a way that many more people can understand. This is  fundamentally important, particularly if you're a professional for  whom communication is an important part of your job.

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• Gardner  suggests that virtually everyone has the capacity to develop all  seven intelligences to a reasonably high level of performance if  given the appropriate encouragement, enrichment, and instruction.
• The  Seven Multiple Intelligences in Children
• CHECKLIST  FOR ASSESSING STUDENTS' MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

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• • Word Smart (linguistic intelligence)
   
  • Math Smart (numerical/reasoning/logic intelligence)
   
  • Physically Smart (kinesthetic intelligence)
   
  • Music Smart (musical intelligence)
   
  • People Smart (interpersonal intelligence)
   
  • Self Smart (intrapersonal intelligence)
   
  • Visually Smart (Spatial intelligence)
• But other kids, kids who are smart in different ways, often have their very real talents overlooked or ignored by the very system that should be finding ways to engage that form of intelligence.
• The really cool thing about these multiple intelligences is that they are like having seven different keys to learning. Depending on a child’s given strengths, that strength can then be used to as a gateway into making other subjects more easily understood and mastered.
• These different intelligences are unique ways of seeing and perceiving the world and are strengths that are under-recognized by many standard teaching approaches. As I explain to the kids when I talk about writing, they don’t just have to be word smart to be good at writing. Whatever kind of smart they are, it can be used to make them a better writer.

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