Learning Styles

Ruchell Todd
T&L 466
6 September 2007
Learning Styles

To evaluate my own personal learning style, I relied on a questionnaire based on Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. While replying to statements such as “You like to do crosswords, play Scrabble or have a go at other word puzzles” with yes or no answers, the test is evaluating whether you may have a high “Linguistic” intelligence. Similar questions follow for the remaining seven of Gardner’s eight intelligences. Based on the answers you give, the test calculates a score from one to one hundred to give an idea of your preferred intelligences. Unlike other learning styles tests I have taken, the results do not give you one specific answer as to your learning style. Instead of simply saying that you are a visual-spatial learner, for example, it displays your scores in all areas.

I located this test on the Lever-Duffy website as part of the “On The Web!” activity for chapter 1.7 of the third edition of the book. The address for this test is http://www.nedprod.com/Niall_stuff/intelligence_test.html and clicking on it will bring you to the test page, including some commentary from the creator about his interests in the multiple intelligence theory and his opinions on the validity of such tests. After answering the questions myself, my results showed that—with a score of 82—I have a higher musical intelligence than anything else, followed by a naturalist score of 70. After that, my scores in the other intelligences are roughly the same, averaging a score of about 50.

When I see my own results, I understand that these tests may, in some senses, be helpful, but they are also misleading. I can see how high scores can be misunderstood as interests. I scored highest in music. While it is true that I like to listen to the radio and sing along, I have never been able to understand instruments or read notes. I “can’t imagine life without music” as one of the questions asks, but that does not mean that I am gifted in music. Besides wondering whether the test in incorrect, it peaks my curiosity as to whether I may have thrown in the towel too soon to see my true potential in music.

I am surprised that I did not score higher in linguistic intelligence than I did, as an English
major. Reading and writing are things I feel I am very good at and I would have expected myself to score highest in this area. This test has shown me that, just because you are particularly fond of an activity or a subject, it does not mean that it is an area of the highest intelligence for you. The same applies the other way, just because you may be good at understanding something does not mean it necessarily interests you. Take for instance, my high score of naturalist intelligence. I am interested in the environment, and have done good in the science classes that interest me not I have never understood chemistry or botany and cannot envision myself involved in agriculture, as the test suggests.
Mainly, this test has shown me that, by taking a broad range of classes and being educated in many areas, I can tune into my own intelligences. I have also learned that you cannot claim to be a single intelligence. There are going to be subjects that appeal to you more, and you may lean toward one intelligence more than the other, but that does not mean the others do not still apply to you in some ways.

As far as implementing learning styles in my classroom, I think it is very important to incorporate many different aspects into your teaching to reach as many students as possible. It does not come as any surprise that every student in one class will not learn exactly the same way. On the other hand, I am not sure if using these measuring instruments would be a safe way to understand your students. I feel that, just because you may not score high in one area does not mean that you cannot improve in other areas. I worry that by testing students the way I tested myself, we may be limiting them. We would risk students seeing how high they scored in one area and focus solely in that area, or seeing how low they scored in another and using it as an excuse to give up. Just from seeing my own score now and realizing that I have chosen a profession in which my score was not the highest, I may have been confused had I seen it at an impressionable age. I might have been very frustrated that I scored high in music but did not do well in band class. I feel that, as a teacher, I will do everything to understand my students and understand the multiple intelligences and teach toward all of them, but I will not try to pin point my students as one intelligence or another by testing them. Hopefully I will be able to get to know my students individually and understand how they learn best, without using these sorts of questionnaires.