Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences

Learning styles are very different and all are interesting. I learned about three different learning styles during my research for this assignment. The first is the visual learning style, learning by what you can see. The second is auditory learning, which is learning by what you hear and remember. The third is learning by what you do hands-on, which is called tactile learning. Everyone learns best in a specific way, and these three are the major ways in which we learn and remember information. THe Canfield Learning Styles Inventory is good to take as it allows you to describe how you learn best and shows you which category you fit into.

The first learning style that I learned about was the visual learning style. Visual learners think mostly in terms of physical space. They have the ability to learn through visual images. They usually enjoy drawing, building designs and making things. These learners daydream and like to watch movies and look at pictures. They have great imaginations, and are good at working puzzles and reading maps and graphs. The visual learners learn better by watching a teacher's facial expressions and graphs Auditory learners learn best by listening to lectures, talking about things and hearing what others have to say. They can figure out the not so obvious meanings of speech by listening to the tone of someone's voice or the pitch.

A lot of times written information doesn't mean too much until it is heard. Auditory learners may do well from reading aloud or from using a tape recorder Tactile or Kinesthetic learners learn best through a hands-on type of learning. They learn best while they are actually doing something. They enjoy learning about the world around them physically. They sometimes have a hard time sitting still and may feel the need to explore or be involved in activities. They are easily distracted by what is going on around them. Those are the three styles of learning and my style is the Tactile/Kinesthetic style of learning. After taking the evaluation and thinking about ways in which I learned things the best in the past, I came to the conclusion that I learn best by doing things hands-on. Sure, I could use a lecture and a graph as much as the next person, but the best thing that helps me to learn to do something is by doing it.

For example, when I became a professional photographer for a national portrait studio, I had manuals and books, had my boss telling me what to do, but I didn't feel that I even knew what was going on until I did it a couple of times, taking the pictures, using the computers, changing the film, which is not as easy as your everyday camera, believe me. After I had my hands on the film, in the dark changing bag, no visual help whatsoever, I did great. As long as I could feel it I knew what I was doing. If I see someone else do something and they tell me how to do it, it does me no good, but if I do it as they tell me what to do, I can remember it and do it on my own the next time.

This really makes sense to me now that I know about the different learning styles. Multiple Intelligences are seven different ways to demonstrate intellectual ability. This idea was conceived by Howard Gardner. There are also many other types of intelligences, such as interpersonal and musical. Most of these are self-explanatory. Visual intelligence is the ability to perceive the visual. Musical intelligence is the ability to appreciate music and to produce it, and so on. Each special intelligence shows special skills, such as people who are visually intelligent have skills in interior design or some such skill. It is pretty interesting to learn what multiple intelligences you may have.

You can take tests to find out which multiple intelligences you have and at what level by visiting http://www.tecweb.org/styles/stylesframe.html I found this website very informative and useful. References for this paper .(http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=2&did=119045908&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1160002781&clientId=4682) .(http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm) (http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm#is%20Multiple%20Intelligence http://www.tecweb.org/styles/stylesframe.html