What’s Your Learning Style?

AKA, what kind of smart are you?

Here’s an innovative and highly visual look at the types of learners we work with in our classrooms. Recognizing these multiple intelligences as valid and effective allows for diverse contributions to the academic conversation. Ask your students at the start of the school year to self-identify where they are on this wheel.  Let them “see” that there are “all kinds of smart.”

You can also encourage students to take any number of free online surveys that will help them to determine which type of learner they are. Here is one I often use with my students, from the folks at LiteracyNet. There are 56 questions,(don’t worry, it goes fast, just a bubble to select), and after answering all of them, the student will get their top three strengths, as well as how the other 5 intelligences rank. This information is extremely helpful to students, as they can devise study strategies around their individual learning styles.

Fun facts: Did you know that 65 % of all students are visual learners? (Mind Tools, 1988). However, as much as 80% of instruction is typically done orally. (University of Illinois, 2009)