Information about MI is helpful to me because it will allow be to develop coping strategies to compensate for my weaknesses and capitalize on my strengths. As a facilitator of learning, I feel that IM is especially important because I want my learners to understand the world that surrounds them, and to be able to apply lessons learned in their daily lives. IM is an important part of understanding how learners learn. This information is useful and allows me to grasp different methodologies, exercises and activities to reach my students.
You can communicate better with students using intelligences they are strong in. You can adjust your dilevery so it is more easily obtainable by individual students, or groups of students with similar traits. Knowinghow an individual processes information should direct your delivery of that information.
The more you understand about multiple intelligences, the more possible it is to tailor your teaching metodology around the various types of learners and their respective types of intelligences. The more knowledge you have of how the individuals process information when planning your instructional delivery, you can focus on verbal/linguistic examples if that is best etc. In the area of design where my students are concentrated, I generally know that visual/spatial intelligence is going to be high as a norm and try to play to this area of intelligence. If this is not the case for all students, I try to factor in other examples for those who are not there.
Hi Rachel,
Good to hear. This has been my experience as well. The students have an easier time getting the content and growing in their expertise when they are working within their intelligence area.
Gary
Hi Lisa,
Music can be used as a form of background support while studying. I control the selection and volume of music when my students are in the study mode. I don't allow ear buds or ipods in class. I want them, just as you do to be engaged in the class. Also, with their personal selection of music they may not be able to focus on the course content due to the beat or volume of the music. The students may not ever listen to the music I select on their own but that is ok because I am setting the tone for the class so I select music that calms and helps them focus. When they are on their own time they can crank it up and go for whatever type of music they want.
Gary
I have used this more within the last two years within my all of my classes. This helps me know where my students are and how I can assist them in their learning. I try in to teach in a way that carries over to all of the learning styles within my classes.
can you explain the connection between kinesthetic learners and listening to music when studying. I currently discourage earbuds during class thinking they should be engaged in what's happening in the classroom. Even though you can still hear through them, I think listening to music while studying is a distraction. What am I missing here?
Hi Meghan,
You raise a number of very interesting points and questions. A part of my teaching assignment is to train special education teachers so I am very familiar with what you are referring to in relation to individuals that come from the deaf culture. Your analysis of their abilities to "read" people and situations in different ways is I think right on.
"Reading" different social, professional and community situations and the people in those settings will help students to find a comfort level as well as a working level that will serve them well. The human factor and understanding the dynamics of interaction with others will determine to a major extent how successful a person will be in the work place.
Gary
Hi Mariann,
Good way to offer diversity and balance to your instruction. This way students can use their different intelligences to receive and decode the content. Since your field is more aligned to visual and tactile areas the students get to benefit from using not only cognitive but physical integration as well.
Gary
Although I teach Psychology at a career college at night, I am a teacher of high school Deaf students during the day. Aside from cultural differences, be it Latin American, French, etc, there are 'cultural differences',if you will, inside of our own country as well. I find constantly that the Deaf 'culture' is much more varied in their approach to learning than my own hearing culture.
So, what if a person cannot have or acquire another learning style such as musical? Are the other styles then more capable of being centered on? My personal experience would say so. My Deaf students are far more capable of understanding and reading body language than I due to their level of visual learning, for example. And, this isn't a stereotype as much as it is a strength that's developed within the Deaf culture over time (survival perhaps??).
So, what other inner-American cultures exist that highlight strengths in particular areas without stereotyping?
I agree when I offer a variety of instructional delivery the entire class can focus on the learning at hand. I try to involve all students learning preferences as much as possible. However, since I am a clinical instructor I primarily focus on audio, visual and tactile learning strategies.
Mariann U
Hi Scott,
Good question that you raise. The answer is to offer variety of instruction delivery and opportunities to learn. Then students can focus on the content through the different deliveries.
Gary
Thank you for your imput. I will try to use these strategies and incorporate them when teaching my nursing students in the clinical setting.
Mariann U
I do find myself conflicted when presented with the challenge of tailoring course material to multiple intelligences. For, no matter which mode you are targeting, you will be leaving out some, if not all, or the rest. Is it not more efficacious to teach to the intelligences that are the most prevalent? Alternatively, you can teach and reteach the same material multiple times, each time targeting a different intelligence (or set of intelligences); but, in the world of for-profit education, more content must be packed into shorter and shorter academic terms, fewer and fewer contact hours...
Is the answer is to make each lesson encompass all of the intelligences? To incorporate text, sound, color, movement, inter-personal communication, and music into every lecture and activity? It's a tall order....
Hi Mark,
You are fortunate to work in a college that is using MI as an instructional platform. Thanks for sharing how you break out the different intelligences for instruction. Well done.
Gary
I teach at a culinary school and durning class time every student has different intelligence,so to accommodate all student we use mulitple intelligencies. Some examples.
Verbal or Linquistic we assign a report and a speech.
Logical or Mathemactical intelligence we assign recipe conversions.
Interprsonal Intelligence we do group work and team work.
Body or Kineshetic Intelligence we Demonstrate all cooking skills.
Our test are set up to meet all muliple intelligencies.
I am a clinical nursing instructor so most of the skills are taught on a hands on basis. If I see particular students are having difficulty I adapt the teaching mode according to their particular learning style and intelligence. This usually works for most students.
Mariann U
Whenever possible, I offer students the choice of showing me what they know by providing a list of tasks dependent upon MI. Although I require the learners to attempt each separate task (ie: Writing, drawing, creating, etc...), after each assessment is "sampled", I let the students gravitate toward their preferred task style.
I agree that incorporating all three into a lecture/demo/instructional session will fit most students needs. This will accomodate visual, tactile and students that learn by hands on technique.
Mariann U
Multiple intelligences, multiple age groups, multiple learing styles. All of this is something that teachers encounter on a daily basis. When planning for instructional delivery one may find it useful to use different instructional delivery options. Visual learners, audible learners, and learn-by-doing all need to be tackled and executed in a different way. Incorporating all three of these into a lecture/demo/instructional session will meet most of the needs of your pupils.
