The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot. —Audre Lorde, writer and civil rights activist

Many of us, like Kyle, are accustomed to very traditional learning styles as a result of our experience as K–12 students. For instance, we can all remember listening to a teacher talk and copying notes off the chalkboard. However, when it comes to learning, one size doesn’t fit all. People have different learning strengths, styles, and preferences, and these can vary from subject to subject. For example, while Kyle might prefer listening to recordings to help him learn Spanish, he might prefer hands-on activities like labs to master the concepts in his biology course. This chapter will explore some theories that take into account these different approaches to learning.

Multiple Intelligences

For nearly a century, educators and psychologists have debated the nature of intelligence, and more specifically whether intelligence is just one broad ability or can take more than one form. Many classical definitions of the concept have tended to define intelligence as a single broad ability that allows a person to solve or complete many sorts of tasks, or at least many academic tasks like reading, knowledge of vocabulary, and the solving of logical problems.^[1]

One of the most prominent of these models to portray intelligence as having multiple forms is Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.^[2] Gardner proposes that there are eight different forms of intelligence, each of which functions independently of the others. Each person has a mix of all eight abilities—more of some and less of others—that helps to constitute that person’s individual cognitive profile. These eight intelligences are summarized in Table 1 below.

Since most tasks—including most tasks in classrooms—require several forms of intelligence and can be completed in more than one way, it is possible for people with various profiles of talents to succeed on a task equally well. In writing an essay, for example, a student with high interpersonal intelligence but rather average verbal intelligence might use her interpersonal strength to get a lot of help and advice from classmates and the teacher. A student with the opposite profile might work well on his own, but without the benefit of help from others. Both students might end up with essays that are good, but good for different reasons.

This model can be useful as a way for students to think about how you approach your learning. Multiple intelligences suggest that there is (or may be) more than one way to be “smart,” and that you can benefit from identifying your personal strengths and preferences.

Watch this video for an explanation of the eight different types of Multiple Intelligences.

Next, complete the following acivity to help you identify your strongest types of intelligences.

Sensory Learning Styles

Learning styles are also called learning modalities. Neil Fleming’s VARK model^[4] (which expanded on three modalities originally proposed by Walter Burke Barbe and colleagues) proposes four learning modalities, which relate learning to the senses:

1. Visual learning
2. Auditory learning
3. Read/write learning
4. Kinesthetic learning

Fleming claimed that visual learners have a preference for seeing information represented through visual aids that use methods other than words, such as graphs, charts, diagrams, and symbols. Auditory learners best learn through listening (lectures, discussions, tapes, etc.). Read/write learners have a preference for written words and gravitate toward readings, dictionaries, reference works, and research. Tactile/kinesthetic learners prefer to learn via experience—moving, touching, and doing (active exploration of the world, science projects, experiments, etc.). Additional examples of these modalities are shown below in Table 2.

The VARK model can be a helpful way of thinking about different learning styles and preferences, but they are certainly not the last word on how people learn or prefer to learn. Many educators consider the distinctions useful, finding that students benefit from having access to a blend of learning approaches. Others find the idea of three or four “styles” to be distracting or limiting.

The following video will help you review the types of learning styles and see how they might relate to your study habits:

Now, complete the following activity to identify your own preferred learning styles and reflect on how these affect your learning.

Multimodal Learning

In the college setting, you’ll probably discover that instructors teach their course materials according to the method they think will be most effective for all students. Thus, regardless of your individual learning preference, you will probably be asked to engage in all types of learning. For instance, even if you consider yourself to be a “visual learner,” you will still probably have to write papers in some of your classes. Research suggests that it’s good for the brain to learn in new ways and that learning in different modalities can help learners become more well-rounded.

Consider the following statistics on how much content students absorb through different learning methods:

• 10 percent of content they read
• 20 percent of content they hear
• 30 percent of content they visualize
• 50 percent of what they both visualize and hear
• 70 percent of what they say
• 90 percent of what they say and do

The range of these results underscores the importance of mixing up the ways in which you study and engage with learning materials.

Through completing the multiple intelligences and learning styles activities, you have likely discovered that you have multiple strengths and preferences. Applying more than one approach is known as multimodal learning. This strategy is useful not only for students who prefer to combine learning styles and intelligences, but also for those who may not know which works best for them. It’s also a good way to mix things up and keep learning fun.

For example, consider how you might combine visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles to a biology class. For visual learning, you could create flash cards containing images of individual animals and the species name. For auditory learning, you could have a friend quiz you on the flash cards. For kinesthetic learning, you could move the flash cards around on a board to show a food web (food chain).

Watch this brief supplemental video on Multimodal Learning.