Tyler D’Hondt

Sr. Brown

EDU 371

21 January 2021

Learning Styles are a topic that are subject to controversy. Whether I believe in them or

not, this assignment requires that I take two tests, VARK, and Multiple Intelligence, that will

give me my strengths with each intelligence. I will give an overview of the scores I received then

discuss my take on this new information and how I could apply this information in my future

teaching.

The first test that I took was the VARK questionnaire, earning the following ratings:

Visual (6), Aural (11), Read/Write (12), Kinesthetic (12), as well as the label of multimodal

(ARK). This test ended up doing a better job of telling me things that I do not prefer rather than

things that I do. Even then, I find that visual learning is something that I do quite often.

Concerning the Multiple Intelligences test, I received the following scores: Music (5),

Logic/Math (4.71), Social (4), Language (3.71), Self (3.71), Body (3.57), Nature (3.43), Spatial

(2.71). In the Principles of Teaching course that professor Sally Rae teaches, I ended up writing

my paper about my disbelief in the Multiple Intelligences during our unit on them. I believe that

preferences can certainly be beneficial to know in order to keep focus or maintain a positive

attitude toward whatever someone happens to be working on at the time, but I truly do not think

that there is a performance benefit to them. Whether or not I would use them in my classroom is

a different story.

I believe that although there is not a definitive boost in performance caused by tailoring

learning to the multiple intelligences and the learning style of my students, I do believe that there
are other benefits from heeding the information that these tests offer about them. To begin, I truly

believe that doing things that students are interested in will help their attitudes toward what is

happening in the various classrooms that they spend time in. For example, it was not uncommon

in my experiences throughout my time in school to encounter a classmate that was giving little to

no effort to the work in their classes based upon a simple distaste for the method with which the

information was being presented to them. This was in no manner related to their intellectual

capabilities, but to their attention and their perceived lack of comfort in the classroom. In this

aspect I see the knowledge of students’ preferences as something that is valuable.

To summarize, after taking the tests and receiving my scores, taking into consideration

my past research and experiences, I have deduced that I have maintained my belief in the lack of

performance benefits from multiple intelligences. That said, I do not believe that there are no

benefits of gathering information on students. These preferences from the learning style tests

yield some valuable insight into their personalities. In my future classroom, I would make sure to

take this into account and poll my students for ways to keep their attention prior to any student

coming into a situation like my former classmates.