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Addressing Different Learning Styles in an Online Environment

Jane Langan

Department of Instructional Technology, Kennesaw State University

ITEC 7482: Facilitating Online Learning

Dr. Justin Castile

February 6, 2023
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Addressing Different Learning Styles in an Online Environment

Howard Gardner is credited with developing the theory of multiple intelligences

(1983). The eight types of intelligence originally described by Gardner include: musical-

rhythmic, visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic,

interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic. About a decade later, Gardner added existential

intelligence, or a concern with general life issues, to the list. According to Gardner (2011), the

educational implications of his theory are twofold: individuation and pluralization. By this he

means that learning can be individualized by teaching in the way a student learns best, but it can

(and should) also be pluralized by presenting what is to be learned in more than one way. This is

precisely what I gleaned from my own learning styles inventories.

The learning styles inventory provided by Literacy Works divided my learning styles into

the eight originally posited by Gardner and rank ordered them based on my responses. According

to this inventory, my strongest tendency is toward logical-mathematical intelligence. This might

be interesting to my students, since I am their language arts teacher, but I have always known

that was my tendency. However, I also scored highly in both interpersonal and verbal-linguistic

intelligence. The testing group adds a note below the scores that any area that scores above a

three is a strength. If that is the case, I use six different intelligences well: (to use their

terminology) logic/math, social, language, self, nature, and body. However, my scores in the

domains of musical and spatial intelligence hovered just above a score of one. This was not

surprising to me at all.

After learning that Gardner later added a ninth aspect, existentialism, to his learning

styles theory, I looked for another assessment that encompassed his revised theory. I found such

an assessment through Individual Differences Research Lab. My scores for that assessment were
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not that different than those assigned by Literacy Works. My lowest two, which were

significantly lower than the others, were still musical-rhythmic and visual-spatial. Interestingly,

though, my highest intelligence in this metric was interpersonal, followed by existential. I would

have to say that this is a more accurate finding, at least as far as I approach my subject area.

Regardless of scores on assessments of intelligence types, the message is still the same:

people learn differently from one another and we as teachers should do what we can to make

learning accessible to a variety of styles. This is not to say that a math teacher should incorporate

interpretive dance into his lesson on statistics, but that teachers should attempt to both

individualize and pluralize their lessons. This can be challenging in an online arena where a

teacher cannot read students faces (interpersonal) to ascertain who is understanding the material

in the way in which it is presented and who is not. In this case, I think that, in developing an

online course, pluralization would be most helpful.

In my own online lessons, I think I can present material in a variety of ways in order to

accommodate different learning styles. For example, in our reading of George Bernard Shaw’s

play Pygmalion, I can incorporate clips of Audrey Hepburn’s My Fair Lady (the musical

adaptation of the play) to help my students who are more musically inclined. In our study of

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, my visual-spatial learners could be addressed

through the use of plot diagrams to visually capture the details of the story. Both interpersonal

and existential style students could be activated through a discussion forum prompting an

analysis of Chaucer’s portrayal of medieval social class in The Canterbury Tales. To put it

simply, creating online lessons while keeping varying learning styles in mind is the first step to

reaching students. (I am also a fan of allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge in a

variety of ways, but that interpretive dance might be fodder for a later discussion.)
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References

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind: A Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York, NY: Basic

Books.

Gardner, H. (2011, August). Multiple Intelligences: Reflections After Thirty Years. Parent and

Community Newsletter.

Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (8 types of intelligences). SlideModel. (2022, July 28).

Retrieved February 1, 2023, from https://slidemodel.com/gardners-theory-8-multiple-

intelligences/#:~:text=The%20eight%20types%20of%20intelligence%20described%20by

%20Gardner%20include%3A%20musical,%2C%20namely%2C%20existential%20and

%20moral.

IDRlabs. (2023). Multiple Intelligences Test. Individual Differences Research Labs. Retrieved

February 1, 2023, from https://www.idrlabs.com/

Literacy Works. (n.d.). Multiple Intelligences for Adult Literacy and Education. Multiple

intelligences -- assessment. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from

http://www.literacynet.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html