﻿ CETLA :: Guest Lecture Series

Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles

Constance Ellison, Ph.D.

May 24, 2004

Video Segments

  1. Why should you learn about learning styles?
  2. What is your learning style?
  3. What is Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences?
  4. How can you apply Garner's theory in the classroom?
  5. How can you adapt a lesson to each learning style?
  6. How does this lecture accommodate learning styles?


Instead of asking, “How smart are you?” teachers should ask, “How are you smart?” The second question is important because students possess different types of intelligences and, thus, different ways of learning. Schools have traditionally cultivated and rewarded Verbal/Linguistic and Logical/Mathematical intelligences. But according to Psychologist Howard Gardner, there are at least six other types of intelligences: Visual/Spatial, Musical/Rhythmic, Bodily/Kinesthetic, Naturalist, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal. To empower all students to learn, teachers should develop lessons that allow students to put to use these intelligences as well as the more traditional ones.