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| Jonathan Price | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 4, 2004 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Research Paper | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning and Intelligence | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| How do people think and learn? Everyone should know the answer to this important question. Two people who have found an answer to this question are Howard Gardner and Neil Fleming.� Howard Gardner talks about a theory that describes how people think, and Neil Fleming has developed a questionnaire to tell how people learn. This information from Gardner and Fleming, will show how I think, and learn, and use these answers towards school and at home.���� | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Howard Gardner is a HarvardUniversity professor of education and an author. He talks about the theory of Multiple Intelligences. He bases his theory on the idea that people have nine intelligences that they use, but some people use certain intelligences more than others. He first explained his theory in his book, Frames of Mind, and added to it in the book, Intelligence Reframed. The nine intelligences are verbal-linguistic, mathematical-logical, musical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, and existential.According to Gardner, the nine intelligences can be either increased or decreased by the way we use them. Gardner is a psychologist as well as a professor at HowardUniversity.� Over the years, his theory of Multiple Intelligences has been used in school systems. The teacher uses his theory to teach the students to develop certain intelligences that they are comfortable with and with which | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| they can grow. He defines intelligence as "The ability to solve problems, or create products, that are valued within one or more cultural settings" (Disney Learning Partnership). On the other hand, the traditional definition of intelligence is a uniform cognitive capacity people are born with. Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences are controversial because it challenges traditional beliefs in education and cognitive science. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| VARK is a type of questionnaire that gives a person a profile of their preference about how they take in and give out information. Neil Fleming, a teacher for forty years, is the creator of VARK. He created this questionnaire to improve teaching and learning. VARK stands for visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic, and learning modes. The questionnaire contains thirteen questions, and the reason for that is that if there are too many questions, the person taking it will take it less seriously and some may give false answers. VARK is part of a learning that people can work on or ignore. "The strength of the VARK questionnaire is that it provides strategies that can lead to success in a learning environment." (Fleming) The VARK questionnaire also provides strategies that can lead to success in a learning environment. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| The results of my multiple intelligence self-inventory are that my higher level of intelligence is visual-spatial, which means that I think in images and pictures in order to visualize accurately and abstractly in images. In my VARK questionnaire, I am a | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| multimodal learner, which means that I have multiple preferences of learning. My three overall preferences are read/write, visual and kinesthetic learning. I agree with my results | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| pertaining to both the multiple intelligence self-inventory and VARK survey. I believe that I think in the form of images because it is easier for me to remember an object when I can picture it in my mind. In learning, I use these multiple preferences to understand the information that I get from someone. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In college, I take many different types of courses. Some require hands-on work and some are lecture. My major in college is drafting, so I focus on using the computer to draw. This is where my visual-spatial intelligence comes in. Gardner said, "Spatial intelligence can be used in the arts or in sciences. If you are spatially intelligent and oriented toward the arts, you are more likely to become a painter or sculptor or architect than, say a musician or a writer." (Disney Learning Partnership) In my required courses, I use my multiple preferences. Each teacher has a different style of teaching.� Some of them reinforce what they are saying by adding stories and others just talk about the information at a certain pace and expect you to understand every word they are saying. Since I am a multimodal learner, I can adjust to each teacher's way of teaching. I can remember easier when the teacher uses stories; therefore, the notes that I take are not word for word. With the other teacher, it is hard to stay focused so I use note taking as a way of focusing. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In my free time when my mom wants me to go to the store for her, I want her to make me a list. When I go to different cities, I use a list of directions until I am familiar | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| with the route of travel. When I am at home, I can focus on one type of learning preference because I do not adjust to persons, they adjust to me. My visual intelligence | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| at home is used when I get an idea and I start to draw it. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� Howard Gardner's and Neil Fleming's information about thinking and learning gave me an understanding of how I respond to information that I take in. I now analyze different situations in my daily life and put them into the different categories that I have learned.� I believe that learning why I think and react as I do will make getting my college education easier. | |||||||||||||||||||||||