Teach Effectively!

Over on Bright Hub, Linda Neas has a post entitled “Coping with Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom” in which she suggests how to employ understanding of MI to adapt instruction. “When educators are able to identify the various learning styles of their students, they are better able to teach in a manner supporting success for all students. A learning style chart is an invaluable tool when developing classroom management techniques.”

After opening with a paragraph about Howard Gardner’s concept of multiple intelligences, Ms. Neas indicates that standardized testing runs counter to assessing learners’ performance. How to teach, she asks? “Perhaps the answer is as simple as the classroom management technique of identifying the various intelligences within the classroom!”

In an interesting twist, after noting that Professor Gardner says that learning styles ≠ multiple intelligences, Ms. Neas argued that they are connected. She wrote, “In order to cope with multiple intelligences in the classroom, teachers need to quickly assess the learning styles of their students in order to incorporate into the curriculum activities that will meet their needs.”

As these contradictions might forewarn, there’s no reason to get too exited. It’s the same old poppycock. There’s nothing more than bald assertion. Ms. Neas provides no new evidence indicating that teaching according to learning styles or multiple intelligences produces demonstrable improvements in students’ outcomes. No references to research. No falsifiable tests.

Read the original of Ms. Neas’ article.