Learning styles inventory and assessment methods

Learning Styles Inventory (www. learning-styles-online.com) measures seven dimensions of a person's learning preferences: visual (spatial), aural (auditory -- musical), verbal (linguistic), physical (kinesthetic), logical (mathematical), social (interpersonal), and solitary (intrapersonal). The Learning Styles Inventory consists of 70 questions rated on a three-point Likert scale (0 = not like me at all, 1 = partially like me, 2 = always like me). This writer scored relatively high in the areas of logical, visual, verbal, and solitary preferences scoring the lowest on the musical scale. What this means is the subject tends to favor traditional ways of learning, prefers to learn alone (however, there was also a high score on the social scale), and does not prefer to use rhymes or musical -- type mnemonics or memory strategies as much.

The Learning Styles Inventory is an interesting approach to understanding how a person attempts to approach learning and academics and would be useful information for students who wish to determine the best types of strategies to use when tackling their studies and for teachers attempting to improve their delivery of material. Some students may prefer social (group) study situations, whereas others like this writer may prefer to tackle material on their own. Preferences for understanding material can range from logic and visual aids to other types of aides that allow a person to individualize their approach to learning material.

While The Learning Styles Inventory appears to have some similarities to Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (1983), it does not appear to be fully based on Gardner's theory. Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences is based on his disdain for the notion of a single construct of intelligence that is favored by many researchers. Gardner's theory has outlined at least 10 different intelligences ranging from Spatial Intelligence (a visual type of intelligence), to Linguistic Intelligence verbal), to Moral Intelligence (being virtuous). While Gardner's approach retains a level of popularity with lay -- persons there have been many academic criticisms of this approach (Jones, 2010; Kaufman, 2009). For example Gardner has never been able to provide empirical support for his particular designations and there is no support elsewhere for them. Second, empirical research on intelligence has consistently supported the notion of a unitary intelligence factor that is common to all known intelligence tests (even those that Gardner uses to support his theory). Finally, all modern intelligence tests measure aspects related to Gardner's different intelligences and yet these attributes reflect different types of abilities that are part of an overall underlying factor. In essence what Gardner has done is substitute "ability" for "intelligence" and has attempted to show that such abilities are mutually exclusive forms of intelligence, when in fact they most likely represent different preferences that are different aspects of an underlying general construct.