In any group of people or classroom of students, you will find many different ways of learning and thinking. There will be a spectrum of ways in which students approach learning tasks.

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Have you ever left a class or a lecture thinking, I haven’t got a clue what that was about or what I should do now when all the while your peers have understood it fine or vice versa?

Well, it’s all down to the ways of learning that suit our brains.

• Multiple Intelligences
• Learning Styles
• Neurodiversity

The above theories all point to the conclusion that a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching students will not suit some, and therefore their academic progress will fall behind.

Multiple Intelligences- the various abilities we have

Harvard Professor Howard Gardner came up with the idea of multiple intelligences that challenges the idea of a single IQ. He says that there are multiple types of human intelligence, each representing different ways of processing information:

• Verbal-linguistic intelligence refers to an individual’s ability to analyse information and produce work that involves oral and written language, such as speeches, books, and emails.
• Logical-mathematical intelligence describes the ability to develop equations and proofs, make calculations, and solve abstract problems.
• Visual-spatial intelligence allows people to comprehend maps and other types of graphical information.
• Musical intelligence enables individuals to produce and make meaning of different types of sound.
• Naturalistic intelligence refers to the ability to identify and distinguish among different types of plants, animals, and weather formations found in the natural world.
• Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence entails using one’s own body to create products or solve problems.
• Interpersonal intelligence reflects recognising and understanding other people’s moods, desires, motivations, and intentions.
• Intrapersonal intelligence refers to people’s ability to recognise and understand themselves

Everyone has all eight types of intelligence listed above at varying aptitude levels. 

Learning Styles- how we learn.

For any of us to succeed and meet our potential in the world of education, we need to understand the best ways to learn and apply that throughout our studies.

The four main Learning Styles are:

These are exceptionally useful for students to know when studying, revising, making notes etc.

Neurodiversity

This term refers to variation in mental functions—for example, the human brain regarding sociability, learning, attention, mood.

In life, many of us are seen as ‘neurodiverse’; that is, we don’t act or think in the same ways as others in society. In simple terms, their brains function differently from most in society.

Traditional thinking is that students with such conditions are different from the majority of the population who are seen as neurotypical.

Many who are considered as ‘neurodiverse’ may have been diagnosed as having:

• Dyslexia
• Attention deficit and hyperactivity
• Autism
• Emotional and social-behavioural challenges

Many highly successful people who present with these issues have gone on to be highly influential in many fields such as Science, Maths, the Arts, etc. and have had an immense influence on society as a whole.

It has been argued that they would not be successful without this divergence from the norm. It is their differences that have given them success.

Neurodiverse learners may struggle with classroom learning, especially text-based approaches, but at the same time, they will all have strengths to celebrate, mainly in:

• Imagination
• Big picture thinking
• Strong intuition
• Creativity that offers significant contributions to all learning contexts.