The Way We Learn

Howard Gardner of Project Zero at Harvard University has found that there are seven different ways that we learn, all of us learn particularly well with one or two of them while other ways may be really hard for us. The same can be said for our children, each of them learns best in their own unique way but we can help them learn how to become better at learning through all seven ways by teaching them concepts using as many ways as possible.

These "Seven Intelligences" are:

• Verbal/Linguistic
• Logical/Mathematical
• Musical
• Visual/Spatial
• Body/Kinesthetic
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal

Although everyone learns well through the kinesthetic, or learning by doing, very few of us learn well through the verbal lecture, the most common way to teach, I first heard about it when I was in middle school. This means that in order for our children to succeed in school in the long run they are going to need to get better at learning through lecture while also learning how they can teach themselves through other methods so that they aren't hindered by an instructors teaching method. We can give this to our children as we teach them ourselves by using all seven ways and paying close attention to what they most respond to. The next few posts I will be concentrating on each one of these "Seven Intelligences" and ways that we can incorporate them into teaching our children whatever concepts you want them to learn.