UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Differentiated Instruction in Online Learning Environments:

Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences

Gail Taylor, M.Ed.

University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignHuman Resource Education Ph.D. Candidate

gdtaylor@uiuc.edu

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Introduction to Differentiated Instruction (DI)

Teaching philosophy that promotes student diversity inclassroom settings

Well-suited for adult learners

Recognizes individual students enter classrooms with differentabilities and motivations

Acknowledges student culture that underlies individual abilities and motivations

Empowers students within boundaries of organizationalstructures

University, college, department, program, and classroom levels

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Bounded Learning

“Schools and other institutions, from households to businesses to cultures, value certain ways

of thinking more than others.” (pg. 8)

“People whose ways of thinking do not match those valued by institutions

are usually penalized.” (pg. 8)

Robert Sternberg (2003) Thinking Styles. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Student Body before Conditioning–Patchwork Quilt Analogy

(Quilt source: www.dorchesterlibrary.org)

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Student Body after Conditioning –Double Wedding Ring Quilt Analogy

(Quilt source: www.rockymountainquilts.com)

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Educational Psychology Foundations

DI integrates what is known about brain development,constructivist learning theory, and learning styles

Brain development Brain-based learning and notion of multiple intelligences

Constructivist learning Students construct knowledge by completing social relation

activities and tasks

Learning styles Audio, kinesthetic and tactile, visual

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

DI in Practice

Every teacher has adopted DI in one way or another Different types of assignments, more student choices,

extending due dates, etc.

Possible to make classrooms more responsive to studentsthrough intentional and deliberate planning

Reasons, objectives, and goals for choosing a particular action clearly stated

Realizing DI requires reflection on practice Tracking and monitoring of various materials and procedures

on student learning and anticipated outcomes

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

DI Approaches

Can differentiate instruction by content, process, and/orproduct

Content – what is taught Processes – how something is taught Products – outcomes of teaching that are assessed to

determine student learning

Critical elements are choice, creativity, flexibility, and ongoingassessment of teacher and student practices and processes

Teacher and/or student initiated assessments

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

4-Step Process(Source: www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/teaching/differentiate/planning/)

Know your students Ability levels, interests, behavior management issues

Have a repertoire of teaching strategies Cooperative learning, direct instruction, inquiry-based learning,

etc.

Identify a variety of instructional activities Read a book, write a paper, do a web search, listen to music,

go on a field trip, create a blog or wiki as a class project, etc.

Identify different ways to assess student learning andacademic progress

Formative and summative evaluations Giving students options whether assignments should be

graded or completed for credit/no-credit

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Targeted Instruction

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Introduction to Learning Styles

Audio Hearing

Voices and other sounds

Kinesthetic and Tactile Doing and touching

Creating and manipulating objects

Visual Seeing

Images and other visual cues

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Assessing Learning Styles

Learning styles can be assessed by administeringquestionnaires and/or having conversations with students

Assortment of questionnaires available on Internet web sites http://www.usd.edu/trio/tut/ts/stylest.html

University of South Dakota Trio Program http://www.personal.psu.edu/bxb11/LSI/LSI.htm

Pennsylvania State University http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/

guidebk/teachtip/vark.htmUniversity of Hawaii

Available in multiple national languages

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Possibly Think the Same but Also Do Things Differently

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Broad Categories of Intelligences

Object-related Controlled and shaped by objects encountered and interacted

with in environments

Object-free Auditory systems (e.g., language, music)

Person-related Inter- and intra-personal that counterbalance interactions and

relationships with others

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Introduction to Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner presented the MI theory in 1983 Promotes a cross-cultural perspective of human learning

Believed there were 7 intelligences at the time theory wasformulated

List has now been expanded to include 9 intelligences

Continuing to evolve as teaching practices shift in response tosocietal pressures

Also related to advancement of knowledge about human learning processes in different settings

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Gardner Intelligence Types

Linguistic Read, write, communicate

Logical & Mathematical Patterns, reason, and thinking in a logical manner

Visual & Spatial Think in pictures and visualization of outcomes

Musical Make and compose music

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Gardner Intelligence Types (Cont.)

Bodily & Kinesthetic Problem-solving using one’s body

Interpersonal Good at relating to other people

Intrapersonal Good at doing self-analysis

Naturalist (new in 1996) Ability to make distinctions in the natural world and the

environment

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Assessing Multiple Intelligences

Intelligences can also be assessed by administeringquestionnaires and/or having conversations with students

Assortment of questionnaires available on Internet web sites http://www.accelerated-learning.net/learning_test.html http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/high/wotc/confli3.htm http://www.literacyproject.org/DL/

MultipleIntelligencesSurvey.htm

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Other Emerging Intelligence Types

Successful intelligence – Robert Sternberg Mental abilities to achieve life goals by adapting to, selection

of, and shaping environments

Moral intelligence – Robert Cole and Ernst Haas Ability to distinguish between right and wrong

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Planning for the Future

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Concluding Thoughts

Academic institutions are exploring the adoption of various e-learning technologies (e.g., electronic books, simulations, text messaging, podcasting, wikis, blogs)

Enhancing personal pedagogical practices is a way forteachers to become proficient at navigating what Curtis Bonkand Kyong-Jee Kim have called the “perfect e-storm”

Differentiated instruction is a pedagogical practice that canassist with determining how best to integrate new technologies into classroom settings where there are diverse groups of students

UIUC 2008 Faculty Summer Institute

Additional Resources

http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/menuitem.3adeebc6736780dddeb3ffdb62108a0c/

http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_diffinstruc.html

http://differentiatedinstruction.com/

http://www.disabilitystudiesforteachers.org/index.php?id=Differentiated%20Instruction

http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/tools/initiative/summerworkshop/walker/index.html