Educational Design to Meet Learner‘s Need

Sixth Reflective Journal for PETA Course

23th November 2011 was another first meeting with PETA course after two weeks of midterm. That day our schedule was covering all the materials which hadn’t studied before. That why Ms Ine divided the class into five groups because there were five topics to be covered. There were differentiate model, cooperative learning, effective teacher and effective teaching, developing lesson plan and last is learning style and multiple intelligences. I was in the fifth group and got learning style and multiple intelligences topic. So in this reflection I will talk about learning style and multiple intelligences.

            According to discussion result in my group, we assume that learning style and multiple intelligences are theories which learned about human differences in educational context. Though these two theories teachers are expected to design an appropriate educational model/ instruction which meet learner needs.  To highlight learning style and multiple intelligences have different point of view to classified learners. I will talk about both of its one by one.

            First is learning style theories. Just like the name learning style theories classify learners into four groups based on learner’s learning styles. They are:

1.      The mastery style learner

This type of learner has tendency to absorb information concretely. So this learner like to process information sequentially step by step and put more focus on clarity.

2.      The understanding style learner

This type of learner is stress on how to understand an idea and an abstraction. They like questioning, reasoning, testing and evaluating an idea based on their logic and the contextual event.

3.      The self-expressive style learner

This type of learner are using more emotion and feeling in learning process. This learner is really good in expressing new idea and modifying/developing the existing idea. This learner also value and judge learning process with parameter originality, aesthetics and delight.

4.      The interpersonal style learner

This type of learner is similar with the mastery style learner but the difference is this type of learner prefers to learn in group rather that individually.

            Another thing to be noticed from this model is the statement that learning styles are not fixed throughout life. It could be shift from one type into another type. My concern is I still confuse whether someone’s learning style actually related or depend on the subject of the lesson. Does it possible if one person is a mastery style learner when she/he learns science then he/she becomes the self expressive style learner when he/she learns art?

            The second theory is multiple intelligences theory which is purposed by Howard Gardner. He classified learners into seven group based on their intelligences. They are linguistics intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, musical intelligence, bodily- kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence.

            Until now Gardner theory is popular. However there are two weakness of multiple intelligence theory. First this theory based on cognitive science. Second this theory focus on content of learning and does not consider individual process of learning. It cause some question like: Are the bodily kinesthetic intelligence between a football player and dancer different or the same? Are the musical intelligence between a singer and a composer different or the same?

            Actually those questions could be answered by integrating learning style and multiple intelligences theories. Because with the integration we will know that singer and composer have the same musical intelligence with different learning style.

            However to me it is still vague about the exact number of multiple intelligences. It is because some books say there are eight types of multiple intelligence, in other hand other books say there are nine types of multiple intelligence and my article (for group discussion) say it only seven types of multiple intelligence. Another thing which makes me confused is about the cognitive science. I am wondering about why one of the weaknesses of multiple intelligences is because it based on cognitive science. Is cognitive science hasn’t recognized yet in scientific world? That my entire reflective journal for now.