Abstract:

Based on the research literature, there are at least, ten types of intelligences called linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, natural, existential, and moral intelligences and three main learning styles called visual, auditory and tactile styles. Research-based context-specific information on both learning styles and multiple intelligences can be very helpful for theoreticians, teachers, educators, scholars, and people with learning disabilities or special learning needs. The study reported here aimed at discovering possible relationships between Iranian university students’ Multiple Intelligences (MI) and their learning styles. Survey data were collected from 300 randomly selected learners from the student population of the University of Kashan in central Iran. To collect data, two different modified questionnaires were used: A “Multiple Intelligences Survey” and a “Learning Style Inventory”. The first instrument was a modified form of Mckenzie‘s (1999) MI Inventory. It was used to identify the intelligence profile of the participants. This questionnaire included 90 statements related to each of the nine intelligences proposed by Gardner. The second questionnaire used to identify the type of learning styles of the participants included 24 statements on the 3 different types of styles, 8 items for each. This questionnaire was taken from the website of Waubonsee Community College Learning Enhancement Center. The results of the study showed that visual style was highly correlated with all kinds of multiple intelligences, very strongly correlated with interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) and strongly correlated with Natural, Musical, Logical, Existential, Kinesthetic, Verbal and Visual-Spatial intelligences at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Strong, positive correlations between Auditory Style and Natural and Existential intelligences at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) was also found. Auditory Style and Visual-Spatial intelligences were not associated. The findings of this study have both theoretical and practical implications for effective teaching in multicultural classrooms.

Keywords:

Multiple Intelligences, Learning Styles, Howard, Individual Differences.