This document summarizes a study on the impact of teaching styles on student learning and achievement. It discusses Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences and learning styles. The author conducted a 4-week study in their student teaching placement, teaching one week using primarily visual methods, one week using auditory, and one week using kinesthetic. Results showed that students were unaware of their own dominant learning style, and that aligning teaching style with learning style increased assignment completion but not grades. The author concludes that teaching to different learning styles does not significantly impact student achievement.

1. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
Teaching in Style:
Perceived and Ascribed Student Learning Styles
If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole
gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each
diverse human gift will find a fitting place.
- Margaret Mead
Throughout my student-teaching experience, I have had the opportunity to observe many
seasoned instructors and their diverse individual professional pedagogies. While all the teachers I
observed reached roughly the same goals in instruction, the way they reached those goals
differed based on their individual styles. Many of the veteran teachers adhered to the philosophy
of guiding student learning through discussions and lectures that necessitated the instructor to
take charge and keep it daily through direct instruction (Aloisi et al, 2014). That strategy was in
direct competition with newer teachers who believed that the burden of learning should be placed
squarely on the shoulders of the students through collaborative and problem-based learning. Just
as there are differing preferences in teaching styles from the perspective of teachers, there are
multiple styles of learning from the perspective of the student (Gardner 1983).
Picture that a father has just bought an elaborate dollhouse for his daughter for her
birthday that requires assembly; a job that has fallen on the shoulders of the father. The daughter
wanted to play with the dollhouse as soon as possible, so the father unpacked the house and
decided how to construct the dollhouse according to three options: he may read the directions,
call a friend who had put a similar house together before for instructions, or he may simply
attempt to put the house together on his own and learn along the way. While all three options
may result in success, it is up to the father to choose the option that is the most likely to lead to

2. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
the fastest completion of the project. Therefore, the father must know how he learns best;
through auditory commands, visual representations, or through experience.
Howard Gardner stated in 1983 that different students better understand the world
through different mediums (Gardner, 1983). Where one learner may hear a song and be able to
connect content to the lyrics, another may better understand a concept through analyzing graphs
and pictures. Reading the instructions may teach one father better than another that learns best
through the trial-and-error approach. Gardner believed that teachers should mold lessons to
better suit different styles of learning. This does not mean that teachers should forget the style
they perceive as their most effective delivery method; teachers should instead allow for multiple
perspectives to be present in order to bridge the gap between student and teacher styles of
instruction (Gardner, 1983). Standardization of lesson plans simply based on the preferences of
the instructor is not effective teaching practice because we all think differently due to the fact
that we are biologically different paired with the different life experiences we have all had. We
must transfer the social differences among us into the realm of education in order to create a
learning climate that is more reflective of the world around us.
Gardner’s Seven Learning Styles
If teachers are to consider the perspectives Gardner put forth, instructors will have much
to do indeed. At the conclusion of his study, Gardner identified seven different learning styles
that were present in our modern student population (Gardner, 1983). Although Gardner has
suggested that there may be up to ten distinct learning styles, I will only list the original seven
here.
 Visual-Spatial learning consists of thinking in terms of physical space, as do architects
and sailors. Visual-spatial students are aware of their environments, and like working

3. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
with their hands in order to transfer ideas into reality. These students are most effectively
taught through drawings, imagery, models, graphics, or charts.
 Bodily-kinesthetic learners use their bodies to express ideas, like a dancer or someone
who talks with their hands. These students communicate well through body language and
be taught through activities, hands-on learning, or role play.
 Musical learners are characterized by their love of music and sound that may be
identified by those who study with music in the background. They can be taught by
turning lessons into lyrics, music, and rap.
 Interpersonal learners are the more social among us who gain understanding by
interacting with others. They have many friends, empathy for others and may be taught
through group activities, seminars, and classroom discussions.
 Intrapersonal learners are the opposite who gain understanding through introspection.
These students are usually quiet in class who are in tune with their inner feelings; they
have wisdom, intuition and motivation, as well as a strong will.
 Linguistic learners have a talent of using words effectively due to their increased auditory
capacity. These students may be taught through reading, playing word games, or making
up poetry or stories.
 Logical -Mathematical learners may be characterized as those who always have a reason
for their actions and calculate consequences. These students think conceptually and
abstractly and are able to see and explore patterns and relationships. Effective teaching
strategies for such students include experiments, logic games, and puzzles.
When after observing the teaching style of many experienced teachers prior to running a
class myself, many students vocalized to me that they did not find value in their educational

4. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
experience because they were not taught how they liked to learn. While this was a common
statement, students had many answers to my question of how they would instead prefer to learn
if not through teaching based on Gardner’s multiple intelligences which had been effectively
implemented by the school district I observed. I decided to explore this phenomena in an attempt
to act as an intermediary between schooling and students to create a mutually beneficial
compromise. I have therefore attempted to bridge the gap between the Theory of Multiple
Intelligences and practice by examining the validity of Gardner’s theory within a high school
setting by creating a study based on the question: Does meeting student preferences in learning
result in increased levels of achievement?
Pedagogical Framework
Gardner’s theory was and continues to be accepted by the educational community as well
as backed by popular books, conferences such as the Education, Learning, Styles and Individual
Differences Network (ELSIN), and associations such as the Institute of Learning Styles Research
(ILSR). Institutions such as these as well as individual researchers have developed tests to
identify the learning styles of students to help teachers put the theory of multiple intelligences
into practice in the field. More recently, Brown et al collectivized the multitude of learning styles
which had previously been identified into three categories; auditory, visual, and kinesthetic
learning styles (Brown et al, 2014). The research conducted by Gardner continues to be updated
and practiced today.
Since 1983 when Gardner released his Multiple Intelligence Theory, criticism of the
theory as well as counter theories have been developed. The loudest protest has come from the
idea that because there are so many learning styles according to Gardner, it is therefore
impossible to effectively teach to all forms of learning effectively. Beyond that, there is

5. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
insufficient data to prove that personal learning styles exist let alone are able to influence
learning and achievement (North, 2015). Teachers have subsequently attempted to simply teach
according to all of the learning styles in order to cover as many instructional points as possible,
thereby reducing their ability to dig deeply into a learning topic (Jarrett, 2015).
Bruce Campbell decided to put Gardner’s theory to the test during the 1989-1990 school
year seven years after Gardner’s publication. Within his third grade classroom, Campbell created
seven learning stations based on each of Gardner’s learning styles that students would rotate
through once daily for one school year. The content of the stations changed each day to reflect
the lesson for that day, but the format remained the same. For example, the Interpersonal Station
allowed for collaboration within the learning topic up for discussion while the Intrapersonal
Station allowed for introspection and individual work. Campbell found that student engagement
of course material as well as student grades increased after the implementation of his system, and
has retained roughly the same format in subsequent years due to the degree of the success of his
research.
Although Campbell’s conclusions are rather convincing, I believe that those findings will
not transfer into the sphere of high school education. Given roughly similar conditions, not only
will students be unaware of their learning styles but teaching according to their ascribed
preferences will have little effect on their achievement within the classroom. Because they are
unaware of the best way in which they themselves learn, they will not detect the differentiation
of teaching styles within the experiment. High school students will see the class as simply the
class no matter the differences in teaching style, which will be reflected in no change within the
gradebook.

6. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
Research Plan
The purpose of this project is to question why teaching institutions ask teachers-in-
training to differentiate lesson plans according to different student learning styles. It is time we
step back and analyze why we are doing the things we do rather than simply doing them in order
to better understand the teaching and learning process. In order to study the effects teaching
according to learning styles has on achievement, I created and implemented a four-week study
within my own classroom during my student teaching experience modeled on the 1990 study
conducted by Bruce Campbell.
Within the ethnically predominantly white Midwestern school district where I conducted
my study, there were 72 participants within three sections of American Government with 48
students at the junior level, 22 senior level students, and 2 sophomores. There were 37 males
and 35 females, 4 students with 504 plans and 5 students who were to be taught in accordance
with Individualized Educational Practice plans. The classes were predominantly white with
African American, Somali, and Mexican American minority groups. The school district as a
whole tended to be ranked as a relatively high-achieving district academically.
In order to analyze student learning trends, I sought to adapt Campbell’s research to the
high school social studies setting in order to draw my own conclusions concerning the
effectiveness of learning styles. I was forced to create an abbreviated version of the Campbell
experiment by constraining data collection to a four week period. Furthermore, I found that in
order to draw useful conclusions during such a brief study that I was compelled to widen the
scope of the learning styles analyzed into the three categories devised by Brown et al (2014).
Before beginning my study, I as the researcher first addressed any biases I held toward
one style of teaching and learning by analyzing my own teaching and learning styles thus far in

7. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
order to decide which ideological position I inhabited. After, I then decided which style the
students I studied preferred to receive lessons and why in order to eliminate the bias within the
study as a whole. I did this by conducting an anonymous survey that all students completed
asking various questions centered on determining which style of learning the student preferred,
which style achieved the highest percentage of completion of assignments, and which style or
styles the student felt they are able to learn best from. I used the results of the survey as well as
the percentage of completion of assignments prior to the study as baseline data as well as to
identify and control for student bias.
I began to collect data by first gathering and quantifying the results of the introductory
survey. Students will answer questions on a one to five scale with five meaning they strongly
agree with the statement and with one meaning that they strongly disagree. Low answers trended
toward a student preference in auditory learning, mid-level answers reflected a preference in
visual learning, and high answers meant the student preferred kinesthetic learning. The survey
was conducted through a Google Form posted on the classroom website which automatically
populated the answers into a spreadsheet for analysis. l also recorded student grades as well as
the ratio of completed assignments during the first week of the study as well as during each
segment in order to gain as much data as possible during each interval.
To begin the study, I first taught with roughly equal representations of visual, auditory
and kinesthetic educational elements in order to gain accurate baseline data during the first week
of the study from January 26th to the 30th. During week two which lasted from February 2nd to
the 6th, I taught from a teacher-centered position which primarily focused on auditory learners.
While it is not possible to be the center of learning at all times as a high school teacher, I taught
through traditional lectures and discussions as often as possible and to the best of my ability.

8. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
During the third week of the study from February 9th to the thirteenth, I taught from the
perspective of visual learners by including as many videos, graphs, and general pictures as
possible into my lessons while controlling for the other teaching styles present within the survey.
Finally, the fourth week which began on February 16th and lasted until the 20th, I taught from a
kinesthetic position by implementing as many hands-on classroom activities as possible into my
lessons.
Because it is not possible to teach to one learning style while completely negating the
presence of the other two, I simply heavily favored one style while holding the other two to
roughly equal levels in the background of my instruction. During each section of the study, I
recorded student grades and completion percentages over the week I taught according to each
style as well as my own observations. I took the unrounded average completion percentage and
grade of all students in order to achieve an accurate depiction of not only which style most
students respond best to, but also the preferences of each class and even the preference of each
individual student.
In total, I identified three main results of my brief study:
1. Students were unaware of their dominant learning styles.
a. Most students were identified as auditory learners.
2. Completion rate of assignments and student attention increased when the dominant
teaching and learning style aligned.
3. Completion rate of assignments and student attention were not correlated with an increase
in student grades.

9. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
At the end of week four, I processed the data and created graphic illustrations in order to
articulate my results and the pedagogical implications that came along with them.
Findings
After I had gathered my baseline data including student grades and completion rate of
assignments prior to the start of the study, I found that roughly half of all students completed
major class projects such as unit assessments with an average grade being a B (Appendix
A). The introductory survey also revealed that students perceived their own learning styles to be
an equal combination of auditory and kinesthetic learning (Appendix B).
At the conclusion of week four of the study, I implemented an exit survey which was
designed to determine the actual learning styles of students which revealed that most students
were kinesthetic learners while levels of visual and auditory learners were roughly equal
(Appendix C). The survey contained ten questions per learning style including such questions as
“Looking at the person helps keep me focused,” “I would rather listen and learn than read and
learn,” and “I use the trial and error approach to problem-solving” to measure visual, auditory,
and kinesthetic modalities, respectively.
Students were therefore unaware of the learning style through which they most
effectively processed information. At the beginning of the study, most students stated that they
preferred to be taught by the instructor explaining how to do something, and then by trying it
themselves through activity. In relation to my question, one student stated “Yeah, that’s why I
think science classes are pretty cool. The teacher tells you about how an experiment works, and
then we try it out in labs.” The belief of students that a combination of learning modalities is the
most effective method of teaching was in line with current accepted pedagogy (Brown, 2014).

10. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
Because students believed they were in part kinesthetic learners according to the
introductory survey and the exit survey backed those assumptions, it would stand to reason that
student achievement would increase during the third week of the study where I taught primarily
through auditory methods. However, this was not entirely the case. While there was an increase
of the completion rate of assignments, that increase was not reflected in student grades in
comparison with week one baseline data (Appendix D). Summative assessment grades remained
at roughly a B level throughout the study regardless of the style of teaching for the week.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it stands to reason that teaching according to the majority learning style
within a classroom does not have a significant effect on student achievement. While students
may be more engaged within the classroom that best speaks to their style of learning regardless if
students are aware of their ascribed style or not, that engagement does not translate into
increased grades.
According to Gardner and Campbell, students who learn best through the kinesthetic
modality should have increased grades when taught primarily through kinesthetic methods. Even
when students were given the option to submit the culminating assignment for a unit in any
format they wished including videos, power points, pictures, or essays, students did not submit
assignments according to their primary modality. In fact, virtually all students submitted essays
in one form or another. About 86% of students submitted their assessments through traditional
essays while the rest submitted essays through alternative methods such as breaking up an essay
within PowerPoint slides (Appendix E). No matter the method of instruction or learning,
assessment data suggested no effect on student learning in response to individual learning styles.

11. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
I suggest that these results are due to a jaded student population who has been rewarded
by learning the path of least resistance through the mandatory American education system rather
than being rewarded for true learning. Students have been conditioned to give the instructor
exactly what they want to hear rather than being encouraged to create their own answers. The
modern American educational system has taught students how to meet expectations rather than
empower them to exceed those expectations. In summary, our educational framework does not
necessitate teaching creative thought and innovation but in fact encourages the opposite through
standardization (Zhao, 2015).
As a result even when a teacher achieves student engagement, that engagement will most
likely not mean higher grades. The most common question I received throughout my student
teaching experience was “How many points is this worth?” when a new assignment was handed
out. Even when engaged and students are given academic freedom within a classroom, students
care more about meeting the expectations of the instructor rather than creating their own. Student
engagement does not have the impact it should when all a teacher gains through engagement are
engaged drones.
The modern educational system has conditioned the next generation to forget their
educational strengths and to blend in with the rest of the student population through our policy of
standardization (Zhao, 2015). During the first week of my study, I used an equal representation
of each learning style in order to gain baseline data because that method of teaching is
representative of current teaching policy as a whole. Should we as instructors create a learning
climate that encourages conformity to the median rather than allowing and facilitating intelligent
entrepreneurship? I would argue the negative.

12. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
Because this study called into question such accepted views as the usefulness of multiple
intelligences within education as well as the educational system itself, one must also keep in
mind the deficiencies of the study. Firstly, I am a new teacher who is constantly developing as an
instructor, which may have resulted in researcher data error due to ability as well as bias within
the topic due to previously held beliefs on the validity of multiple intelligences. Also, the data
was gathered over a very short period of time with only one week allotted per grouped learning
style. Given enough time, I would ideally have liked to have studied each of Gardner’s seven
styles with at least one month given to each. Lastly, it is inherently difficult to isolate variables
and quantify the degree of actual student learning.
With those deficiencies in mind, I remain confident that we as instructors must question
the theory behind our current educational system. While we should differentiate lessons based on
different learning styles, we should not do so because students learn better one way or another.
Rather when teachers break the mold through differentiated instruction and constantly varying
delivery methods, we model creativity in a sea of standardization. By finding creativity within
the standard, we show students that they do not need to be drones even if there are some
stipulations they cannot escape from. Teachers may facilitate innovation while still hitting all the
state mandated standards.
The quote I placed at the beginning of this paper remains true at its end, but it must not be
thought of as Gardner would but must instead be viewed from a wider perspective. Teachers
must find the imaginations that make each student different and synthesize that with real-world
skills in order to create the next class of drivers behind the global economy (Zhao, 2015). We
must constantly ask ourselves if we preparing our children to take the reins of the global
marketplace, or are we preparing them to be the drones within it.

13. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
Appendix
Appendix A
After I had gathered my baseline data including student grades and completion rate of assignments prior
to the start of the study, I found that roughly half of all students completed major class projects such as
unit assessments with an average grade being a B.
Appendix B
The introductory survey also revealed that students perceived their own learning styles to be an equal
combination of auditory and kinesthetic learning. Students were to rank the degree to which they agreed
with the statement on a scale of one to three with one being a strong disagreement and 3 representing a
strong agreement.

14. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
1: Strongly Disagree 2: Neutral 3: Strongly Agree
Visual Modality
“I believe I learn best by visualizations of concepts.”
1: 1.4%
2: 27%
3: 62.2%
Auditory Modality
“I believe I learn best by hearing a concept explained to me.”
1: 25.7%
2: 48.6%
3: 16.2%
Kinesthetic Modality
“I believe I learn best by trying something myself.”
1: 5.4%
2: 27%
3: 58.1%
Appendix C
At the conclusion of week four of the study, I implemented an exit survey which was designed to
determine the actual learning styles of students which revealed that most students were kinesthetic
learners while levels of visual and auditory learners were roughly equal. The kinesthetic learning style
was the most common by about 5% and 5.8% when compared to the visual and auditory styles,
respectively.

15. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
Visual: 31.1%
Auditory: 32%
Kinesthetic: 36.9%
Appendix D
While there was an increase of the completion rate of assignments, that increase was not reflected in
student grades in comparison with week one baseline data. Grades remained roughly equal by proportion
when compared to the baseline data from Appendix A while the completion rate increased by 8%; a
relatively significant amount.

16. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
Appendix E
About 86% of students submitted their assessments through traditional essays while the rest submitted
essays through alternative methods such as breaking up an essay within PowerPoint slides.
Student work example: Students were given an overarching subject to explain as well as specific
questions to address within that subject.

17. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
Students were given to option to complete the assignment in any format they deemed appropriate
including: videos found online, Power Point, pictures, illustrations, lectures, news articles, etc.
Rather than utilizing their creative strengths, 86% of students answered the prompts in essay
format such as this slide from a student-created Power Point. This slide is representative of the
average essay-related submission. Approximately half of all essay-related submissions were
traditional essays.

18. Christopher White The Ohio State University 2015
References
Brown, P., McDaniels, M., Rodegier II, H. (2014, April) Make It Stick: The Science of Successful
Learning.
Campbell, Bruce (1991) Multiple Intelligences In The Classroom. Retrieved from
http://www.context.org/iclib/ic27/campbell/.
Aloisi, C., Coe, R., Higgins, S., Major, L. E. (2014, October 31) What Makes Great Teaching?
Retrieved from http://www.suttontrust.com/researcharchive/great-teaching/.
Education, Learning, Styles and Individual Differences Network (ELSIN) (1995). Retrieved from
http://www.learningstyles.org/.
Gardner, Howard (1983) Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
Institute of Learning Styles Research (ILSR) (1996). Retrieved from
http://www.learningstyles.org/history/index.html.
Jarrett, Christian (2015, January 5) All You Need to Know About the Learning Styles Myth in Two
Minutes. Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/2015/01/need-know-learning-styles-myth-two-
minutes/.
North, Anna (2015, February 25). Are ‘Learning Styles’ a Symptom of Education Ills? Retrieved
from http://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/are-learning-styles-a-symptom-of-educations-
ills/?_r=0.
Zhao, Young (2015, February) Ohio Educational Technology Conference Speech. Retrieved from
http://zhaolearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/WorldClass.pdf.