Snowflakes and Smarts: Teaching the Way Your Students Learn (Part 1)

Written by Dwayne Ulmer

It was one of those scientific "Aha!" moments I will never forget. At first I had a hard time believing my science teacher when he said that no two snowflakes were alike. Every one of the billions and billions of snowflakes was unique. I found that incomprehensible. It was one of the first times I remember thinking about the awesome design capabilities of our Creator.

It's interesting that no two youth learners are alike, either. Everyone is unique in the way he or she prefers to learn and in the way her or or she learns best. A tremendous amount of research has gone into the unique learning styles of individuals. Evidence now indicates that there are at least eight ways learners process the information they are taught. All teenagers are smart in some respect, but the research shows they are smart in different ways.

The following eight teaching-learning approaches (smarts) are what we now recognize as ways people learn best. It is likely that you teach teenagers who either prefer to learn or learn best in one or a combination of several of these eight approaches:

• People Smart: These teenagers are relational and like group activities that engage them in dialogue and discussions that involve them in learning with others.
• Music Smart: These teenagers are harmonic and rhythmic in their approach to learning. They like to sing, play instruments, compose, or listen to music.
• Logic Smart: These teenagers like to organize, compare/contrast, reason, analyze, evaluate, rank, classify, and debate. They are reasonable in their approach to learning.
• Nature Smart: These teenagers dig, touch, sort, classify, observe, protect, plant, cultivate, and conserve. They prefer the outdoors and are natural in their approach to learning.
• Picture Smart: These teenagers observe, diagram, draw/illustrate, storyboard, paint, spot, and view. They are visual in their approach to learning.
• Word Smart: These teenagers listen, list, write, use humor, tell stories, read, recite, label, and dialogue. They prefer verbal approaches to learning.
• Body Smart: These teenagers are active physically. They prefer and are often good at dancing, exercising, recreating, dramatizing, moving, and playing. They are very kinesthetic in their approach to learning.
• Self Smart: These teenagers meditate, evaluate self, journal, study, contemplate, personalize, dream and set goals. They are reflective in their approach to learning.

Effective teaching will involve a variety of techniques that appeal to all eight smart categories of learners. All eight intelligences are probably represented in the students you teach.

Take a few minutes to list the teenagers you teach and attempt to classify them as one or more types of learners. Discover more about each of these learning styles by reading through the rest of this helpful 5-part series.