I just stumbled upon a learning styles quiz at Edutopia. It is interesting because it classifies intelligence according to the categories naturalistic, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, visual-spatial, logical-mathematical, and verbal-linguistic. I found the results surprising because I have always ‘seen myself’ as a visual learner – and have read that, overwhelmingly, people are visual learners. However, in this particular quiz, I scored very low in that area. Instead, my strongest score came in the area of “intrapersonal,” which describes a person who is “…connected to who you are and how you feel, and you know your own limits and abilities. You often set goals for yourself, self-manage, and reflect on results.” This is an excellent description of me, but is it my intelligence? That may be open to debate. I think that if you want to measure your learning style or that of your child, do so periodically and do so using a variety of evaluation tools. In my opinion, this is not a science, but it can shed light into the way we think and learn, and on what learning activities would be most beneficial for us. I am now going to give the quiz to my eldest child – I’ll report back later! I’d love to hear others’ insights!

 - Heather