Learning Profiles

Learning profiles are preferred approaches to learning. They are a preference for taking in, exploring, or expressing content. A student's learning profile is shaped by four elements and the interactions among them:

1. Learning Style: A preferred contextual approach to learning. Learning styles including working along or with a partner, in a quiet place or with music playing, in a bright room or a darkened environment, while sitting still or moving around (Dunn & Dunn, 1992, 1993; Gregorc, 1979). 
2. Intelligence Preference: A hard-wired or neurologically shaped preference for learning or thinking. For example, intelligence preferences include verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, musical-rhythmic, spatial, analytical, practical, and creative (Gardner, 1985; Sternberg, 1985). 
3. Gender: Approaches to learning that may be shaped genetically or socially for males versus females. While not all males (or females) learn in the same ways, there are gender-based patterns of learning, and it may be advantageous to utilize teaching and learning options that reflect a range of gender-based preferences while we continue to enhance our understanding of ways in which gender and learning are interrelated (Gilligan, 1982; Gurian, 2001; Tannen, 1990). 
4. Culture: Approaches to learning that may be strongly shaped by the context in which an individual lives and by the unique ways in which people in that context make sense of and live their lives. For example, how people communicate, relate to one another across generations, envision power structures, celebrate and mourn, and show respect are shaped by culture. AS they do between genders, patters of learning vary somewhat across cultures, but it is not the case that all individuals from a given culture approach learning in the same way. Thus, it is likely advantageous to student learning for a teacher to provide a range of teaching and learning approaches that, in turn, reflect a range of culture-based learning preferences. In order to do this, it is essential that teachers study the diverse cultures of the students they teach so they can achieve a more multidimensional understanding of the relationship between culture and learning (Delpit, 1995; Heath, 1983; Lasley, Matszynski & Rowley, 1997).