Multimodal Teaching & Learning
Overview
Multimodal teaching and learning provide opportunities for students to engage with the same content through different sensory modalities, such as visual, auditory and tactile. This is sometimes referred to as multisensory teaching, especially when it comes to reading instruction for students with learning disabilities. Engaging with content in multiple formats increases students' Attention, helps to encode new information in Long-term Memory, and can be particularly effective for learning new vocabulary. Research does not support matching instruction to perceived “learning styles,” (which are not in fact supported by research) but rather, offering a range of modalities to benefit all learners. Examples include offering a combination of text, visuals, gestures, manipulatives, and/or audio, and can sometimes be facilitated with technology, like computers, virtual reality headsets or recording devices. Multimodal teaching and learning can be used to support how students process new information as well as how they express their learning through products and artifacts. Multilingual learners benefit from multimodal teaching and learning when they can use sensorimotor experiences to engage with content, and when translanguaging can be used in digital multimodal composition. It is important to encourage learners to engage with learning through multiple modalities, beginning with the modality that best suits the learning objective. Multimodal learning aligns with the Universal Design for Learning framework by offering diverse representation methods that cater to individual learning preferences and needs.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
In this video about Universal Design for Learning principles, watch how these high school Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers use multiple means of representation of classroom content aligning with multimodal teaching and learning.
Design It into Your Product
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Instructional Approaches Strategies
Flipped learning is when the delivery of traditional content (i.e., lectures, videos) occurs outside of the classroom, allowing class time to be used for more active and application-based activities.
Retrieval practice requires students to access information, or get information “out” from Long-term memory in order to support better retention and understanding.
A strengths-based approach is one where educators intentionally identify, communicate, and harness students' assets, across many aspects of the whole learner, in order to empower them to flourish.
Incorporating think-alouds, or verbalizing thinking while reading or working through a new concept, can be a powerful way to help learners explore disciplinary texts, learn new skills, and retain content.
