By understand learning style you can be a more effective instructor because you will be delivering information in way that will have a higher chance of being understood by the learner. It also helps for the student to have an understanding of learning styles. We have implemented an exercise is our College Success class that allows students to identify their learning style and explore how to accommodate that style of learning. The students enjoy the activity and it helps to build their confidence as learners.
By understanding the different learning style of my students, I can tailor the deliver of my course content to maximize each class, and make sure that each student is given time in and out of their learning comfort zone. I use a combination of powerpoint, handouts, lecture, team, and hands on demos in my food and beverage cost class.
Learning Styles
I am working my learning styles through visual and hands on effect, and this is working for me at this time.
In my opinion the instructional benefits of knowing the learning styles of your students IS what makes you a more effective instructor. Knowing how your students best learn helps you modify content and delivery to best accommodate all learning styles. Doing so creates the best possible learning scenario for the most students.
There are several reasons why knowing your students' learning styles benefits both you as the instructor and the students, yet one seems to stand out the most for me. As a Composition Instructor, I love putting students in groups for writing and editing papers. By knowing each student's learning style, I am able to make groups with an assortment of learning styles and strengths. This allows the students to benefit from the strengths of their fellow classmates. I, in turn, am able to develop lessons and topics that reach all learning styles of the students within my class.
Knowing the learning styles of my students enables me to plan according to their learning needs. Each lesson will is then on point as it is designed to reach a variety of learning styles, hence; eliminate the sense of boredom because of a loss of interest in the presentation. I have found that utilizing as many of the modalities withing a class session really improves overall participation and engagement of my learners.
When teaching baking, especially baking fundamentals, I love to use visuals most often when trying to explain fermentation. I love to show how carbondioxide can blow up a balloon and when teaching about gluten showing the gluten washing experiment.
The students are able to benefit since I'm trying to reach all styles of learning.
Understanding how my students like to learn helps me to deliver the material in a way that is useful to them. I am fortunate in that most of my students enjoy a hands-on approach which is waht I to like best.
It is challenging enough for most people to try to remember new information. The courses I instruct are accelerated which makes it even more challenging to remember information. Delivering new information in a manner to address different learning styles gives an opportunity to all to receive the information several times in different ways. This improves the amount of information that is retained.
You can target the larger portion of the class, and in return recieve help for the other types of learners from the largest percentage.
Hi Charles - You have it all going on exactly! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career! Susan
Hi Stacy- That is really a great way to help your students learn how to work with their style and lead them to accomodate the other styles! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career! Susan
Hi Roger- Welcome to ED 103! It is difficult sometimes when we get students who have accumulated some previous knowledge because they may be resistnt to new techniques. It takes some finesse to bring them around. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career! Susan
Knowing how each of your students learns will enable you to better reach each of them with all the information they need to succeed.
Your teaching skills can be more effective if you are in sync with your students. Teaching how they learn best is going to benefit everyone.
In the Culinary classes I perfer them to not have alot of outside knowledge. I dont want to hear "my gramma does it this way" We are deffinetly hands on
I also teach an SDEV class, and we, too, have the students complete a learning styles inventory. This is one of the most interesting and meaningful classes for them because they do not all know that they have a learning style.I have the students write a two-page paper describing their learning style, if they agree with it, and what style, if any, would they prefer and why. Oftentimes, the students say,"Wow! Now Iknow why I did poorly in so and so's class. He only lectured, and I need visuals!" It is an eye-opener for the students in many cases, and then they realize another tip they have to being successful in college.
The instructional benefits are that we can deliver the material to fit most of our learners and that we recognize the different learning styles that there are. This knowledge helps us to be more effective teachers by allowing us the mayriad of ways we can deliver the material. It also helps to keep us in-tune to our students. The more students we can reach by using a variety of methods that reach the different learning styles, the more successful our students will be. The more successful they are, the more successful we are at our jobs.
Hi Susan-
If I know the learning styles of my students then I can gear lessons to their specific styles. This, of course, can me a major challenge in a classroom of more than a fewz students because it is very likely that all learning styles are represented. The trick is to teach in a way that addresses all learing styles. In my computer class I address the different learning styles by teaching through lecture (auditory) with a powerpoint (visual) and through practical application on the computer (hands on). Reading is a challenge in my class but I can always send students home with reading to do to prepare for the next class. Hopefully, all students learning styles are addressed. THe next challenge is to make sure that all my lesson plans are taught in this way. In my math class things work a little differently. Teaching styles change on a day to day basis. One day may be all auditory and some visual while another day may be all hands on, experimentation. So even when I don't address each learning style everyday I am moving through a rotation of styles throughout the class.
