that is a very good question with a lot of different components!
Hi Vicky - Thanks for a well written post and welcome to ED 103! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
the instructional benefits of knowing your student's learning styles can help to make sure you reach everyone when teaching. By knowing their learning styles, when you aren't able to reach all learning styles but you see a certain student is struggling to learn something you can use the knowledge of their learning style to help explain the information to them in a way they will understand.
I think this can help for the students who don't seem to "get it", it may be that they just need the information presented in a different way. By handing out a short questionnaire at the beginning of class, it can help identify how each student learns, and while you may not always be able to accommodate everyone fully, if you have a student struggling, you can go back to the questionnaire and that may help to explain why the student is having trouble.
As the example in the lesson stated, if I can give a demonstration to students, probably half of them processed the information, if I accompany the demonstration with a powerpoint and/or written material and then break them into groups to actually do what was demonstrated, hopefully all processed the information. Because they will take information in differently, I need to be able to present it in different formats to reach all of them.
Benefits to instructors knowing the different learning styles enables the lectures to be more dimensional. By having a variety of methods to present data. this allows the students to become more interactive and partipate based on the concepts being delivered because they are able to retain and grasp the information at their learning style level. Instructors are able to reach more students by preparing content for the course implementing tactics to demostrate the use of the learning styles can make the class successful for the students, as well as stretch the instructor to be more diverse in teaching styles.
I beleive that it is important for an instructor to understand different learning styles. It helps us to help all students with learning and understanding material and lectures.
Due to the fact that every student-learner has a preference for the reception of materials in a manner commensurate to their readiness-to-hear and unique learning style, the knowledge of such information can improve student learning exponentially.
You can relate to their model of the world through their reprentational system, so if they are visual, you can use language, metaphor, and real life examples that they can "see", "picture" or "look at" and if they are auditory you can talk to them by saying "sounds like" or "hear this" and they respond better. This knowledge has been proven in case studies in Neuro Linguistic Programming articles espousing the success of adapting language from the sender to the receiver in the system that is most prevalent to them (the students). The students respond better, become more enthusiastic about assignments and can relate to concepts easier when their own representational system is being utilized.
Changing up the way I deliver information helps with different learning styles, but it also keeps everyone invoved and alert.
By knowing the ways in which your students learn you can better deliver the content to them in a manner in which they can absorb.
HI Jill - Welcome to ED 103! Have you ever had a personality style assessment? I would be curious to see if that is what is driving your style. Best wishes - Susan
I have heard some college teachers say they teach to their own learning style because that is how they are most comfortable and their comfort with the material is contagious. I have known some high school teachers who taught to every learning style in a school year, but only certain styles for certain kinds of activities. I do not think my learning style fits into any of the categories discussed in my pedagogy classes in college or in my developmental ed psych classes, or in this online course. I believe my learning style is more of a so what... an application-based learning style. i have a compulsion to categorize, label, and then generalize information in order for it to become part of my schema. I try to teach to that learning style first, and to offer alternative approaches to each lesson and activity as I see need or gaps in those "lightbulb moments."
It is really important because not all students learn the same. What helps one student, may not help another student.
Each class and group of people are different. Curriculum and lesson plans may need to be modified to widen or narrow the focus of these plans to accomodate the type of learners that we have. When one class does well on a test and another does opoorly it may be due to learning styles.
Benefits include the connection to the student through what style he/she translates and is most comfortable with. Once attained, the styles most preferred can then be incorporated through methods of delivery, even to the point of grouping by learning style within the class and funneling information by style to the appropriate groups.
Hi Margaret-Thank you for a very well written post! You have described an excellent mix of delivery styles that will address all the learning styles. Best wishes - Susan
Hi Jeff - you have quite a challenge!! I applaud you on your willingness to seek input from your students - they will undoubtedly respect you even more! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Hi John - Welcome to ED 103! You are right on! I especially like the idea of having visual/tactile students set up demos. Active learning at its best! Best wishes - Susan
You not only will help everyone learn at an easier and more comfortable rate but you will learn your individual students better and it becomes easier to learn their names as well. Withg the information gleaned you can introduce different methods to your normal way of instruction. For instance if you have a great many visual or kinesthetic learners and you are teaching food chemistry, you can demo some of the concepts you are lecturing or reading about in the boring text of science books. But with a hands on demo, expecially one in which the visual and tactile learners can help set it up will do much more than a simple reading assignment and lecture to their understanding of the material.
