Kinesthic Learning
I seem to do well teaching auditory and visual learners. I teach interpersonal communication. Any suggestions on how I might reach my tactile learners with this kind of subject matter? Of course, I use hand outs each class and have students complete surveys/inventories, but I am looking for other ideas.
Paul,
Good suggestions. One of my schools I teach for is a community college and I teach tech communications to trade students. They are certainly used to hands on and manipulating different equipment and also seem to like auditory learning.
Shelly Baker
Hi Joshua - That's a terrific idea- thanks for sharing! Best wishes - Susan
Some things I have tried, since most of my students are kinesthetic learners, are organizational activities like classification and occasionally the "human bar chart".
Rather than simply write on the board, when classifying concepts, I like to print out a dozen examples or so of what the topic at hand is (vocabulary words, or religious dietary restrictions for Diversity in a Global Workplace), and the students have to work together to physically organize the concepts written on the dry-erase board with tape. I have found that this is much more engaging than standing in front of the board with a marker prying for suggestions.
The human bar chart is a great anticipatory warm-up to gauge how a class feels about a subject or to measure retention of a previous topic. It is exactly like it sounds - have students group themselves by their opinions on a question written on the board. Whether it is engagement by an out-of-the-ordinary activity or simply from getting blood flowing to the legs, the classes where the human bar chart is appropriate usually end up being pretty dynamic!
