Instructional Benefits
What are the instructional benefits of knowing the learning styles of your students? How can this knowledge be used to help you be a more effective instructor?
The benefits would be that by having a mixture of learning styles, you are able to teach every student and how they learn. Some students may have learning styles that overlap, so by having different styles you are helping them learn in more ways than one.
The knowledge can be used to motivate an instructor to develop new course content intiatives. It also helps to keep you on your toes and keeps you interested in your course.
HI Leora ( Love your name!) - Altough, as you mention, learning student learning styles can indeed be quite a process; it is so vlauble for a student to finally understand how they learn best!
Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Knowing the learning styles of your students is definitely a process. Some students come to class not having assessed their own learning style, and the process is then assisting them in finding out how they learn best. The challenge then is that you are teaching them and at the same time they are assessing themselves in what kind of study will help them learn the material you are teaching! After about 3-4 weeks , or sometimes 3-4 months, they more clearly understand what they need to do in order to process the material.
Wow Darci - a very complex dynamic you are dealing with! Best wishes! Susan
In response to your question, this group is very different from what I have been used too. Most of my classes are made up of students from different backgrounds, races, ages, and maturity levels. This group is basically around the same age but, they seem to just not get along well with each other. One half of the room is against the other. Other instructors in the past have taught this group and have had similar issues with them. It seems very hard to establish how they respond to different learning styles. They do not express how they feel until after class and only to each other. So through the grapevine and a few students that are vocal let me know and I figure out a way to impliment different techniques until I figure out one that works. We are still feeling each other out and what works for the class. My plan is to get them to trust me and confide in me and we will be able to better work the class.
HI Darci - Very interesting post! I am curious about the demographics of your four groups. Is the group that does not like games at all different from the other three? Has that odd group been together in other classes??? Susan
I am teaching four very different groups of students this term and have found that games work for some of them and others don't respond at all. I decided to get their feedback on what would work for them and how I could help. The idea of me standing up in front of the class saying we are going to play this game did not go over like it did in the other classes. I've always enjoyed games while teaching and learning and so have most of my students, however this group hates it. They do like working with each other in small groups so I started to break them up into study/quiz groups and I join each one as we review. It seems to be working and they seem to like the fact that I check with them on what works and get their feedback instead of just doing things my way.
If you have assessed your students' learning styles and try to meet all their needs, you will automaticailly create variety and make your classes more engaging and fun.
By understanding how to read your students "a-ha" indicators it allows us to move on to new material. On the flip-side, signs of confusion, frustration give me the feedback that I might need to slow down, circle back on the previous material to make sure individual students really understood it, since much of what I teach is related, and each lesson builds on the previous work. It's a "journey" as I explain it to my students, and my role is to make sure they make it through.
Hi Kristen-Thanks for your post to the forum. As you mention, once an instructor learns to vary their delivery style to accomodate the different learning styles, they will find a new joy in teaching! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
