Approaches to use with kinesthetic learners would include allowing students to handle and manipulate items that relate to the subject being taught. One of the activities I do in my career development class involves using M&M's for an exercise on cultural diversity. Students are encouraged to touch, feel, taste and look at the candies and describe how they are alike and how they are different. Another thing that I encourage is playing with a piece of clay or playdoh while they are trying to learn new ideas or listening to a lecture.
In the lab class that I instruct students watch a physical demonstration on how to produce a dish, afterward they are expected to reproduce that same dish. During the portion of class each day when I am preparing and producing the dish I connect with kinesthetic learners by incorporate them into the demonstration. I oftern have them stir something that is cooking, or shake the saute pan when emulsifying sauces. I find that including this type of learner in the demonstration helps them to remember the techniques.
When I find that I may have a student who is a kinesthetic learner I would try to have something available for them to actually touch and use so that they can get the basic idea.
Kinesthetic learners are students who are learning by doing. They are the do-ers. They carry out a physical activity. They are natural discovery learners. The kinesthetic learners want to use their own words to define concepts and theories rather than memorizing them. They use their own movement in the process of finding the answers. The motions in space can reflect the process leading to the correct results.
Instruction approaches for kinesthetic learers should be hands-on tearching, case methods, role-playing, re-enactment, etc. Instructors should use specialized instructions with targeted materials to identify a student's learning style. The kinesthetic learning style is more likely to enhance the learning for a diverse student population. It can produce better outcomes.
Kinesthetic learners tend to excell in laboratory and clinical externship type studies. This gives them the oportunity to move and do as the material is being explained and perhaps demonstrated. This type of learning activity actually incorporates audio, visual and kinestetic.
I too find the lectures difficult. Trying to keep the students interested and from getting sidetracked with other topics or conversations. I try to take somthing from lecture and turn it into somthing hands on another day. It tells me how much they retained and what they didnt. We work on at that point.
without a doubt...teaching respiratory therapy can only be done in a tactile approach...these programs should have clinicals integrated throughout instead of a externship approach.
Dear James- Thanks for your post to the forum. I am an amateur cook and agree that I really need to "do" it myself to really learn something! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Hands on hands on, hands on. Did I happen to say hands on? As an instructor I recently did a cooking demonstration to my fellow faculity members, one of the topics was trussing a chicken to be poached (basic task) some of my coworkers said they enjoyed my presentation, howerver they would feel more comfortable actually doing the work itself. Even as a educator the hands on approach always wins, learning by doing.
Get them involved. Activities that allow them to apply what they learned. Hands on approach is good for kinestetic learners.
I do much of the same! I will show the equipment or lecture on the process and then move into the lab and have them put it into use. I find they understand and absorb more when they can actually see how it works, in what situation, and what the outcomes will be!
Advantages of teaching Culinary Arts is the learner can apply hands on applications. This learning increases understanding from application processes however lecture and demonstrations first reinforce the understanding.
I use a 1-2-3 approach when teaching a number of the skills required in my course. 1) Provide written notes 2) Provide a Power Point 3) Demo and replicate. It's easy to pick out the kinestetic learners--they're the first to jump up and replicate a skill after the demo. I don't use all 3 methods every time, but at the very least provide a step-by-step explanation as I demo, and then offer practice time immediately afterwards.
I think that kinesthetic learners are drawn to hands-on professions naturally, so when teaching in this field it's important to provide additional hands-on practice whenever possible.
This is an easy one for me to answer, because I really enjoy learning kinesthetically. This method demands "hands on" application. Providing students with an opportunity to create something, or build, or actually execute a technique learned in the class, are all examples of kinesthetic learning. I teach at a culinary school, and EVERY day we give the students opportunities to cook and prepare the dishes or techniques we're discussing. "Learning by doing" is the main principle involved here.
Hi Chef K - Thanks for your post to the forum. Creative approach to getting your kinesthetic learners some hands on activity! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
In culinary school most of my students are "hands on" learners....but my introduction class is lecture and demo....very little hands on. To help the students, I have them participate in my culinary demos. It may be wisking, cutting, taking their turn trussing the chicken, opening oysters or event "harvesting" a lobster. Having students participate in the demo also gives them a sense of "ownership".
Chef K
With computer classes, I find it helpful to demonstrate steps and then let the students carry out those steps on their own. This breaks complex information into smaller, more managable "chunks" as well as providing immediate opportunities for practicing the steps.
HI Michele- Thanks for your post to the forum. You are doing an excellent job of teaching to the learning styles! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
I use the hands on, self discover discovery process in each class. I usually demonstrated the topics of the evening so that they were visually displayed, verbally discussed and then asked the students to go do and perform the assignments themselves, using the techniques we learned in class. This covered all the learning types, especially the kinesthetic learners as I required them to put into practice what they learned.
In addition, the final projects tied together and had the students demonstrate what they learned during the modules.
We incoprorate the military terms of "crawl, walk, run" systematic methodology....ie., if some of the students come fromn a specialized background where they haven't actually held nominative positions in a structural environment then there's obvious skill sets they'll need to develop before assigned to positons in the organizational structure. We'll often require students to work out of their field of expertise during case study development and analysis. When presented the case study as a "sumultive exercise" the organizational structure will revert back to where the expertise lies within the group-merely technique when we have higher ranking authoritative figures or more than one career specialty dominating the rest of the crowd. This gives a balanced appreciation across the board to all aspects of the planning staff, strength and weaknesses. All skill sets are challenged along the way and then put to the subjective test in the end.
