Self-aware Learners
Do you recommend spending class time on an effort to help students identify their own learning preferences?
Thanks,
Stephen
Dawn,
Good strategy to push the boundaries for your students. You are helping them to see and utilize other forms of learning and skill development. The more they know how to do this the more their careers will develop.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Stephen,
I do in my classes but my response to your question would need to be based upon the content you are teaching, the length of your course and the level of your incoming students. I have the opportunity of time where I can spend a session on exploring learning preferences with them and help them to create Individual Learning Plans (ILP) for the course. The results are more engaged students as they see themselves directing their own learning efforts.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I teach massage therapy and usually the students respond that they are tactile learners. I find that this limits their perception of how they need to learn and what we need to do in class. However, I do take the time to have them do an assessment, either in class, if enough computers are available, or as a homework assignment and have them bring in the results. Many are surprised to learn that what they believed about themselves is not the whole truth. This opens the way for them to accept learning in other forms and decreases the resistance to reading or lectures. It also can help you the instructor assist them in ways to apply the knowledge to ways they can study.
