In knowing the leaning styles of one's students, an instructor can customize or tailor the teaching style to target the majority of students in that particular class. The student's retention of the class material should be high and evidenced through class participation, attendance and grades.
One of the things that is always difficult to gage is whether your delivery style actually matches the learning style of the students you are teaching. It is a constant process of assessing what methods are working . Each class offers a different group of students and new balance of styles. That hhave to be taught to, it is taxing, but it does keep teaching from getting boring or stagnant.
All my students are visual and tactile learners but I’m now super interested in trying to connected to students through auditory learning styles. I really enjoyed this module.
I have also found that by varying the types of questions I put on a quiz I can better target the different learning styles. For instance, I may ask them to draw an example of a concept as well as ask true/false, essay, etc. I try to mix it up a little bit.
As an instructor, it is your resonsibility to make sure all students receive the information in the end. Knowing how the student learns, will help you in your delivery and address all needs
Hi David - I agree that mixing things up is a good idea. I think as instructors we sometomes get lulled into our own rouitines including our favorite classrooms, the order of our daily classes etc. Adding variety not only makes it more lively for our students, not suprisingly adds some freshening for ourselves!
Hi Gary - You bring up an important topic. As teachers we need to help our students to take responsibility for their own learning and that means, as you point out, teaching them to be "active learners". If we do our job well they will become "lifetime learners" which I believe is our goal.
Knowing the learning styles of my students enables me to structure my course content, in-class group activities, exams and quizzes and helps me get the required content across to students in a more effective manner.
By knowing what gets the horses to drink the water, I can move much more quickly through the course. In other words because we all pick up information differently and knowing how my students pick up that information , I can progress to the desired outcome with fewer obstacles.
Underlying this entire discussion is another point which I find most important in the classroom. The goal is for the students to become active learners. Too often we teachers seem to be doing all the work, and the students are remaining passive. Ideally, we as teachers can structure the class, give a variety of assignments, and coach/encourage the students. The auditory learners can be encouraged to be active listeners, the visual learners to be active viewers, the written word learners to be active readers, and the tactile learners to be active doers. The problem seems to lie in the cultural context of instant media which tends to make all students passive."They would prefer to be handed the notes instead of power point..."
I agreee with you Gary. An instructor must always be pretty flexible in their teaching methods and be willing to adjust whatever they need to for their students.
I think it is extremely important to understand how your students will best absorb the materials you are trying to teach. However, teaching to all styles will benefit all students at some level. I find most students will claim they do not understand what they read when given reading assignments. They would prefer to be handed the notes instead of Power Point and cannot stay awake for a lecture. Given that if we vary the delivery method regularly and occassionally take the student out of their comfort zone it really helps them focus. I sometimes re-arrange the classroom or even move to a different classroom than the normal location
I teach various marketing classes at a school where the students specialize in marketing, advertising and fashion design. It is easy to pick out their learning styles after the first week. When they do their group projects I make sure there is a mix in each group of all the learning styles so they can learn and feed off each other. I teach the class in a way that all of the learning styles can be utilized.
one of the instructional benefits of knowing the learning styles of students is to be able to adjust or adapt lessons effectively.
however, there is a difference between teaching to the student and teaching the subject.
sometimes in a short delivery schedule we have to compromise on these two points.
in the end, offering a variety of learning experiences as possible for the course content gives the most effective results.
I teach marketing classes at a school where the students are made up of marketing students, advertising students, and fashion design students. In the introductions it is fairly easy to pick out the learning styles of the students. I make sure there is a good mix of each type of learning style in their group project so they can learn off each others' strengths.
Knowledge of a student's learning style can be of some help to the instructor. In a large classroom environment you cannot teach every topic four different ways, but in a one-on-one situation this the instructor can 'tweak' the delivery to fit the student.
Hi Nichelle- Welcome to ED 103! If a teacher is observent they can learn a lot about their students that willl be helpful in designing classes.
Students have different learning syles. Knowing this helps me tailor my classes in order to accommodate each student. For example, after I give a lecture/demo, I work one-on-one with each student pacing myself according to his or her learning style.
The benefits of knowing student's learning style helps me make sure the student is grasping the information. It also allows me to decide what activities I will be using during the current session. If I am not able to do a complete learning style assessment. I have the students tell me about themselves and listen to the words they are using.
If the the student use visual statements, audio, or kinestic statement. Through practice I am able to tell their learning style.
It is very important for a student and for the teacher to know their learning style.
When you become familiar with the learning styles of your students, it is easier to "slant' the material delivery to the style(s) that are most dominate/effective for your students retention. The more of the information students retain, the higher they test and attitude/morale is improved along with focus and concentration.
