Blurred Lines??
Through some of my limited experince I have found that some older students tend to blurr the lines between the learnig styles. Is this found to be common our,is it only found in my field of instruction?
Hi Vallene- Welcome to ED 103!You are correct, and most adults, especially, have learned to adjust their learning to varying deliveries. Nevertheless, as you mention, there will be a style that dominates or is the preferred style
The average person integrates all styles in their learning process, although generally there is one that dominates. With 5 senses, the human body is constantly able to absorb information.
Hi Sherie- Welcome to ED 103! The lines do blur sometimes. Often it's because although we may have a preferred style, we have learned to adapt to another as well.
I would tend to agree. I am a strong visual learner, but I also enjoy reading!(According to this module, visual readers don't like to read for course content.) I don't think this is nearly as cut and dried as they make it out to be!
Each class is different and we as instructors have to adjust the best we can to keep the intrest of the students and make sure all the class info. is covered
I agree Israel -It IS our responsibility to teach. To do so we cannot force our younger students to adapt their learning styles. What we CAN do is try to make our teaching address the different styles. This does not mean that every lesson must address EVERY style. What I do mean is that we must constantly be thinking of ways to diversify delivery.
I can not argue with this statement. Our older students certainly take more ownership of their own education, and as a result are more willing to learn in any style that is presented to them. I guess the real question is how do we force the younger group to blurr the lines as well. Most of our students I would have to call younger than older. The younger students seem to have it in their mind that if they are a certain type of learner, then that is the only way they can learn. We all know that it is not always practical to hit all 4 learning styles. How do we make sure the ball is not dropped when dealing with someone that has themself convinced that they can only learn in one style? After all, it is our responsability to TEACH, not just present information.
I agree, Steven, that older learners are very motivated to learn for the sake of learning. It seems that older students take more personal pride in their studies. They are not so satisfied with just a minimum passing grade and prefer to excel in all their classes. They require a great degree of expertise in their instructors because they understand that the stakes are high and the work world demands that they be prepared and prepared well. They tend to ask many more questions about prep for real life work in their chosen field. These are students who know where they want to go and are ready to move in that direction.
My career has been spent pimarily with adult students and you describe them very well. Although their motivation and dedication to their studies generally make them ideal students , you are right that they can indeed be demanding.
I usually find it just the opposite because they are usually intrinsically motivated by the subject matter itself, older learners (over 30 years of age) usually express a more profound respect for the subject matter, as well as for the institution itself. In many cases, they usually encourage younger students, even when it meant sacrifice of their own learning. As a result, older learners tend to bring a unique passion to their studies. They are highly motivated learners who expend a great deal of energy and who are not afraid to “invest” themselves in the process. As a consequence, they can be very demanding, and they require any program they embark upon to reciprocate.
You're right -it can be more difficult to identify the preferred learning style of older students. That is usually because as we get older we learn to adapt to the different styles.
