I feel that is extremely important to know the learning style of your students. Learning styles determine how successful your students will be in class and the delivery method used. If you don't interact or they interact with class then distracting things can happen in delivery method and the student not completing the required work or giving up. I think if you assess the students in your class you will be able to identify their learning style. This way the student will be successful in your class and achieve the necessary outcomes. You be able to interact and identify with the students and the outcomes will be measurable.
I can help my students apply the information more directly to the topic
In teaching graphic design, I've found that most of the students are visually oriented. When preparing Powerpoint presentations, I try to have very little text. I prefer to just show pictures and have a few key captions. I mostly ad lib as we go through the slides.
By knowing the instructional style of the students, it allows me to match my delivery of material in order to meet the specific needs of each student. Thsi way, if a student is visual, more multimedia resources can be used versus an auditory learner. Our goal is to ensure that we meet the specific needs of each student to make them successful!
Ms. Polick: That is a very clever way of working with the students! I have been told there are many Youtube videos that are worthy of teaching the students a little.
Knowing the learning styles of your students helps you prepare for classroom presentations and setting the pace for classroom progression.
Hi Karen - Thanks for your post to the forum. If you've been traching for 14 years I doubt that i have any new tricks to share with you! LOL! I think that probably the most important change I have made is to use technology more. For example, recently in my online Speech class we have allowed students to videotape their speeches and upload to Youtube or put them on DVd to get to me. It has worked out great!! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Ms. Polick: That sounds like it might open the eyes of some faculty who stick with the "traditional" teaching methods. Have you learned any tricks that you would like to share to a 14 year veteran?
Hi Karen- Thanks for your post to the forum. My college has a seminar for new Faculty that is called "Burn the Podium"! While some lecture is necessary,as you mention students prefer variety.
Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Ms. Polick: I agree wholeheartedly. It would be so boring to present the same material the same way everytime!
Kristina: I think you made an excellent point. I have heard from students that "this professor is so boring because all he does is stand there and lecture" or "this professor only reads the powerpoints and never teaches us anything else".
I think a lot of professors get pigeonholed and forget to change their approach with each class. To learn from the students what works and what definitely does not.
Ms. Polick: The benefits of knowing how our students learn better are important as it helps us as professors to reach all of our students.
It keeps them interested in the material and allows them to learn the material to the best of their ability.
The more students I can reach out to, the more interesting the class will be. I have always told my students, if I am the only one speaking, then we ALL will fall asleep! The class will work better if we have participation from both myself and them.
Knowing how to present technical information to the various learning styles helps to keep them focused on the material. Designing presentations and excercises to provide visual cues seems to be particularly effective when combined with group role-playing sessions. Some of my students require accomodations for learning disabilities, so I usually have some guidance on how to play toward their strong suits.
The benefits are obvious - increased learning and mastery of the topics. My school does not provide me any help in this regard, so I am forced to look elsewhere. I am still trying to find a good assessment tool to use. Since I teach general education courses in a career school, it is really much more challenging. I do not have the advantage of hands-on resources.
I believe the instructional benefits to knowing the learning styles of your students are endless. This not only helps prepare for the class, but also helps the student grasp the information easier when it is presented in a way they can understand. I believe it helps to avoid alot of potential problems in the classroom.
Once you have identified the learning style of your students you can focus on those for future classes.
Once you understand the learning styles you can have more latitude in configuring the class content so more of the class understands it.
As a new instructor, one of the first lessons that I learned was that although I have 20 years experience in the field which I am teaching, it is a completely different matter to effectively teach it to someone else. I have made it a point to determine my student's learning style before I present one word of course content. It is always interesting to me that several students in each class have never thought about this until I asked them. It is very revealing information for both student and instructor.
The most important benefit of knowing your student's learning style reflects on their work. Having an insight of each person's learning style helps me develop lessons so everyone will understand the material.
Having an understanding of the various learning styles in any given class allows an instructor to tailor their delivery content in such a way that it maximizes student understanding and retention of the material. It can also minimize the effort needed to bring students "up to speed" by avoiding situations where an inappropriate learning style is being applied consistently.
