Hi Jeff - Thanks for your post to the forum. I agree that most of our technical school students are "hand on" learners but share your concern for the few who may gravitate more to the written word. I usually provide written hand-outs for my lessons, including printing out the powerpoints in the note-taking form so that they can take notes as they few the slides. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
We are a "hands on" technical post-secondary school, and we do a great job at addressing the tactile, visual, and autitory learners but i feel most of the faculty conducting "lab" classes fail to address the written word learners in the classroom. In a lab setting in addition to our time constraints it is extremly difficult to address this group of learners, we do address these learners with nightly reading assignments, but many of the adult learners do not do the reading assignments due to many different reasons.
Most of our adult learners need to see, hear, and do to grasp the concept being presented to them. I believe that a technical school like ours attracts a certain type of adult learner. Thet are attracted to the "hands on" training for a reason, they may not know or understand that they learn best by seeing, hearing, and doing.
I do believe that to be an effective facilitator a person must address all learning styles to effectively present material. Different types of assignments to be completed in different was can also be a effective way of ensuring a facilitator is addressing all of the different learning styles.
Students are not "one size fits all". Reading current educational methodology research can provide insight into learning styles of students.
Hi Richelle- Thanks for your post to the forum. You are doing a great job of varying your delivery to accomodate the learning styles of your students. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
All types of learners would need support to learn , without support of resources such as visual for the visual learners powerpoint etc., reading assignments with visual examples are important as well I have found that a combination of visual, reading, and hands on work the best. Actually practicing after lecture and demonstration works best with the group I currently have.
Hi Daniel - Thanks for your post to the forum. I really liked your idea of interspersing brief ungraded quizzes into your lectures! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Students will learn up to 15% more information if they have been taught using their preferred learning style. In courses where most or the information being taught is vocabulary or theory, it is easy to miss doing kinetic things for those who aren't best taught by lecture or reading. I have been trying short fill-in-the-blank quizzes that I intersperse in my lecture and don't grade, just post the answers after a few minutes. This makes me stop talking, and allows them to mve around and write the answers on the paper.
It will help your students' successes, outcomes and their respect for you as their instructor in the classrooms. It will allow the students to maximize their retention opportunity and find gainful employment within their field or industry.
It is very important to assess the way your students learn and pick up new information that can be processed and they demonstrate an understanding of the information. People learn and retain material through different ways. After you make the assessment and you see that some students learn through tactile, auditory, written material, or visual, then you can provide the proper materials that will support learning for each student on all the different levels. You must use every facet of learning to benefit your students. If you give them the tools that they specifically need it will boost their confidence and feeling of self worth
Hi Julie- Thanks for your post to the forum. I agree with you about using deliveries that address all of the learning styles to accomodate preferred styles but also get students used to adapting to other styles. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
I see two reasons to vary teaching styles:
First, obviously students learning something new will understand and retain more if they are able to engage with the information according to their learning preference - in this scenario, we encourage students to utilize a strength. However, as educators, we are doing our students a huge disservice if we only engage in one or two styles of learning (even if they are the students' preferred learning style) because it is our job to help students improve on their weaknesses, too. My goal is for my students to be strong, capable, and prepared as they exit my class. If I feed only the strength and ignore the weakness, I am ignoring an opportunity to help a student to grow in an important way.
Hi Elizabeth - Thanks for your post to the forum. I agree, it is our duty to concentrate on how best to teach our students, not how we "prefer" to teach. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Understanding the learning styles of all your students helps to effectively deliver the course content. It engages them by appealing to their preferred learning method. In order to have participant-centered learning environment the instruction must be based on the students preferred method of learning vice the instructor's preferred method of teaching.
It creates effective and active communication between students and instructors for material.
To incorporate all styles to keep students engaged and actively involved in the learning process.
Hi Heather- Thanks for your post to the forum. I have found that initially tailoring my classes to diverse learning styles does take extra effort. Once I have developed my material however, it is like having a closet of resource materials always at the ready. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
It's important so that all students have the best chance of learning the required materials. Finding out each students learning style is not difficult but preparing your class in order to teach to the different learning styles can be difficult and very time consuming. However, if we are truly concerned about our students, we will take the time to arrange the delivery of the class material to meet each students learning style.
Students are in class to learn, but it shouldn't be torture for them to get the important learning objectives. Adults particularly, are set in the ways of learning. Combining and mixing up delivery methods can address the diverse learning styles in any classroom. Instructors need to assess their class learning styles to determine the mix of styles. A group presentation project can give students the kind of diverse tasks to highlight most of their strengths.
We need to complement the varied learning styles of all students so that everyone in the class has an equal opportunity to process and retain the concepts and skills. Having additional resources available for students can provide opportunities for student learning beyond what is practical to incorporate during class time. These extra opportunities give students more experience with the material. In some cases a different approach can help the material "click" in a way that did not occur during the original presentation.
Hi Shannon- Thanks for your post to the forum. You are doing a great job at varying your delivery to address the learning styles! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
