Addressing the four learning preferences
What strategies do you use most often to help each of the four categories of learners learning preferences (auditory, written, visual & kinesthetic)?
I try to offer/use different delivery methods right at the start, and monitor how receptive the students are. If my class gravitates one direction, I'll concentrate on that particular path, but I keep a close eye to avoid losing a student's interest.
Hello Steve,
Because not everyone learns at the same rate or from the same example, I try to use all of the teaching tools at hand. This is why a topic maybe discussed first, I may draw it on the board next using different colored markers and pass around a display object before going to lab. This order may be changed depending on the students and the questions they are asking.
Bill,
I am a visual tactile learner myself so I can relate to your comments. The more of the senses we use the more memory connections are made.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Auditory, Written, Visual&Kinesthetic.I find that the best is hands on or drawing pictures that the students can relate too. Students that are visual learners .You find yourself using the whiteboard more often.
Dr. Carlton,
Good point. We need to expand our boundaries to include additional ways of using our intelligences as well learning pathways. This will help us to be more effective problem solvers as well.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I agree. We tend to be comfortable in our own learning style. However, by exploring the smaller representative part of your multiple intelligence, you may find that you become more comfortable with it and it may make up a larger proportion of the overlap in the future (i.e. if we continue to address the different learning preferences in our students, we will be more effective and perhaps increase the comfort level with our own less desirable learning preferences.
Victoria,
I agree. The more application and relevance we can bring to the classroom the greater the knowledge retention is going to be. You are doing a good job of providing such connections for the students you are working with.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I work in a learning resource center where we offer workshops to students on various topics, including memorization techniques and test-taking strategies. At the beginning of the these workshops, we discuss the various learning styles and how important it is to identify what works best for each student. Usually, people tend to incorporate a variety of styles into their learning, though one style tends to dominate. Knowing one's preferred learning style is essential for efficient and effective learning; if a kinesthetic learner is trying to memorize the bones and muscles, reading about them over and over again on a two-dimensional piece of paper won't have much effect. Handling the skeleton, using interactive websites, watching dissections - that's going to have a lot more impact. When it comes to test-time, being able to understand the information because it was learned through the use of effective methods (not just memorized) makes a world of difference.
I try to reach all of the students' different learning styles, but I also seem to lean toward my own learning style of auditory. Most of use use written, auditory and visual in our teaching we ofter forget or have a hard time reaching the students' that are kinetic learners. I try to use this method whenever possible. Time and subject matter sometimes make it hard.
Dave,
I think that is true for most of us. We live to get into the curriculum and manipulate objects or materials which in turn reinforces the content we are learning.
Gary
In the program I teach the curricumlum comes from Ford Motor Company. Their curricumlum addresses all 4 learning styles. I still find that overall, my students do their best with kinesthetic learning.
With Electricalyou mustuse them all,with 24 to 30 students each different some times the lesson goes out the window. THEN YOU APPRECIATE THE FOUR LEARNING PREFERENCES.
I think I try to incorperate all the strategies. We read and discuss, I draw lots of pictures and use multiple colors before we finally go to lab for hands on.
Markia,
Right you are.
Gary
Same here visual is the top one
Three D is the best
Steve,
One of the fun parts of being an instructor is that you can be creative in how you approach instructional delivery. So look for different and creative ways to get your message across and your students will be engaged at a much higher level.
Gary
Leonardo,
Great approach. You are offering instructional variety so your students can use their different learning preferences to acquire the content as well as the skill sets.
Gary
I seem to use the visual and auditory stratgies the most. However I am always looking for new ways to keep the students interested.
The course is desighned to allow the use of all 4 preferences of learning. During the lecture we deliver information verbally, and I like to incorperate charts, graphs , and or pictures to illustrate the topic being discussed. I provide copies of the visual used to the students to enAble them to take notes on the material itself, label parts, write definitions and any "doodling" that they might do.During the lab portion of the class we put into practice what weve discussed.
