Understanding Learner Characteristics will help me to better plan ahead of time and to get prepared to start the first few days. By knowing just a little about learners it is a lot easier planing and laying out how and what to cover specially on the first day. By asking learners about their related experiences and sharing it with the class not only we give some idea to the class what will be covered,but it also encourages and provides a conversation between learners out of the classroom.
By figuring out the various learning styles and characteristics I am able to better meet the needs of the students. Sometimes I find it very difficult to do this because of out course content. When that happens I will find those students in the lab and give them one on one instruction. This includes asking leading questions so they can formulate the answer for themselves. If they don't quite get it right I try to nudge them towards the answer by asking yet another leading question. When there are continuing students available that want to help with our newbies I instruct them to refrain from directly providing answers but rather to try to have the student figure it out for their self otherwise they are not learning.
I believe that everyone is so very different. We all have our own styles...Instructors have their own individual teaching styles and students have their own learning styles. Understanding these different characteristics from the onset will help the instructor direct the information successfully.
the first day of class I have students take this test, "What's Your Learning Style?" at http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles.shtml
After they have completed the test I have them print out their result.
This is a great site and really helps get the class discussing what type of learners they are. It also gives me an idea of how to excell the student.
Here is an example of my assesment,
My Scores:
•Auditory: 15%
•Visual: 45%
•Tactile: 40%
You are a Visual learner! Check out the information below, or view all of the learning styles.
Visual
If you are a visual learner, you learn by reading or seeing pictures. You understand and remember things by sight. You can picture what you are learning in your head, and you learn best by using methods that are primarily visual. You like to see what you are learning.
Sometimes I ask if any of the students have encountered a particular experience before or can they think of an example that they would like to share to help me get my point across.
Have some of you found that students bring background and skills to the class room that are helpful in promoting the class objectives?
Understanding learner characteristics is vital in assuring student success. The program where I am employed begins with instructing students about about types of learners, leaning styles, and the characteristics of successful students. The faculty is required to have a 1:1 interview to assess their comfort level. When faculty works to find the styles of learners, preferences, fears, they are more likely to be able to help them over the rough spots. I have the students do a SWOT (strengths, weakness,opportunity, threats) analysis of themselves as a nursing student. Then we put all the different answers they share on the board. They realize most of their classmates have very similar fears. Faculty gets a lot of information from this exercise as well.
I always ask my students: Why are you here? Why did you choice this college, why this major, etc? Of course, in the beginning the standard answer is to get a better job. I relate to students from my own experience that someone told me: If you are only going to college to get a better job then you should quit. You should be here because you want to LEARN. This made a huge impact on me.
Understanding learner characteristics will allow for student success. If the instructor is aware of the learning style of their students, lessons can be tailored to best meet the needs of the students. Being flexible and willing to try new approaches to teaching information is really the key to success for the teacher and the students. This is not easy for the teacher because it means more personal time preparing lessons to meet the needs of these different learners. Classrooms are definitely not a one size fits all when creating lesson plans for the whole class.
Understanding Learner Characteristics helps in the education plan by providing a launching board. This will enable the Instructor to connect with the adult learner and meet learning needs.
Understanding the learner can assist the instructor to utilize different "tools" to reach the learned in the best possible manor.
JH
According to Dunn and Dunn,learning styles are defined as the way "each learner begins to concentrate on, process and remember new and difficult information". By understanding an individuals characteristics, we begin to identify the person's learning styles. Once their learning style has been identified, you will see if the learner is Kinesthetic, Auditory or Visual.
I teach one of the foundation courses in our program. I always start the course by meeting the students so I can learn some of the characteristics of the students. I gather data, such as age, motivation to learn, previous experience, and current occupation. This gives me data that I can use to plan learning activities in my course. Several of the activities are done in small groups and I like to pair certain students together for better outcomes.
Jaclyn,
Thank you so much for your excellent comments. They really expand on the thinking related to how to get students motivated and seeing their future through career preparation and growth. Your last sentence really captures what we need to be about as educators.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Being an adult learner puts a student on strong footing. Rich life experience helps you to ask meaningful questions and make connections between course work and daily life. Motivations may be to be a role model for their family, finish a degree they started years ago, advance in a current job, or increase income and career prospects. There are so many benefits to being an adult learner and student. First, we can draw from our life experiences and skills to make us successful. Secondly, the path and choices are more purposeful and adults are more driven as students. Having an established workplace can be beneficial for tuition reimbursement and networking contacts. Time management skills if not mastered, are at least groomed. Finally the greatest feature and motivation is being a role model for children.
Along with presenting material and making sure the students are grasping the material we have to beware of cultural influences and biases that can infect the material. “…if coach-mentors are not attuned to their own cultural and diversity issues there is a risk this may influence their coaching. Indeed, ignoring these differences in coaching for the sake of being politically correct, or because of our own discomfort, can block learning for both the coach-mentor and the learnerâ€(Parsloe & Parsloe, p. 95, 2009). Many times curriculum can become biased based on location and cultural expectations of the students. Where a student comes from and what the demands are of the community alters what is taught. Society expects more from certain classes of students and less from the lower classes. Lowers classes are expected to become blue collar workers whereas the higher the class the more is expected. Higher education is expected of the upper class. How families view a good life is based on where they came from. A family who has always had blue collar jobs may expect their children to take over the family business, so may the white collar but educational needs to do so are very different. Students who have gone through public education in a poor neighborhood may not be educationally ready to jump into college, they may have never had any encouragement, may have had to work through high school and overall may not have a good of an education as they should have heading into the college years. Higher class neighborhoods and private education pushes college and striving for the highest paying job to afford the same life or something better than their family. Curriculum is supposed to be unbiased and generalized but inevitability the needs of the community will effect what is presented.
As teachers, we should always be adapting and pushing our students especially when they come from difficult backgrounds. Assessment of where their students are at the start of the term or year will give insight on how to get the students on a path to attaining the highest level of education. The only limitation should be the students own willingness to strive for excellence.
Parsloe, E., Parsloe, L., Coaching and Mentoring: Practical Methods to Improve Learning (2nd Edition)(2009), London, , GBR: Kogan Page Ltd., Retrieved from: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/Doc?id=10288095&ppg=103
It is important to understand learner characteristics in order to plan the instructional process because every class is different. What works for one group of students, might not work for another group. Some groups like to get up and do things more physically active. Other groups are more conceptual and like to be fed information. It is important to know how to balance the different learning and personality styles because they all need to absorb the information in their own way. It is important for the instructor to not favor one age group or learning style over another.
You can tailor the way you teach to help students be more effective learners.
James,
A way to introduce different learning opportunities, thus the use of different learning preferences is to offer variety in your delivery and activities. You can share content via your lecture and then use small groups, role playing, case studies to reinforce the material and get the students using the content that has just been covered. This will enable them to work in their different learning preferences while making applications of their newly acquired knowledge.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Education is the ladder to success.I remind my students to use your time to acquire as much education as you can. The later part of your life will be comfortable
I find that if I start off with the comment "I was sitting where you are not too long ago" it gives them the idea that we all start at the same beginning we all have the same ambitions and dreams.
