I implement this in my class as well. I always choose partners for my students, and I think it is important to group different ages together. It helps them to understand different life experiences, and enables the older generations to share their work knowledge, and the younger generation to implement their technological skills.
If we understand the learner characteristics, we can better plan our lessons, according to student needs
Understanding learner characteristics helps me to cater my lesson plans to the needs of the students. Some students are "hands on", others need "flashcards" some students respond to "game reviews" etc. In the beginning of each term, I hand out index cards to each student and ask them to tell me how they learn best. For older students, I ask them things such as: "If you had to put a bookcase together, would you do better by watching someone else put it together first, watch a video of it being put together, helping someone put it together, reading about it being put together, or have someone "walk you through it" while you attempt to put it together. This allows me to better understand my classroom's learning styles, and this will allow for my planning process to be much more effective and successful.
Some students just need to be trusted to bring out the best in them.
It should help by encouraging different types of assignments for students to do.
By understanding the needs of each student. I can formulate my lessons so that they are surrounded by a comfortable learning enviroment. I feel that this reduces there stress level grealy. I also have my students list there expectations and any special needs that they may have on the first day of class.
By taking some time to understand learner i find i can take more time in an area where the student my not have as much life experence.
I totally agree, with a good perspective on motivation and some circumstance, our ability to speak to a student in a language and with some reference to their specific slant helps to bridge the divide between any preconceptions about us as teachers and clarify the school's the approach as a whole.
This is a great idea, its easy to overlook different types of learners particularly if the content doesn't obviously lend itself to many types of teaching approaches.
I also like taking the least and most confident of my students in a class and have them demonstrate skills. This helps the less confident to feel less threatened as the class lends a hand and the information learned in front of a group is solidified more quickly for them. As for the more confident students, it gives them a leadership role (which they sometimes use in a tutoring capacity later) but sometimes shows them some weaknesses in their understanding of a subject and helps to replace a blind confidence with deeper understanding of the subject. This also helps the rest of the class feel more connected as they see the gap between the ends of the spectrum isn't nearly as wide as they had thought.
One way I utilize the diversity of learner characteristics is by mixing heterogeneous groups for all group work.
It lets you assess the needs of all your students so that the class can be balanced and fair to everyone. Since students learn and retain knowledge differently, you need to know how best to reach everyone.
helps to apply types of different learners
An understanding of learner characteristics assists the instructional planning process in several ways. Learner characteristics can include knowledge about generational tendencies so content and tools can be directed appropriately. For example, a younger generation may be more comfortable with IT or multimedia whereas another generation will need extra time to work with these tools. If the learner's characteristic includes some type of disability, then, the environment or setting can be altered appropriately. Learning characteristics will also lead to appropriate applications or case studies, demonstrations, or guest speakers.
Understanding of learner characteristics help in the instructional planning process by aiding the instructor with where to provide the assistant in what is needed for them to be sucessful oe obtain their goals.
Understanding learner characteristics helps in the instructional planning process by helping the instructor utilize the learner characteristics to the classes benefit. For example, if I am teaching a course that includes a good number of individuals with solid work experience related to our coursework and I can add some more challenging activities that will allow them to incorporate their knowledge into the learning environment which will also enrich the students without experience that are new to the topic. If all of the students are younger and completely new to the subject matter, which often is the case in my corporate finance classes, then I will plan to include popular news or current events that they are familiar with and use those items that are on their level to introduce the corporate finance topics. In some way or another I have to relate the material to something the students are already familiar with or interested in. Understanding the learner characteristics helps me to do that.
Hi Marion,
There are two things you want to know about your students. The first is what brought them to the class and what life experiences they have had. As you know adult learners have different motivations and goals than those of younger students, even both groups have the common goal of having course success. The other characteristics you want to identify are their learning preferences. You can learn about these characteristics by observing how the students process information. Are they more visual-auditory-tactile learners. Once this is know you can plan your instructional strategies around these areas to help your student achieve success.
Gary
Hi Marion,
I do a baseline assessment and then a small group problem solving activity. These two strategies quickly give me a picture of how my students settle out in terms of experience. Then I am able to put them in their work groups based upon their strengths.
Gary
All good ideas. How do you go about learning these characteristics?
