Accommodating Different Learning Styles in the Classroom
“Learning styles.” What are learning styles? Various researchers have created different tools that categorize the way people acquire and retain information. Some of these include Gardner’s multiple intelligences, McCarthy’s 4-Mat System, and the Myers-Briggs personality type indicators (Ebeling 2000). Haar, Hall, Schoepp & Smith (2002) define learning styles as “individual differences in the way information is perceived, processed, and communicated.” There are two main points to cover when discussing learning styles. The first part is the specifics of each learning style. The second part is how to teach someone who is a certain style or combination of styles.
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Auditory learners: 1. Learn best when they can talk and interact verbally. 2. Like to be read to or to read out loud, but not silently. 3. Like to listen to tapes. Can remember things set to music more easily. 4. Work better with background sound like music. 5. Like panels, debates, and storytelling. 6. Are not bothered by disorder in the environment. 7. Ask numerous questions to better understand the information, and this is often perceived as “not paying attention.” 8. Do not like written work and reading, and therefore, are often labeled as “not applying themselves.” 9. Can be helped most by understanding parents and teachers who will provide supportive, compensating homework settings.
Tactile learners: 1. Learn best when they can touch. 2. Like to fiddle with things. 3. Like to take things apart to see how they work. 4. Are not as motor drive as the kinesthetic. 5. Learn best with manipulatives. 6. Learn best by doing. 7. Need hands-on learning. 8. Need to be taught adaptive skills such as taking notes, highlighting, and how to cope in a traditional learning system.
Kinesthetic learners: 1. Learn best when the body is in movement. 2. Learn best by doing. 3. Need a hands-on, multi-sensory approach. 4. Are motor-driven. 5. Do not do well under bright fluorescent
In school everyone learns differently; however, according to the article The Myth of Learning Styles, “The idea of learning styles is based on a theory… developed in the early 1980’s.” (pg 1.) A lot has certainly changed from the 1980’s as we learn new more material in every class we take. With this being said, someone the scientists referred to in the article “assumed” that learning styles challenged the way of the educational system when in reality, it is simply a myth. Students, like myself, only prefer to process information that they find useful or interesting to him or her. Thus giving us the problems of that teachers may take too long to cover one idea, and students may miss out out on information because he or she did not prefer that learning style.
For years, there have been many theorists who have shared their views on how individuals learn. Such research has determined that individuals have different learning styles. It is important for teacher to understand the learning styles of both themselves and their students because it helps them to relay the subject knowledge to the students. The teacher is in a position where they must be able to assess the learning styles of their students. This means that the students and teachers are both in a process of learning.
A learning style is a particular way in which the mind receives and processes information. There are four types of Learning Styles: Visual (Sight), Auditory (Talk), Tactile (Hands-on),, and . I am an auditory learner which means I'm a talker. My weak learning style is
i. Understanding the learners learning styles can make my course to be engaging. Flemming (1987) noted three different styles of learning; visual, kinaesthetic and aural. In order to know which method(s) to use to benefit my students the first lesson on my course will centre around discussions on what they already know, the resources they are familiar with, and a learning style questionnaire which will provide me with information on preferred learning styles. Effectiveness can also be enhanced if I adapt my teaching style to give maximum benefit to learners.
Understanding learning styles can help in the development of self-learning and influence the teaching strategies that may be used in helping others understand new matter. For example, when teaching the VARK learning style having the learner complete the VARK questionnaire so that they can develop an understanding of how they learn would be great. In the real world life application, it completing a learning styles assessment is just not practical. It is the responsibility of the teacher to develop multimodal ways to deliver information. It would include something like a lecture with a handout in a possible power point format that include diagrams of how the information may be applied and complete it with a discussion to cement the information. The lecture appeals to the aural learner. The power point aids the reader along with the visual learners. How to apply the information stimulates the kinesthetic learner and the completion with an open discussion cements the information and gives the aural learner a chance to
“Just as students have different personalities, they also have different ways of learing (Slavin, 107).” Learning styles are another important factor to incorporate when implementing the best learning environment. Learning styles are defined as an individual's mode of gaining knowledge. The most common learning styles addressed are auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Auditory leaners understand information through hearing. Visual learners need more visual aids in the learning process, such as diagrams, webs, or pictures. Kinesthetic learners learn better by using manipulatives or by being physically involved in the learning process. Learning styles is a piece of the “backbone” of differentiated learning. Both are used to individualize instruction to help students achieve the most success.
Education benefits individual mentally, emotionally and physically by placing them in better place than they were previously before. Everybody would agree that learning something new would take place throughout the life. Learning style defined as "A term that describes the variations among learners in using one or more senses to understand, organize, and retain experience" (Reid, 1987, p. 89). Furthermore, Felder and Henriques (1995, p. 21) explained learning styles as "the ways in which an individual characteristically acquires, retains and retrieves information". However, different learners possess different characteristics and different preferred learning styles to perceive, process, take in and understand information.
Learning styles and barriers to learning can be by the VARK to give a profile of learning preferences of how a person takes in and gives out information or Tidwell and Rodgers Practical learning styles Questionnaire. The VARK learning styles determines if the person learns by being a theorist, reflector, activist and/or pragmatist. The practical learning styles questionnaire looks at how people learn by their orientation, whether they are a realistic or creative, by their interaction, are they a doer or a thinker, by how they represent things, either by words or pictures, and how they process information, whether they are a surface or deep processor. There are many other
Willingham, D. T., Hughes, E. M., & Dobolyi, D. G. (2015). The scientific status of learning styles theories. Teaching of Psychology, 42(3), 266-271. doi:10.1177/0098628315589505
This issue is a controversy. The reason learning styles are such a controversial issue because learning styles theories have been criticized by many due to the lack of evidence to support this topic on the idea that people are somehow a particular type of learner (Coffield, Moseley, Hall, & Ecclestone, 2004). Moreover, several psychologists and neuroscientists questioned the scientific basis on which learning theories is established. Also, several educational psychologists believe that there is little to no evidence to support the efficacy of most learning style models because the models often rest on dubious theoretical grounds (Curry, 1990). Even though there is more evidence to support the lack of evidence on this topic that
Learning styles is one of the ways schools have changed over the past couple of years in regards to diversity. The varieties of learning styles of students have become more
Personal learning styles are highly complex and unique to specific individuals. It is often difficult to pinpoint an exact learning style. Though there are different categories, we often fine tune them to our own abilities. By examining our traits and tendencies we create a clearer understanding of how we process and learn information. With careful review, I have developed a specific analysis of my learning characteristics, including an evaluation of skill levels. Based on what I have recently learned and know from experience, I have also devised a structured plan for improvement of time management and study skills.
This paper will identify which of the Kolb learning styles best suits me and why I think so. It will also give some examples from my past and present to support these findings. After determining, the learning styles that best fit me and completing an inventory exercise, I have concluded that I learn best using audio and visual techniques in the learning process. I agree with everything this exercise has brought to light. I never knew that these styles were the meaning by which I learned. I have also included examples as to how I see the use and benefits of these learning styles in my career.
What is a learning style? Well a learning style is the way a person tends to learn best. It involves your preferred method of taking in, organizing, and making sense of information, Lake Washington Institute of Technology (2012). Some people prefer to learn by doing and touching, others prefer to learn by seeing, or by hearing the information. Still others learn using more than one learning style. If a person was interested in finding out what their particular learning style is would be to take the VARK questionnaire for learning styles. The most common learning style is the multimodal, but the learner
There are three main learning styles which are Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic. The three of these are different ways of how you prefer to learn, and how you consume information efficiently.