Teaching And Learning : Education And The Quality Of Teaching

Does the world around us impact our ability to learn? Or do we acquire knowledge through self-will? Furthermore, what if knowledge begins at the start of our social interactions? Several theories have been conducted to explore the styles of learning. Three theorists, Bronfenbrenner, Piaget, and Vygotsky share differing views of how cognitive development is achieved.

Learning styles refer to the different ways that people process and retain information and they serve as an indicator of the learning method that each student prefers. The learning styles theories/models that we will discuss about in this report are the Neil Fleming’s Visual-Auditory-Read/Write-Kinesthetic model and David Kolb’s Experiential Learning model.

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.

From an early age I found learning hard and in my early educational years I

“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.

Sadler-Smith, Eugene and Carol Evans. Learning styles in education and training. 2nd. Bradford, England: Emerald Group Publication, 2012.

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

The topic under discussion within this paper is that of learning styles and how each individual has a dominant way of learning. There are many types of ,learning styles which are being discussed throughtout the paper and the succussfulness of these theories. There is also a reflective account to the learning styles presentation and how effective this was within a group, presented through kolbs learning style cycle.

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 first assignment will be explaining my learning disposition and personal experiences of education and learning prior to starting at Sheffield Hallam University. This will focus on my different experiences and memories of education before starting my course, I will also relate any experiences to suitable theories and theorists. One the first entries in my journals and my earliest memories of education was reflecting what my learning style. I have always found it easier to learn from listening and taking my time, rather than jumping into work. At nursery, many of the children would want to go ahead and try out all the activities hands-on, I on the other hand would always be sat waiting for the teacher to explain more and to receive instructions.

I think this entire book is focused around the idea of differentiated instruction. I know that all my students will have different learning styles, so knowing that makes me side heavily with the ideas within this text. I think the idea within the text that impressed me the most was the classification of learning styles. I had never seen the learning styles portrayed the way this book described them. There are four learning styles: mastery, for learners who want to learn practical information and procedures; interpersonal, for learners who want to learn about things that affect people’s lives; understanding, for learners who want to use logic, debate, and inquiry to investigate ideas; self-expressive, for learning who want to use their imaginations to explore ideas. The text also talks about a fifth learning style, one that combines the four previously described all together. The way the idea of these four learning styles were described, made them make more sense to me than they ever have before. I would be extremely interested in continuing my knowledge of these learning styles. It would be great to get intimate enough with them that I could get to know a student and have an idea of what sort of learning style they

Although most commonly framed in academic contexts, learning style lies at the foundation of individual identity and development. Learning, "the process of acquiring knowledge about the world" (1) and learning style, "...the sum of the patterns of how individuals develop habitual ways of responding to experience" (2) reflect an array of attitudes, emotional responses, preferences and habits. It is the basis of how we interact with, process and are subsequently affected by inputs from our environment. In addition to providing a general overview of learning styles, this paper makes the claim that distinctions resulting from these models support the existence of the I-function.

The most surprising thing that occurred during the interview process actually happened before the interview itself. It took us quite a long time to decide who will be our target on solving problems in connection with quality education. Initially, we planned on interviewing high school students for this project; however, it became a challenge because we realized that we could not interview them during regular school hours. Therefore, we interviewed students from San Francisco community college, with the purpose of knowing some challenges that they came across when they were still in high school. Furthermore, we wanted to know what sort of problems that they are currently dealing with in college and what they wish could have been different if they were more prepared for it.

The most surprising thing that occurred during the interview process actually happened before the interview it self. It took us quite a long time to decide who will be our target on solving problems in connection with quality education. Initially, we planned on interviewing high school students for this project; however, it became a challenge because we realized that we could not interview them during regular school hours. Therefore, we interviewed students from San Francisco community college, with the purpose of knowing some challenges that they came across when they were still in high school. Furthermore, we wanted to know what sort of problems that they are currently dealing with in college and what they wish could have been different if they were more prepared for it.