It is important to consider the different learning styles when adopting teaching approaches to reach all of the different students' learning needs.
What works for one student may not work on the next is the model that I will follow to interact and achieve higher engagement, student/class interest, and overall achievement for my students. The strategies I will present will vary from verbal, auditory, visual, and kinesthetic and or incorporate all of these for better student/material grasp and self-actualization.
Comment on Shantelle Boudreau's post: Thanks for sharing these strategies to incorporate teaching and learning styles for students with different learning capabilities.
Its interesting the information about how the 4 groups study/learn information. I took a second to ask myself how i learn. Im a Kinesthetic learner.
Comment on Cezar Luchian's post: I really like this idea as well. I hope to find a quick and simple assessment that we can use.
I want to find a quick/clear learning style assessment that I can use in the classroom at the beginning of the program.
Although I haven't been teaching very long, I have noticed a difference in learning preferences from year to year in my class. Last year the group I had wanted nothing on paper but wanted documents, assignment etc. in digital format. The group I have this year the only 2 students want digital format and the other 34 want paper.
I have used "mini field trips" for one of my classes. When covering a topic that students struggle to grasp, I divide them in to small groups, and take them into the lab where they get to see hands on the material that was covered in the classroom.
Each Student learns in very different ways. I had a class where they were visual learners and when I gave my personal stories and how it related with the topic my students retained the information. On the other hand I had a group of direct listening learners and all they needed were the facts w/o personal story telling. As an Instructor; I had to take each groups feedback and adjust my teaching style to their learning preference. I had to be the flexible teacher and respect each student for their learning style.
I vividly remember struggling in my high school Latin class. Speaking Spanish fluently certainly did not help me in this class (as I thought it would). It took me reading, writing and RECORDING myself (with playback) to obtain the perfect score on my final exam.
To this day, I remain a written word and kinesthetic learner. For some reason, I always felt that my inability to retain spoken information as some type of learning disability. In 2017, I was diagnosed with ADD (now, universally ADHD). I still find it challenging to learn from audible/spoken content, but I can retain information as long as it is repeated.
It is SO important that educators remember student learning styles in and out of the classroom. I think there is often such a rush to present so much information in a short term that educators forget to consider the learning style of INDIVIDUALS in their classroom.
I plan to remember my own struggles when preparing and developing content for my students.
I had to quickly adapt to teaching my daughter in a different way than I learn. Now that I am teaching, I still apply the different learning styles in my class, especially during review time.
I agree with trying to combine the different types of learners on a project because they will all have an area where their individual learning style will be needed.
Breaking things down into smaller more efficient modules is what I have been doing for a few years to accommodate all types of learners and do things like color code calculations as a visual guide or clue. Creating interdisciplinary or more industry led projects could be beneficial for our program and the students.
I learned that students will have a specific learning style through which they prefer to learn.
A lesson should try to address as many learning styles as possible.
We all have our own learning style; whether it's auditory, written, visual, or kinesthetic. By learning to teach in all styles, not just our own, we can achieve improved outcomes for all learners.
I learned about the different ways auditory learners process and what is best for them. I think we tend to focus on the written and the visual more than we do with the auditory ones. We just take them for granted.
As an instructor, it is better to incorporate different learning styles to accomodate students. We cannot have only one modality as it will not be effective to other students.
In the sensory modalities module, I learned that kinesthetic learners learn more effectively standing up, listening to music, while doodling, etc. This was a delight for me to learn as it offers some fun diversions from the usual lecture or demo format.
It's good to have multiple modalities presented in the class: videos, demonstrations, ppt lectures, whiteboard examples with discussion, building something for a lab.
Always try to incorporate more than one teaching styles at any given moment. When lecturing for example, use power point illustrations with images, graphs and illustrations that will cover both visual and auditory learners.
I found the kinesthetic learner interesting. Also, I may try incorporating a way to learn my students' learning styles next semester.
