Learning Styles: consider a different approach to learning

When I started my tenure as an English Language Arts teacher, I didn’t consider learning styles. I started with the traditional stand in front of the class and instruct methodology. Therefore, I would talk, the students would disengage, and then we would do an activity related to the topic. One problem with this approach was that each student in the class had a different learning style — a different approach to reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

The teacher’s learning style influences teaching style

We hear students say they like or dislike a teacher and although they don’t know it, the largest influence in their opinion is their teaching style and whether or not it matches theirs. Students absorb what we teach them differently. We as educators teach using the approach in which we feel most comfortable. In many ways, this is positive. If a student has five different teachers, this most likely exposes him or her to five different learning styles.

Howard Gardner calls learning styles ‘a hypothesis of how an individual approaches a range of materials.’

Learning styles are not static

This blog by no means encourages you to peg a student at one particular type. Some students fall in the middle of the spectrum of all learning types, and some weigh heavily in one or the other. Nor is your learning style static. You may be weak in one area, but with practice and exposure, you can develop different learning styles.

Research shows us that each learning style uses different parts of the brain. By involving more of the brain during learning, we remember more of what we learn. Researchers using brain-imaging technologies have been able to find out the key areas of the brain responsible for each learning style.

Why is this important to teaching and learning?

You can identify and recognize that you have a learning style and make sure that you mix it up every once in a while, not only to enhance the students’ experience but to keep your brain sharp as well.

Traditional schooling leans toward linguistic and logical learning styles. With an emphasis on only two learning styles, people stronger in the other learning styles may appear less bright than linguistic and logical learners.

It is to the student’s advantage to practice and learn with different styles rather than getting stuck where they are strong. Look at it as exercising the brain. We need to encourage our students to use a style that may not be in their comfort zone so that they can grow.

Using different learning styles to teach and learn, challenges us to approach a problem from different angles, thus making learning more engaging and exciting.

What to do? In your teaching, continue to use a variety of teaching methods. Continue to combine visual with auditory. Be sure to add the tactile and action-based processes to learning. Continue to notice which kids respond better to which types of teaching. (Source: “Are Learning Styles a Big Hoax? What Does the Latest Science Say About Different Learners?“)