Learning Styles

 I am a visual learner who is good at making connections between concepts, hence the logical intelligence. I am dependent on the teacher for guidance and approval and enjoy participating in class discussions. In other words the school setting was perfect for me. I learned well from lectures, especially if there were visuals or notes written on the board, and taking notes. I frequently asked questions if I didn’t understand any of the material and always participated in any classroom discussions. I enjoyed mulling over the information on my own and seeing how it fit within my own life; my intrapersonal intelligence.

There were very few settings when I struggled with how I was taught.  One of these settings was in group presentations. Being a perfectionist and obsessed with getting an A I struggled with other students who didn’t hold up their part of the project and I often struggled with the open-ended portion of the project. If I didn’t know exactly what the teacher wanted, I didn’t know how to proceed.

As teachers we can’t focus on every learning style in each lesson, but I do think that we can mention little things in every lesson to focus slightly on each learning style.  For example a teacher can start the lesson by connecting the new material to past material and quickly explaining the big picture. Then at the end have a reflective part to go over the material. This would cover global and reflective learners to a small portion.

Then I believe the key is to not always teach in the same manner. Maybe each lesson can’t incorporate all of the learning styles but the in the span of a week or two a teacher should be attempting to use different learning styles in different lessons and combining them when they can. For example use visuals when lecturing and this will combine visual and auditory learners. Then in another lesson have group work or a hands on lesson for active or kinesthetic learners.

I believe that the teacher should focus reaching the majority of the students in the full class setting but should constantly be trying new and different lessons in different learning styles to accommodate everyone. The teacher should also attempt to know how all of the students learn best in order to know how to work best with each child individually. Although this is easier said than done, I do feel it is an ideal that teachers should strive for.