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School of Education |
Introduction To Education EDF 1005 Unit III Lesson I Learning Styles | |||
Personal Information Associate Professor, Senior |
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Introduction to the Lesson The purpose of Unit III and this first lesson is to introduce the education student to Learning Styles, Teaching Styles and Educational Technologies. In this first lesson of the third unit, the student will study such concepts as constructs as learning style, cognitive style, individual differences as well as several of the most current learning style instruments and the theories upon which they are based. According to R.N. Felder: Students preferentially take in and process information in different ways:
by seeing and hearing, reflecting and acting, reasoning logically and
intuitively, analyzing and visualizing, steadily and in fits and starts.
Teaching methods also vary. Some instructors lecture, others demonstrate or
lead students to self-discovery; some focus on principles and others on
applications; some emphasize memory and others understanding. According to Thompson and Diem Whether in a formal classroom or an informal learning environment, each of us has certain perceptual strengths, or preferred modes of processing information. Research indicates that some of us are visually oriented, some are auditory, some are kinesthetic (action oriented), and some are tactual. Most of us can process information in any mode but learn best in one or two preferred modes (Gardner, 1991). Children enter kindergarten as kinesthetic and tactual learners, moving and touching everything as they learn. By second or third grade some students have become visual learners, as they process more and more information through reading and pictures. During the late elementary years some students, primarily females, become auditory learners, who like to listen and discuss. Yet, many adults, especially males, maintain kinesthetic and tactual strengths throughout their lives (Dunn, 1993). Carbo's (1987) research indicates that whenever learners process new or difficult information, they should be introduced to the activity using their primary perceptual strength. Learning should be reinforced using the second perceptual strength. If you are primarily an auditory learner, your first encounter with something new should ideally be in an auditory mode. If you are also a tactual learner, you should reinforce with a hands-on activity. If your second strength happens to be visual, reinforce by viewing a picture, diagram, or better yet, the real thing. http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed372966.html And according to Bull, Harrist, and Kimball: Everyone has a learning style. Our style of learning, if accommodated, can result in improved attitudes toward learning and an increase in productivity, academic achievement, and creativity. A comprehensive definition of learning style was adopted by a national task force, comprised of leading theorists in the field and sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. This group defined "learning styles" as
Included in this comprehensive definition are "cognitive styles," which are intrinsic information-processing patterns that represent a person's typical mode of perceiving, thinking, remembering, and problem-solving." So what does this really mean? If we each have a best way of learning and if we can get taught in this way, we will learn better. The way we learn best seems to stay the same over time, but this does not mean, as we will see, that we cannot learn in other ways. While there is no "good" or "bad" learning style, there can be a good or bad
match between the way you best learn and the way a particular course is
taught. Suppose you are a Visual Learner enrolled in a traditional lecture
course. You feel that the instructor drones on for hours and you can't pay
attention or stay interested in the class. There's a mismatch here between
your learning style and the instructional environment of the class. As soon as
you understand this mismatch, you can find ways to adapt your style to ensure
your success in the class. You might start tape-recording the lectures so that
you don't have to worry about missing important information. You might decide
to draw diagrams that illustrate the ideas being presented in lecture. You
might go to the Media Center and check out a video to help provide some
additional information on course material you're not sure about. What you're
doing is developing learning strategies that work for you because they are
based on your knowledge of your own learning style... This lesson was developed to address elements of competency #4 on the functions of the educational process (teaching and learning) and schooling for education majors who are taking EDF 1005 in partial fulfillment of the graduation requirements for an Associate of Arts degree in Teaching (Elementary), Teaching (Secondary), Early Childhood and Exceptional Education. Competency #4 reads (in part) as follows: "The student will examine the various functions of the educational process and schooling by
(A complete list of all the competencies for EDF 1005 is provided below by clicking on the link titled competencies) | |||
