Types of Learning Styles in a Diverse Classroom

Editor's Notes

• #7: The linguistic learner is one who learns best through linguistic skills including reading, writing, listening, or speaking. Sometimes, it’s a combination of these methods. So, for example, if a linguistic learner wanted to tackle a new skill, their best method of learning would be to read about it, then listen to an audio recording and take notes on it. Finally, concretising it would require speaking about it and, possibly, writing about it extensively. Ways to Help Linguistic Learners Retain Information Create a handout summarising your presentation to give to your audience List out keywords on your slides Use acronym mnemonics as teaching devices Separate your audience into groups for discussion questions
• #8: The naturalist learns by working with, and experiencing, nature. If this sounds a lot like a scientist, it’s because that’s how scientists learn. The naturalist loves experiences, loves observing the world around them, and captures the best information or knowledge through experimentation. Ways to Help Naturalistic Learners Retain Information Consider hosting various presentations or talks outside Create guides for how to learn more about your topic out of doors Explain how your audience can observe your topic in the real world Work one-on-one with audience members outside
• #9: The musical or rhythmic learner is one who learns using melody or rhythm. This would be like a musician learning how to play by listening to a piece of music or a drummer who hears beats in his head and on the street from arbitrary sources before putting it together in the studio. But it can also be a person who learns best while humming, whistling, toe-tapping, tapping their pencil on the desk, wiggling, or listening to music in the background. For this person, music isn’t a distraction but instead actually helps the learning process. Some people also think better with background noise, so you may often notice that some people think best when they hum, whistle, bounce a ball off the wall, or make some other noise or move (pace) while thinking. Ways to Help Auditory Learners Retain Information Hold discussions and debates Speak clearly so your audience can hear you Incorporate background music into your presentation Create jingles or rhymes to help teach information
• #10: The Kinaesthetic learner is a person that learns best by actually doing something. These people are also scientific in nature and must interact with objects in order to learn about them (or learn about them in the best way possible). None of these careers could be done without “hands-on experience.” Many of these jobs, with rare exceptions, are also trade professions that require an apprenticeship or shadowing. Ways to Help Kinesthetic Learners Retain Information Bring volunteers onstage to assist with demonstrations Provide step-by-steps for audience members to do something on their own Give out worksheets with fill in the blanks from your presentation Incorporate learning games into your talk
• #11: A visual or spatial learner is a person who learns best if there are visual aids around to guide the learning process. For example, someone who can learn best from diagrams, pictures, graphs would be a visual or spatial learner. These people tend to be technically-oriented and enter engineering fields. An example of this type of learner would be a person who becomes a computer engineer or programmer. But, the best students are those that are visual or spatial learners. Why? Because being proficient in programming and IT requires that you be a strong visual or spatial learner. Almost everything having to do with computers is conceptual and so it relies on graphical or visual representations of components that can’t actually be seen (e.g. bytes). Ways to Help Visual Learners Retain Information Use charts, graphs, maps, diagrams, timelines and infographics Replace words with colours and images Stay away from blocks of text, focusing on one idea per slide Highlight important points in colour
• #12: The logical or mathematical learner must classify or categorise things. They also tend to understand relationships or patterns, numbers and equations, better than others. These are obviously engineers, scientists, mathematicians, and other technical professions. Ways to Help Logical Learners Retain Information Share the key concepts behind lessons instead of fun facts Play a game with the audience during your presentation Provide specific goals for your audience to achieve with your information Share how pieces of your information relate to each other
• #13: The interpersonal learner is someone who learns by relating to others. Often, these people share stories, work best in teams, and compare their ideas to the ideas of others. In a sense, others help them think of new ideas of their own. They are often naturally good leaders as well as team players. You often see these people in various fields of psychology or social sciences. Ways to Help Interpersonal Learners Retain Information Break your audience off into groups Role play with the audience to demonstrate processes Allow audience members to ask questions at the end Offer the opportunity to schedule one-on-one time with you
• #14: The intrapersonal, as opposed to interpersonal, learner is someone who works and learns best when they are alone. They set individual goals that are challenging, but not impossible. They are also motivated by internal forces, rather than external ones. They are often introverted individuals, but not always. These people often enter creative fields, become entrepreneurs, and sometimes small business owners. But, they are usually in fields or industries that allow them to work without direct supervision. Ways to Help Intrapersonal Learners Retain Information Don’t make discussion groups mandatory Provide notepads for audience members to take notes Put together charts for mapping progress in your topic Create study guides for audience members to work on later
• #15: https://eln.co.uk/blog/honey-mumford-learner-types-1986-questionnaire-online https://eln.co.uk/blog/honey-and-mumford-learning-styles
• #18: Accommodating (CE/AE): This feel and do style is a hands-on approach. It is suitable for people who are intuitive rather than logical. Such people rely on others analysis and thinking rather than their own. They are proactive, and are eager to take on and complete new challenges. Diverging (CE/RO): The feel and watch style is for imaginative and emotional people. These people view a situation from several different perspectives and generate a lot of ideas. They are more people oriented and are deep thinkers. Converging (AC/AE): This is a think and do style. People who are technical minded prefer this. They are accepting to new ideas and like to rely on their learning and thinking to find a solution to practical situations. They also bring up doable practices of theories and ideas. Assimilating (AC/RO): The think and watch style is apt for people who are more interested in logical sounding theories and clear explanations over practical approaches. They value conciseness and logic.
• #19: Deep learning approach: This is a more reflective approach where an individual like to explore and determine the meaning of what he/she has learned and shows interest in ideas and monitoring understanding. They are likely to extrapolate the exact meaning of the author while reading and find meaning and reason behind what they have learnt (Draper and Waldman, 2013). They also try to fit together and link what they learn in other subjects as well and dwell on new ideas. They are hard to impress by long tales, they like to see reason and logic and try to build a picture to fit in all the data. They are keen on details and take notes meticulously. Deep learners are often taken by some gripping ideas and may spend long periods of time thinking and researching about it. The bottom line is that the Intention is to seek meaning for oneself. Strategic learning approach: The individuals are systematic and organised. They show alertness towards assessment and continually monitor their studying habits or routines. They plan their week in ahead either on paper or in their head or otherwise, and manage the readings and assignments well. They are pretty well organised and time themselves to manage their activities systematically. They work stealthily throughout and do not accumulate work for the last moment.Moreover, they also do not have trouble getting down to work as soon as they sit down to do it (Richardson, J. T. E. 2000). They are also smart when it comes to scoring marks because they recognise what the instructor wants or prefers and do their work accordingly to impress their teachers. They are determined to do well and if they are rewarded (by acknowledgement or good marks), they put in even more effort. Such individuals are careful of what they submit and review their work to see if it fulfils all the requirements and is of high quality. Bottom-line intention is to achieve the highest marks/grades, rewards or acknowledgement. Surface apathetic learning approach: There is an evident lack of purpose in such individuals. Their syllabus-bound focus on fulfilling just the minimum requirements is because they often reconsider why they are studying what is being taught to them. And if they think that the course is not adding value to their learning, they lose interest and do not put in much effort. The reason could be that the course fails to capture their interest too (Draper and Waldman, 2013). Much of what they are studying seems less related, so they are inclined to do unrelated memorising. In a syllabus-bounded environment, learning is mostly centred on only what is necessary to pass with scarcely any further effort, and research for more knowledge. Individuals are usually complaining about the workload and being unable to cope with it. Their core Intention to cope minimally with the course requirements. https://eln.co.uk/blog/learning-preferences-dependent-on-context-entwistle
• #20: Coffield and his team of researchers (Coffield et al. 2004) investigated top 13 of the 71 learning style theories including its theoretical basis and origin, and its instrument. They also studied conclusions given by the researcher, and those given by other researchers testing the respective theories. The team also built an independent study to investigate empirical evidence of a relationship between the learning style (as per the instrument) and students’ learning aptitude.