Learning Styles, Defining You as Much as You Let Them

Hello all! 

                Isn’t it amazing to be different? I think it is important for us all to realize and believe that we all have unique qualities that allow us to be different, look at things a different way, and learn a different way.  In class, we talked about the three main learning styles. The three general types of learners are visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners. It is important to know that most students are not just one type of learner, most students benefit from various different types of instruction, as differentiation of instruction is the best way to keep students engaged and invested in their learning. It is as important for students to know how they learn best as it is for teachers to know how their students learn. There are many ways one can test what type of learner they are, below is a ink that takes you to a brief quiz that tests what kind of learner you are. Using a quiz like this is a great starting point, but I think it is detrimental to the development of student’s ability to learn if they pigeon hole themselves into one specific type of learner. In addition to a test, personal reflection is a great way for students to realize the many ways they learn best. 

What Learning Style Best Describes You?

After determining how a classes types of learners differs, the best step to take, as teacher should be how he or she will differentiate the instruction and activities. During my placement in grade 7 and 8 math, I prided myself on my ability to involve various different types of activities for my students to do. Compared to my associate teacher, my lessons asked students to work through larger and harder questions in groups instead of using the textbook every day. Using manipulatives in my class, that included many ELL students, was crucial to my success when teaching fractions and even data management. Even though students may identify as a specific type of learner, I strongly believe that majority of students respond well to math with manipulatives or math-based games that are more hands on. In class, we were given the task to go to our school’s resource center and find board game that we could alter to involve math. The game my partner and I selected was BUZZ. The game asks the player to roll a single dice, moving the number of spots the dice lands on. The purpose of the game is to collect tokens as you take your turns, trying to collect six tokens before the bear reaches the honeycomb (the dice has a bear paw on one of its sides, the bear piece moves if the paw is rolled). Our alteration for the game focuses on students number sense and numeration skills. Once a player rolls a number, the person to the left of them must give them a number to divide or multiply their rolled number by. The player may only move the number of spaces if they get the correct answer. Students would be able to answer many different types of questions with this alteration. I also like that this alteration has the potential to be used in most games that involve dice. 

Retrieved from https://goo.gl/z3rN2U September 24, 2017

Be it audio, visual or kinesthetic, your learning style defines you as much as you let it. It is important that students are aware of how they work best so they can provide feedback to the teacher if things are working or not. I view teaching as being very symbiotic relationship, that students and teachers both do their best when they are working together towards better understanding.