Learning Styles

As I reviewed the three different types of learners (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) I realized that I undeniably relate to visual learners, both in my current learning and childhood education.  Often, I feel as though I cannot fully absorb a lesson unless I can see and visualize the material I am being introduced to.  According to LdPride.net, visual learners often “prefer to take detailed notes.”  In my past education, and in my current education for CEP810, I find myself watching videos and tutorials and vigorously jotting down notes that explain what is occurring and why.  During my primary and secondary education, I not only wrote down the notes teachers provided, but often wrote “side” notes for additional information that was stated that I believed might help in the future.

In addition, I find diagrams, flipcharts, and hand-outs complimentary to my learning.  Perhaps it is the math brain in me, but the visual organization of information is important to my learning.  Seeing the data organized and constructed helps me to learn data and organize the thoughts into my memory. 

In comparison, during my learning experiences, I found strictly auditory learning less effective.  When a professor gave a lecture without writing notes on the board or providing any visual element, I found myself easily distracted and not fully absorbing all of the data being delivered.  As a strategy to try and offset this difficult way of learning, I often would try to write down everything the professor was saying.  In the end, I would often have a transcript, hoping that I wrote down all of the material delivered.  As a result, my learning never really happened until after class, when I had to go home and reread all of the content to actually feel like I was learning the material.   Luckily, I was the type of learner who developed a coping strategy for a learning area of weakness.  Unfortunately, I cannot say that I am convinced that every learner is naturally gifted with these coping strategies.

As I try to think of personal kinesthetic learning, the only thing that comes to mind would be labs in my science classes.  While I would say that the labs were engaging, I often found I still needed to refer to the worksheet and diagrams to really digest the information being provided.  Other than labs, I cannot think of many “hands-on” lessons.  As a current teacher, I try to incorporate kinesthetic learning even into my math class.  There are days where I incorporate “hands-on” with math manipulatives or matching games, but I also have days that I try to get students up and out of their seats.   We do stations and “carousels” where students are moving throughout the room solving problems.   I am not always sure how much of this is a “learning” style as to student engagement for middle school students.  Regardless, I find some of my less eager students participating and interacting in math so I continue to use the strategies! 

I agree that it is difficult and almost impossible to teach every lesson with every learning style.  However, I think that as educators we should focus on trying to incorporate as many different learning styles throughout our units.   I think the gaps students have when learning occur when they only are exposed to one learning style, such as my professors who orally talked without providing visuals.  I was able to cope with this, but many learners just fall behind because they are not effectively learning with the presentation they are receiving.  By actively developing lessons that use visuals, verbal links, and kinesthetic elements throughout a unit, rather than a day, I believe more students will be targeted overall.