D2.1: Discussion 2.1 – Teaching and Learning Styles (Chapter 2)
Directions
Now that you have discovered your own learning style and dominant intelligence, briefly share what you have discovered about yourself.
How do you feel your own preferences will impact how you teach?
What will you do to address the diverse styles you will find in your students?
Please limit your responses to 300 words. Quality (not quantity) is the key! Be sure to comment in 150 words on two of your peers’ posts and include their names in your comments.
What Are Your Learning Preferences?
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Knowing how to utilize your learning preferences helps you become a more efficient learner.
Different people have different learning preferences. There are many models which are used to describe these preferences. Learning styles is one that accounts for learner differences, which can be useful in understanding the different ways we learn. It can also be useful to know your strengths and use them to enhance learning.
Style refers to a student’s specific learning preferences and actions. One student may learn more effectively from listening to the instructor, while another prefers to take notes. Another learns more effectively from reading the textbook, while another student benefits most from charts, graphs, and images the instructor presents during a lecture. It’s important to note that people don’t necessarily have a single style. Students can use different styles in different situations, but they often tend toward specific preferences.
Learning style is important in college and university. Each different style, described later in more detail, has certain advantages and disadvantages compared with other styles. None is “right” or “wrong.” You can learn to use different styles more effectively.
Instructors also have different teaching styles, which may or may not match up well with your learning preference. Although you may personally prefer a certain style of teaching, you cannot expect that your instructors will use exactly the style that you prefer. Therefore it is important to know how to adapt to teaching styles.
It is important to note that there are many criticisms of the learning styles model. Some researchers purport that there is no evidence that identifying a learner’s learning style and then teaching to it accordingly results in increased student outcomes.
Another criticism is that identifying one single learning style or method of learning and focusing on it alone can result in ignoring the other learning modalities, and this could ultimately hamper learning.
It is much more useful to think of it like this: if you recognize a learning strength, then use that strength by adding more of it to your learning strategies. But don’t stop using the other modalities.
For example, if you discover that listening is a strength for you, then it would be useful for you to add listening activities to your coursework, such as downloading lectures and re-listening to them while you are doing other activities (riding the bus, going for a run, or doing the dishes).
But listening to lectures on your phone should not replace attending classes, practising concepts by doing homework questions, or working together in study groups – as these are all things that can enhance your learning as well.
Consider the following theories and see if any of the concepts resonate with you.
