Do All Students Learn the Same Way?

Learning Styles

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Professor Dancelot

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What would help the students in this class be more successful?

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Teaching and Learning Styles/Preferences

Merilee A. KruegerAssociate Teaching Professor

Department of Psychological Science

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TeachingIn Missouri, the traditional route to earn a “certificate of license to teach” K-12 requires:• a four-year, college-recommended course

of study• student teaching• passing the designated assessment tests• graduating with a bachelor’s degree in a

field of education

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Teaching

• The preparation for teaching in a university varies by institution, but there are no comprehensive guidelines.

• Yet, for many faculty members it encompasses 1/3 of their job description!

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Teaching

• Therefore, it is important to gather as much information as possible to make educated decisions regarding teaching –formulate your own toolkit…

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Teaching

• A key component to teaching is to “Know Your Students.” This was illustrated in the opening video; another way to do this is to become familiar with different learning styles, preferences, intelligences and motivation.

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Learning Style

• Learning Style – refers to how learners gather, sift through, interpret, organize, come to conclusions about, and “store” information for further use – the educational conditions under which a student is most likely to learn

• It is proposed that this style is a part of one’s personality.

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Learning Style

• Despite the popularity of learning styles and inventories to assess them, it is important to know that the research has produced mixed results.

• Some have found no evidence to support the idea that matching activities to one’s learning style improves learning.

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Learning Style• Learning is complicated. Some educators

do not accentuate learning styles, but instead stress the importance of the student’s role in the learning process.

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Learning Preference

• Learning Preference - emphasizes that the student has an active role in their education. It focuses on how the student needs to adapt and find their own ways to re-interpret the information.

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Learning Preference

• Regardless of how the information is received, it is important for the learner to make choices regarding with whom they study, where they study, under what circumstances they learn, etc.

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Learning Preference

If you look at all the studies on learning, you could find hundreds of preferences and intellectual styles of learning.

• Zhang and Sternberg (2005) proposes 3 basic intellectual styles to make the number more manageable:

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Learning Preference

• Type I: The student prefers unstructured, free-flowing, creative, complicated and autonomous learning. Likes to decide what to do and how to do it, rather than being told.

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Learning Preference

• Type II: Students prefer structured, straightforward tasks that follow established traditional teaching and authoritative answers.

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Learning Preference

• Type III: Student does not have one preferred style, but varies depending on the task at hand, interests, etc.

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Learning Preference

Sternberg elaborated further on a learner’s style or preference and proposed:

• Styles are preferences, not abilities.• Styles are not “good” or “bad” -- what is

important is goodness of fit.

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Learning Preference

• Styles can change depending on the task as well as across the lifespan, and learners are capable of adopting and changing learning styles.

• Different tasks require different styles, therefore the learner has to adapt.

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Learning Preference

• The value of considering learning preferences/styles is that this knowledge can assist students to develop thoughtful self-monitoring and self-awareness.

• It also helps develop appreciation for student differences.

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Other Considerations

• Multiple intelligence• Emotional intelligence• Motivation

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To Summarize

• Teaching is multi-faceted. It is more than simply disseminating information. As faculty, the more we can inform our teaching, the more we can help our students succeed!

• Questions?

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Example Problem 1

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Example Problem 1 (Solution)

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http://iit.edu/arc/workshops/pdfs/Center_of_Mass.pdf

Example Problem 1 (Work)

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What would you change to make this more adapted to multiple learning styles?

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Voice-Over PowerPoint

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Real-World Example

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NSF - Class Discussion Prompts

Ask students to think about how they walk a line, cross a balance beam, or stay upright on inline skates or a skateboard. What kinds of actions do they do to ensure they stay upright? Why are these actions necessary?• Extending arms while balancing oneself helps....• Bending low helps maintain balance by....• When maintaining balance the body’s center of mass....• When involved in the complex physical movements

required to play a sport, the body’s center of mass...• The center of mass can be located experimentally by….

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/winterolympics/docs/Winter_Olympics_Figure_Skating_Inquiry_toNBC.docx http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/winterolympics/

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TedEd Lesson

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Applying Different Learning Styles

• Think of a lesson you teach. • How would you approach this concept

from a different learning style?

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The Closer