Learning Styles

Learning Styles
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Rhonda Noren
According to The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, The University of Michigan, by Susan Montgomery and Linda Groat, students bring a great diversity of learning styles to the classroom. The problem is not that a mismatch occurs in the teaching style versus the learning style, it is in the failure to acknowledge and work out potential conflicts. Faculty should be self-reflective about their pedagogical goals and strengths in teaching.
For myself as a teacher, I find that there are many learning styles in my classroom. I seek out individuals that match up with other student types and rely on their assistance to relay information the way they need to hear it. This gives my students an opportunity to learn it and teach it, thus learning more, by both. I can concentrate on students that are behind or need more help by scaffolding information so they can comprehend it.
My goal is for everyone to learn as much as possible. Sharing information with understanding and comprehension is the biggest contribution to getting that goal met. The outcome is what matters. I don’t have to do all of the teaching. I learn how to teach different things from different learning styles than my own as well by listening and watching what others do.
For myself, my style is more, step by step in nature. I have taken many types of learning style tests and I have found that over the years I have become more rounded in my styles. The preference remains the same and in difficult lessons I rely on my natural learning styles to accomplish my goals. Once I fully understand something I can switch to other learning styles to learn material so I can relay information to others.
My learning styles includes visual and kinesthetic. I need to see material in sequence to understand it and I need to be doing something to remember it. I try to remember what my learning styles are and think of other ways to present information for my students.