Learning Styles

Well after completing the Felder and Soloman online questionnaire to determine my learning style, I have discovered nothing really new to me but still interesting none the less. 

The results of my learning styles showed me that I have moderate preferences towards sensing, visual and sequential, as can be seen it the results here:-

NC STATE UNIVERSITY

Learning Styles Results

Results for: Juleen Worthington ACT X REF 11 9 7 5 3 1 1 3 5 7 9 11 <-- --> SEN X INT 11 9 7 5 3 1 1 3 5 7 9 11 <-- --> VIS X VRB 11 9 7 5 3 1 1 3 5 7 9 11 <-- --> SEQ X GLO 11 9 7 5 3 1 1 3 5 7 9 11 <-- -->

If your score on a scale is 1-3, you are fairly well balanced on the two dimensions of that scale. If your score on a scale is 5-7, you have a moderate preference for one dimension of the scale and will learn more easily in a teaching environment which favors that dimension. If your score on a scale is 9-11, you have a very strong preference for one dimension of the scale. You may have real difficulty learning in an environment which does not support that preference.

The sensor learner like learning facts, doing thing in sequential ways and being practical. The visual learner remember best what they see in either pictures, diagrams, flow charts, time lines, films, and demonstrations and finally the sequential learners tend to learn in methodical ways that follow logicaal steps.

As I said before the results really werent that big of a surprise to me as all I need to do is look over my past experiences with learning and it is the classes that I had the hand on experiences, visuals (demonstrations) and the learning of facts that I used to excel in.  Home economics one one of my favourite classes while at school because it was a way of incorporating all of my favourite learning styles.  As was Biology, they both contained the theory of learning the facts while incorporating demonstrations either through labs or demonstrations.  Really was the perfect learning environment for me. 

I decided to undertake another learning style online test just to see how the result would compare.  As you can see in the results here:-

The scores are out of 20 for each style. A score of 20 indicates the style is used often.


 they were pretty much the same.  With my two biggest preferences in learning being visual and physical. 

I think I would have to say that they both are very accurate when it comes to me and my learning styles.

In a class of 25, I think it is important to have a good understanding of what style suits individual students needs best and then try to tailor your lessons to ensure you have a good balance of all the types of learning styles. It is not possible to teach every students their preferred way but it is possible to use the different teaching techniques to partly teach students in their preferred style. 

I think ICT in a classroom could help to cover all the different learning styles.  For example if you were to show a powerpoint presentation to provide the information for students, while you are discussing the points of the powerpoint (verbal), the powerpoint could also include pictures, diagrams, charts for the visual people, after or during the powerpoint you could engage students in activites to help those active learners and then include a reflective activity to think about what has been learnt for the reflective learners.  I know I haven't mentioned all the different types of learners here, but I do believe that ICT could be beneficial in helping to cater for all students individual learning preferences.