Learning Styles

I feel to best effectively encourage the best work from students it is good to have a sense about how best they learn. Depending upon the age and maturity level this self-response from the students may or may not be an accurate description of their learning, but at the beginning of a year it’s a good place to start. I like to have the students input on where and how they feel they best learn. I know it is impossible to differentiate instruction to such an extent that every lesson reaches every student on every level, but my goal is to, within every unit, offer instruction to every student on a level where he or she learns best.

 

Because I will teach high school, my students will have a certain self-awareness about what has and has not worked in their learning environments up until this point. My hope is that they will be able to articulate this at least a bit to help me tailor my classroom and lessons around their needs. At the beginning of each year I will give my students a questionnaire that talks about their learning styles and needs. While there are plenty of studies and questionnaires out there that ask lots of questions that narrow in on students’ needs and inherent learning styles, my idea is to hand out a paper with a few questions to determine which students prefer technology, textbooks, group projects, math based problems, non-math based problems, etc. My goal is to not be overly specific—just probing the general temperature of the class. It also allows the class to feel heard right off the bat. I feel this open dialogue starts the year off right and opens the discussion pathways both ways.