Week 9 - Learning Styles

This week started quite well because I had finished my project before it and just waited to upload it to our wiki. I needed some break so did not do my task about learning styles on Monday but left it for Wednesday night. 

I started with testing myself on edutopia to find out what my learning style is. Obviously, we studied learning styles before, but the distinction was a bit different. The styles were divided according to „senses“ to types of learners whose „senses“ prevail while acquiring knowledge, such as  visual, aural, kinesthetic or verbal. I always thought I was a visual type of a learner since I could remember things easier when I read them, colour-coded them, saw pictures or diagrams – all connected with my visual „photographic“ memory. However, when it came to the process of moving words from my passive to active vocabulary, it often happened that when I talked to a person in English, I realized that I had known the word before and when I liked it, I started using it.

After taking the test about my learning style I realized that I am „smart“ enough :-) to learn new things. Being a „victim“ of multiple intelligence with  5 out of 7 styles ranging from 58 to 75 also increases various inputs I use while teaching since subconsciously I have been trying to help students to find the easiest way for them to learn the language so that they can enjoy the whole process and are satisfied with their knowledge, skills and abilities. 

(From now on it is an updated copy of my Nicenet post so if you have read it, you may stop reading:-) 

Having learnt about my learning style and reading about different styles on that website,  I read the compulsory articles and learnt a bit more.  Then I went online to read what my colleagues wrote in discussion on Nicenet and realized that almost everything had been mentioned. I did not know how to write my post and contribute to the discussion so I commented on my colleagues's posts and expressed my opinion or feeling about them. 

I really liked Maria´s post which is very thorough and if I had not read the compulsory reading, after having read Maria´s post I would be able to understand everything. I absolutely agree with the quote by Felder „professors should strive for a balance of instructional methods...". 

Shuangru cited  "what educators do is to use a variety of teaching styles in class teaching," and I cannot agree more.

Margarita pointed out "It is quite imposible to get all your students pleased by the strategy which they learn more"“  This is something each teacher should be aware of.

Tuula wrote "to get the students' emotions involved in addition to their rational thinking."  Very important!

Rosmery mentioned 5Cs - "Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities"  

What is the learning of a foreign language about if not this?

Being aware of all mentioned above makes the use of technology crucial.  Involving emotions both positive and negative – by using videos, news, films, pictures, songs, musis online or offline – combination of visual, aural, verbal and to some extent kinesthetic if you let students move, dance or just simply move the mouse, helps students  remember, analyse, evaluate and create. 

What technology would work best? It depends on the students as well as the teacher. Mutual co-operation, sharing ideas and feelings, involving students´ interests and sparking intrinsinc motivation contributes to creating a positive atmosphere in which the students are not afraid of expressing their own opinion, making mistakes, but also they are able to ask for and demand the approach they feel might work for them. It is also interconnected with the interests and a personality of the teacher to enhance the quality of the teaching-learning process.

Knowing what learning styles prevail in the classroom will definitely help the teacher  focus on the majority and choose the most appropriate technology that appeals to most of the students. The change is life and the life is a change.