Learning Styles …

1. Learning Styles … …and what they mean to a training program

2. The Challenge … • You have just purchased a pre-fab office desk from Office Place • It consists of: • pre-cut pieces of wood, labeled “A”, “B”. “C”, etc. • little bags of screws, nuts and bolts, and some odd-looking flat connectors. • A pamphlet of instructions

3. The Goal … • You have to assemble this piece of furniture in one hour

4. The Variables … • You can adjust your environment with music, silence, food, drink as you wish • You can consult friends • You can talk to anyone you wish by phone or F2F • You can remain in one place or you roam around your work space

5. How do YOU engage this challenge? • Divide off into groups of 3 and buzz about this for 5 minutes. • Take notes – jot down a summary of the steps YOU would use to put this desk together • Try to find some commonalities within your group • We will report back in 5 minutes

6. What ARE Learning Styles? • Strategies by means of which people are best able to personalize and internalize information to render it knowledge • What Buddha might suggest are “The different paths that lead to the top of the mountain” • Engaging in instructional judo – embracing the strengths of your audience and turning that energy to your own advantage as a trainer

7. Overview • Many variations on labels for learning styles • Focus on the fundamental descriptions today • These terms are coarse grain labels • Remember that learners often adopt hybrid learning styles, i.e. mixtures of several styles

8. Broad Strokes: Learning Styles 1 • Visual Learners • Learn through seeing • Information is best presented in picture/graphical format • Visual learners benefit from films, photos, computer graphics, Flash objects, diagrams • When studying, they associate a graphical representation of the material in their minds • They are frequently artistic themselves

9. Broad Strokes: Learning Styles 2 • Auditory Learners • Learn through hearing/listening • Information best internalized through lectures, dicussions, talking with others • Written information may not have much meaning until it is heard • Auditory learners benefit from tape/digital recording, having text read to them (MS Reader, TextAloud)

10. Broad Strokes: Learning Styles 3 • Tactile/Kinesthetic Learners • Learn through doing, touching, moving • Tactile learners benefit from hands-on activity • Actively engaged in the world around them • Crave activity, touch, interpreting world physically • Excel at physical activity, crafts

11. Howard Gardner: Multiple Intelligences • Howard Gardner is Professor in Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education • Multiple Intelligences: Gardner’s taxonomy of 7 ways individuals demonstrate intellectual ability • Lead to a finer categorization of learning styles

12. Multiple Intelligences: 7 Types • Visual/Spatial Intelligence • Subsumes Visual Learner broad category • Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence • Subsumes Auditory Learner broad category • Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence • Subsumes Tactile/Kinesthetic Learner broad category

13. Multiple Intelligences: 7 Types • Logical/Mathematical Intelligence • Ability to use reason, logic, numbers • Learners think conceptually between numerical patterns, make connections between pieces of information • Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence • Learners think in sounds, rhythms, patterns

14. Multiple Intelligences: 7 Types • Interpersonal Intelligence • Ability to relate to and understand others • Learners interpret from dual perspective • They intuit motives, intentions • They facilitate • Use both verbal (speaking) and non-verbal (body language, touch) modes of communication

15. Multiple Intelligences: 7 Types • Intrapersonal Intelligence • Ability to be autoreflexive, be aware of one’s own inner state • These learners are aware of their own strengths/weaknesses, how they relate to others

16. Finer Grain: Learning Styles 1 • LINGUISTIC LEARNER likes to read, write, tell stories • Is good at memorizing facts • Learns best by saying, hearing, seeing words

17. Finer Grain: Learning Styles 2 • LOGICAL/MATHEMATICAL LEARNER likes to do experiments, work with numbers, explore patterns and relationships • Is good at math, reasoning, problem-solving • Learns best by classifying, working with abstract patterns or relationships

18. Finer Grain: Learning Styles 3 • SPATIAL LEARNER likes to draw, build, look at pictures, movies • Is good at imagining things, reading maps/charts • Learns best by visualizing, working with colour/pictures

19. Finer Grain: Learning Styles 4 • MUSICAL LEARNER likes to listen and respond to music • Is good at remembering melodies, being aware of pitch and rhythm • Learns best by rhythm, music

20. Finer Grain: Learning Styles 5 • BODILY/KINESTHETIC LEARNER likeS to touch, talk, move around • Is good at physical activities such as sport • Learns best by touching, moving, interacting with space around him/her

21. Finer Grain: Learning Styles 6 • INTERPERSONAL LEARNER like to talk to people, join groups • Is good at understanding, leading others, mediating, facilitating • Learns best by sharing, comparing, interviewing, relating

22. Finer Grain: Learning Styles 7 • INTRAPERSONAL LEARNER likes to work alone, autodidact • Is good at following instincts, focusing on and understanding self, being original • Learns best by working alone, self-paced instruction

23. A Sample Learning Inventory • Listen to the questions and try to decide what learning style would best describe each learner … • HINT: The learning styles focus only on the three broad categories: • Visual • Auditory • Tactile/Kinesthetic

24. How Do You Determine Which Learning Style Is Appropriate to A Group? • Best, but not always possible is to do a needs assessment prior to training • This will give you a sense of the range of learning styles you can expect to encounter • You can then tailor your training program to more closely fit the dominant learning styles or combinations thereof

25. How Do You Determine Which Learning Style Is Appropriate to A Group? • You might circulate in the training group before the session begins (pre-session coffee) and chat with participants • “Tease out” learning styles with some unobtrusive questions about why participants are there: questions might hint at things we asked in the inventory we just did

26. And Applying My Knowledge of Learning Styles? • You will find that there is never a single dominant learning style, but rather mutations and combinations of styles • Therefore, when you present, you must endeavour whenever possible to present your information in a triangulated relationship

27. Huh? Triangulate?? • i.e. present the same point of information from a number of different perspectives • From a visual, from an auditory and from a tactile if possible • Triangulation not only considers disparate learning styles, it reinforces one learning style with another

28. Triangulation Scenario • You might begin by explaining the general concepts in overview verbally • You might then move into the details of the concepts with charts, whiteboard, computer presentation or animation • You might follow this up with a sample problem, breaking into groups and moving them to parts of the room where they buzz amongst themselves about the solution using the concepts just learned

29. SUMMARY • Broadly speaking, people learn by • SHOWING (visual) • TELLING (verbal) • DOING (tactile/kinesthetic) • OR combinations of these • Gardner added 4 finer subsets to these 3

30. SUMMARY • Be prepared for multiple learning styles in any group • Include triangulated presentation of information in your training • Be prepared to take risks and adapt your presentation or training to the clientele at hand.

31. CONCLUSION • Remember your clientele is composed of human beings, who are complex and unpredictable