What’s a Learning Style?

1. Learning Styles ,Types of Learners and Individual Learner differencesPrepared &presented by:Abdelaziz Adnani

2. What’s a Learning Style? • “A learning style is the way each learner begins to concentrate on, process, and retain new and difficult information.” (Rita Dunn Ph. D.)

3. Learning Styles • Visual/Spatial: Learning through seeing. • Verbal/Linguistic: Learning through hearing • Body/Kinesthetic: Learning through moving, doing, and touching

4. Learning Styles • Logical/Mathematical: learning through numbers • Musical/Rhythmic: Learning through music • Interpersonal: Learning through others’ emotions • Intrapersonal: Learning through one’s inner emotions

5. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences • Gardner's theory was first espoused in his 1983 book, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. • Gardner believes “that the brain has evolved over millions of years to be responsive to different kinds of content in the world. Language content, musical content, spatial content, numerical content, etc. And all of us have computers that respond to those kinds of contents. But the strength or weakness of one computer doesn't particularly correlate with the other computer.”

6. Visual/Spatial Intelligence These learners tend to: • Think in pictures and need to create vivid mental images to retain information • Enjoy looking at maps, charts, pictures, videos, and movies • Skills: puzzle building, reading, writing, understanding charts and graphs, a good sense of direction, sketching, painting, creating visual metaphors and analogies (perhaps through the visual arts), manipulating images, constructing, fixing, designing practical objects, and interpreting visual images

7. Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence These learners tend to: • Have highly developed auditory skills and are generally elegant speakers • Think in words rather than pictures • Skills: listening, speaking, writing, story telling, explaining, teaching, using humor, understanding the syntax and meaning of words, remembering information, arguing their point of view, and analyzing language usage

8. Logical/Mathematical Intelligence These learners tend to: • Think conceptually in logical and numerical patterns making connections between pieces of information • Ask lots of questions and like to do experiments • Skills: problem solving, classifying and categorizing information, working with abstract concepts to figure out the relationship of each to the other, handling long chains of reason to make logical progressions, doing controlled experiments, questioning and wondering about natural events, performing complex mathematical calculations, and working with geometric shapes

9. Body/Kinesthetic Intelligence These learners tend to: • Express themselves through movement • Have good sense of balance and eye-hand coordination • Remember and process information through interacting with the space around them • Skills: physical coordination, athletic ability, hands on experimentation, using body language, crafts, acting, miming, using their hands to create or build, dancing, and expressing emotions through the body

10. Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence These learners tend to: • Think in sounds, rhythms, and patterns • Immediately respond to music, either appreciating or criticizing what they hear • Be extremely sensitive to environmental sounds • Skills: singing, whistling, playing musical instruments, recognizing tonal patterns, composing music, remembering melodies, and understanding the structure and rhythm of music

11. Interpersonal Intelligence These learners tend to: • Try to see things from another person’s point of view in order to understand how they think and feel • Often have an uncanny ability to sense feelings, intentions, and motivations • Be great organizers and generally try to maintain peace in group settings and encourage cooperation

12. Interpersonal Intelligence (con’t) • Use both verbal and non-verbal language to open communication channels with others • Skills: seeing things from other perspectives, listening, using empathy, understanding other people’s moods and feelings, counseling, cooperating with groups, building trust, resolving conflicts peacefully, and establishing positive relations with other people

13. Intrapersonal Intelligence These learners tend to: • Try to understand their inner feelings, their strengths and weaknesses, their dreams, and their relationships with others • Skills: recognizing their own strengths and weaknesses, reflecting and analyzing themselves, being aware of their inner feelings, desires, and dreams, evaluating their thinking patterns, reasoning with themselves, and understanding their role in relationship to others

14. Techniques to use with the different learning styles Following are techniques that you can use to help students develop, explore, and enhance their learning strengths. The more a student can learn through a combination of all the modalities—visual, auditory, and kinesthetic—the more permanent the learning will be.

15. Encourage Visual Learners to: • use graphics to reinforce learning. • color code to organize notes and possessions. • use color to highlight important points in text. • take notes. • illustrate ideas as a picture before writing them down. • ask for written directions. • use flow charts and diagrams for note taking. • visualize spelling of words or facts to be memorized. • study in a quiet place away from verbal disturbances.

16. Encourage Verbal Learners to: • read aloud. • recite information to learn. • use tunes or rhymes as mnemonic devices. • read aloud and tape test questions or directions. • dictate to someone else and have that person write down the thoughts. • use verbal analogies and storytelling to demonstrate their point.

17. Encourage Kinesthetic Learners to: • make models, do lab work, or role play to physically experience learning. • trace letters and words with a pen or the index finger when reading and studying. • skim through reading material before reading it in detail. • annotate text and write questions while reading. • translate information into diagrams or other visual study tools. • recite a list of items by counting on fingers. • memorize or drill while walking or dancing. • listen to music while studying.

18. Types of Learners • Active/Reflective • Sensing • Intuitive • Visual/Verbal • Sequential/Global • Auditory

19. A student’s learning type may be defined in large part by the answers to five questions: • How does the student perceive information: through the senses or intuitively? • Through which sensory channel is external information most effectively perceived: visual or auditory? • With which organization of information is the student most comfortable: inductive or deductive? • How does the student prefer to process information: actively or reflectively? • How does the student progress toward understanding: sequentially or globally?

20. Active/ Reflective Learners • Active learners tend to retain and understand information best by doing something active with it—discussing it, applying it, or explaining it to others. • "Let's try it out and see how it works" is an active learner's phrase. • Reflective learners prefer to think about information quietly first. • "Let's think it through first" is the reflective learner's response.

21. Sensing Learners • Sensing learners tend to like learning facts. • Sensors often like solving problems by well-established methods and dislike complications and surprises. • Sensors tend to be patient with details and good at memorizing facts and doing hands-on work. • Sensors tend to be more practical and careful than intuitors.

22. Intuitive Learners • Intuitive learners often prefer discovering possibilities and relationships. • Intuitors like innovation and dislike repetition. • Intuitors may be better at grasping new concepts and are often more comfortable than sensors with abstractions and mathematical formulations. • Intuitors tend to work faster and to be more innovative than sensors.

23. Visual/ Verbal Learners • Visual learners remember best what they see. • Verbal learners get more out of words. • Everybody learns more when information is presented both visually and verbally.

24. Sequential/ Global Learners • Sequential learners tend to gain understanding in linear steps, following logical paths to find solutions. • Global learners tend to learn in large chunks, absorbing material almost randomly without seeing connections and then suddenly “getting it.” • Global learners may be able to solve complex problems quickly or put things together in novel ways once they have grasped the big picture, but they may have difficulty explaining how they did it.

25. Auditory Learners Students with this style will be able to recall what they hear and will prefer oral instructions. They learn by listening and speaking. These students enjoy talking and interviewing. They are phonetic readers who enjoy oral reading and listening to recorded books. They learn best by: • interviewing, debating • • participating in oral discussions of written material • giving oral reports

26. What do I do about all these styles and types of learners? You do not need to memorize the different learning styles or fit learners into neat categories. Most of us fall into multiple categories. This information is presented to demonstrate that people learn in different ways, which will assist you in being sure that you present material in various ways to accommodate all learners. If something seems not to work, try a different style.

27. Individual Learner Differences • 1-Define differentiated Instruction. • 2-Discuss the reasons for differentiating instruction. • Discuss what makes it successful . • Suggest how teachers can start implementing it. • Discuss Students’ Learning Styles.

28. Differentiating Instruction • At its most basic level, differentiation consists of the efforts of teachers to respond to variance among learners in the classroom. Whenever a teacher reaches out to an individual or small group to vary his or her teaching in order to create the best learning experience possible, that teacher is differentiating instruction.

29. Activity(1) • Directions 1-Think about any group of people (family members,students,friends) • 2-Choose three members of that group. • 3-Describe them listing their personal and intellectual characteristics on a three-column chart . • 4- Work in small groups and compare the lists adding characteristics that others have included . • 5-As a group check the characteristics of each individual that you think would help them to learn another language. • 6-For each person list two types of activities that he/she might do well in a classroom setting. • Time:10 minutes • Discussion of the lists and Brainstorming of activities.

30. Why Differentiate Instruction • A simple answer is that students: • Vary greatly, and if teachers want to maximize their students’ individual potential, they will have to attend to the differences. • Another reason for differentiating instruction relates to teacher professionalism. Expert teachers are attentive to students’ varied learning needs; to differentiate instruction, then, is to become a more competent, creative, and professional educator.

31. Why Differentiate Instruction • Individuals should be encouraged to use their preferred Intelligences in learning. • Instructional activities should appeal to different forms of intelligences. • Assessment of learning should measure multiple forms of intelligences .

32. Why Differentiate Instruction • Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences offers one kind of explanation for learner differences. According to Gardner, there are eight different types of Intelligences : • Linguistic: Sensitivity to spoken and written language, the ability to learn language. • Logical-mathematical: Capacity to analyze problems logically, carry out mathematical operations. • Visual-spatial: Able to recognize and use the patterns of wide space. • Musical: Skill in the performance, composition,and appreciation of musical patterns.

33. Why Differentiate Instruction • Bodily-Kinesthetic: Potential to use one’s whole body or parts of the body to solve problems . • Interpersonal: Capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people. • Intrapersonal: Capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one’s feelings , fears and motivations. • Naturalistic: Able to recognize, categorize and draw upon certain features of the environment.

34. What Makes Differentiation Successful? The following broad principles and characteristics which are useful in establishing a differentiated classroom: • ASSESSMENT IS ONGOING AND TIGHTLY LINKED TO INSTRUCTION. Teachers are hunters and gatherers of information about their students and how those students are learning at a given point. Whatever the teachers can get about student readiness, interest, and learning helps the teachers plan next steps in instruction. • TEACHERS WORK HARD TO ENSURE “RESPECTFUL ACTIVITIES” FOR ALL STUDENTS. Each student’s work should be equally interesting, equally appealing, and equally focused on essential understandings and skills.

35. What Makes Differentiation Successful? FLEXIBLE GROUPING IS A HALLMARK OF THE CLASS. Teachers plan so that all students work with a variety of peers over a period of days. Sometimes students work with like-readiness peers, sometimes with mixed-readiness groups, sometimes with students who have similar interests, sometimes with students who have different interests, sometimes with peers who learn as they do, sometimes randomly, and often with the class as a whole. In addition, teachers can assign students to work groups, and sometimes students will select their own work groups.

36. What is the Best Way to Begin Differentiation? The following guidelines are helpful to many teachers as they begin to differentiate. • Create a mental image of what you want your classroom to look like, and use it to help plan and assess changes. • Prepare students and parents for a differentiated classroom so that they are your partners in making it a good fit for everyone. Be sure to talk often with students about the classroom—why it is the way it is, how it is working, and what everyone can do to help.

37. What is the Best Way to Begin Differentiation? Think carefully about management routines—for example, giving directions, making sure students know how to move about the room, and making sure students know where to put work when they finish it. • Enjoy your own growth. One of the great joys of teaching is recognizing that the teacher always has more to learn than the students and that learning is no less empowering for adults than for students.

38. Sources • http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Learning_Styles.html • http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm • http://www.cyg.net/~jblackmo/diglib/styl-a.html