Learning Styles

Learning styles

CLTHE

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overview

Some students enter higher education with a fixed idea about their 'learning style', this may have been developed or reinforced by their primary or secondary education. However, practices such as matching teaching style to a students learning, have now been discredited. 'Learning styles do not describe what people are like: they describe what people do when they are trying to learn' ( Boulton-Lewis et al, 2001) Learning styles are 'any pattern we see in a person’s way of accomplishing a particular type of task' (Schmeck, 1988)

• Effective learners adopt the appropriate style for the task
• Effective teachers support the development of a range of learning styles

The following activity has been designed to encourage teachers to consider the impact of the delivery mode on the ability of students to complete a task, and to reinforce the idea that it is important to align the learning/teaching style to the task, not the learner.

Next

choose one set of instructions and complete the task

Visual

You will need a paper napkin for this task.

Auditory

Read/ Write

Kinaethetic

visual instructions

Click when you have finished

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aural instructions

Click the pane above to listen to the instructions

Click when you have finished

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Read / write instructions

1. Place a napkin flat on the table in front of you. 2. Fold in it half through the central diagonal, so it now forms a triangle, pressing firmly on the fold. 3. Unfold the napkin and place it flat on the table, maintaining the diamond orientation. 4. Fold the right corner over the centre crease halfway towards the left corner. 5. Fold the left corner over to the right edge, making a cone shape, one-third of the original diamond. 6. Firm the outer creases 7. Take the edge of the top flap (part folded over in step 5) and fold back to the left hand edge, making a firm crease along the centre line. 8. Repeat step 7 for the other flap. 9. Fold the bottom tip just past the top tip. The part that goes just past forms the swan’s beak. 10. Turn the whole napkin over, you should see the crease you made at step 2 running from the bottom to the top. 11. Fold along the central vertical crease. Reinforce the creases along the bottom and front of the swan by running your forefinger and thumb along them. 12. Fold up the bottom tip corner of the top flap and bring it up slightly, making a horizontal crease that runs between the right and left corners. 13. Turn it over and repeat step 12 to form a base for your swan.

Click when you have finished

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kinaesthetic instructions

Learn by doing! Try out different ways of folding the napkin to make the swan in the picture.

Click when you have finished

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reflections

• How successful were you?
• What emotional reactions did you have whilst doing the task?

• Have a look at the different instructions - which were most appropriate for the task, why ?
• What would have made the task easier for you to complete?

Index

References Waring, M Evans, C (2014) Understanding Pedagogy: Developing a critical approach to teaching and learning London: Routledge