It's funny to me that I am so aware of how everyone else learns, but I don't really know what my learning style is. I have loved learning about the ways people learn. But, can I be a great educator without knowing how I learn?
So, I took a few quizzes and read a few articles to find out that I am an auditory learner. An auditory learner is one that learns best through listening. I was a bit surprised by this because I live by my planner and I love to take notes, so I assumed I was a visual learner. A visual learner is someone that learns best by seeing, taking notes, writing things down, looking at pictures, etc. However, after doing research and thinking about my habits I realized I do learn better through spoken word. With my online class, at first I thought it would be easy to simply read directions and prompts and complete assignments. However, I quickly found that I had many questions that I wanted to ask someone. I wanted someone to explain to me how to do things. In addition, I have found that I enjoy watching videos and clips more than reading articles. I also take more from the videos than I do the readings. These characteristics help define what an auditory learner is.
One style that can be a challenge for me is kinesthetic learning. It is not that I do not enjoy doing things, however, I do not like to fail. So, I would rather have someone show me and explain for me how to do it before hand. Once I have the ground rules, I am ready to get my hands dirty.
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I think that we are all a mix of each type of learning style; it's just that one is more dominant than the others. I think it is important to remind our students that. It is easy to become dependent on one way of learning, and it is important to know what works best for you. However, it is also important to learn how to make the other styles work for you. For example, even though my preferred style is auditory, I still enjoy writing things down and I am learning to be successful with only reading material. As teachers, we need to guide our students so that they become comfortable with their learning style. I think it is important for us to give students chances to learn how they learn best. In addition, it is also our job to challenge students to learn all learning styles so that they can be successful in the future.
So, I took a few quizzes and read a few articles to find out that I am an auditory learner. An auditory learner is one that learns best through listening. I was a bit surprised by this because I live by my planner and I love to take notes, so I assumed I was a visual learner. A visual learner is someone that learns best by seeing, taking notes, writing things down, looking at pictures, etc. However, after doing research and thinking about my habits I realized I do learn better through spoken word. With my online class, at first I thought it would be easy to simply read directions and prompts and complete assignments. However, I quickly found that I had many questions that I wanted to ask someone. I wanted someone to explain to me how to do things. In addition, I have found that I enjoy watching videos and clips more than reading articles. I also take more from the videos than I do the readings. These characteristics help define what an auditory learner is.
One style that can be a challenge for me is kinesthetic learning. It is not that I do not enjoy doing things, however, I do not like to fail. So, I would rather have someone show me and explain for me how to do it before hand. Once I have the ground rules, I am ready to get my hands dirty.
Want to learn more about learning styles? Click here!
I think that we are all a mix of each type of learning style; it's just that one is more dominant than the others. I think it is important to remind our students that. It is easy to become dependent on one way of learning, and it is important to know what works best for you. However, it is also important to learn how to make the other styles work for you. For example, even though my preferred style is auditory, I still enjoy writing things down and I am learning to be successful with only reading material. As teachers, we need to guide our students so that they become comfortable with their learning style. I think it is important for us to give students chances to learn how they learn best. In addition, it is also our job to challenge students to learn all learning styles so that they can be successful in the future.
We are definitely a combination. I had a really hard time both in HS and college with all the lectures. I would daydream unless I wrote everything down and then read it later. Once I read it, then it was like a photograph and I would remember it. I think we need to teach our students to know what their learning style is. Luckily, I realized what I had to do early on so I could be a good student. Others are not so lucky. I do believe also that we have to challenge students and ourselves to try to learn differently and do things differently. I know a lot of teachers are letting students pick their form of assessment, but I think they have to be forced to choose something out of their element every once in a while so they have a chance to see if they can learn and do things differently. A great example is yourself. Until you read the materials for this class, you did not realize your own learning style. There is a neat free program called http://vozme.com. You can copy and paste the text into the site and it will read it out loud. It is a computer voice, but it is helpful for the auditory learner.
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