Learning Styles in the Classroom
Understanding classroom learning styles lets teachers develop teaching methods to suit different learning preferences. One way of assessing learning styles is by administering a Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, or VAK, test. A more complex measure of learning styles is based on David Kolb's experiential learning theory, or ELT. Kolb proposes four learning styles based on feeling, watching, thinking and doing. Research indicates that learning is most effective when information is reinforced through multiple styles of presentation.
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VAK Learning Styles and Child Development
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Classroom practice is often based on a developmental understanding of VAK learning styles. From kindergarten to third grade, information is primarily presented kinesthetically, through touch, movement and practical hands-on experience of the world. The emphasis from grades 4 to 8 is on visual learning, through reading and images. From grades 9 through college, auditory methods dominate, with lectures and seminars. Varying classroom teaching methods at each developmental stage maximizes learning opportunities for all students, whatever their learning preferences, according to Don Clark at the Performance Juxtaposition Site..
Visual Learning
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Visual learners may be primarily linguistic or spatial, Clark writes. Visual-linguistic learners prefer reading and writing tasks, where visual-spatial learners may struggle with language and favor demonstrations, charts, diagrams, films and pictures. Visual learning styles can be accommodated through the use of visual aids, such as graphs, charts, maps and objects. Handouts can accompany auditory presentations and should leave space for note-taking or drawing. Visual information should be presented with text and pictures wherever possible.
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Auditory Learning
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Auditory learners prefer listening and speaking. They would rather listen to an explanation of how to accomplish a task than read a set of instructions, Clark says. When reading to themselves they may move their lips or say the words out loud. To accommodate auditory learners. teachers should introduce material with an explanation and conclude with a summary. Question-and-answer sessions, discussion, debates and debriefing all enhance auditory learning opportunities in the classroom.
Kinesthetic Learning
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Kinesthetic learning involves movement, touching, doing, feeling and hands-on experience. The term is derived from two Greek words for movement and sensation. Static classroom activities can pose a particular challenge for kinesthetic learners, who often do best in an outdoors or practical learning environment, Clark writes. Within the classroom, kinesthetic learners may be helped if they can move around, fiddle with a squishy ball or other object, take notes or doodle. Activity-based, problem-solving computer programs can also help kinesthetic learners.
Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory
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Kolb's ELT theory is based on two forms: doing and watching (active experimentation and reflective observation) and feeling and thinking (concrete experience and abstract conceptualization), according to ChangingMinds.org. This gives four learning styles: Diverging (feeling and watching), assimilating (thinking and watching), converging (thinking and doing) and accommodating (feeling and doing). Understanding a child's learning style can help a teacher provide appropriate tasks. Someone who experiences the world primarily through thinking and watching (assimilating learning style) may need clear instructions, where a child who learns through feeling and doing (accommodating learning style) needs to get to the hands-on stage as soon as possible.
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