Learning styles among students

ASSESS AND ADAPT

How many teachers do assess the learning styles of their students and adapt their curriculum method to suit each student’s learning style? Asks  Dr L Vijayashree

The teacher said, “Your daughter is intelligent but very restless and her listening span is very less. She is not able to write descriptive answers and her scores are very low, though she is good at oral answers. We have 40 students in a class and you cannot expect us to give individual attention to your kid alone.

You need to meet a psychiatrist in this matter.” I wanted to explain to her that my daughter’s learning style was different compared to most of the other kids in her class. But how many teachers are really aware of different learning styles? If they are aware also, are they allowed to use different methodologies inside the classrooms?

Learning style is an individual's natural or habitual pattern of acquiring and processing information in learning situations. Learning differs from individual to individual. The idea of individualized learning styles, originated in the 1970s, has greatly influenced education. The aim of using learning styles in education is to help teachers to assess the learning styles of their students and adapt their classroom methods accordingly to best fit each student's learning style.

Neil Fleming's VARK model

VARK learning model is one of the commonly used learning models invented by Neil Flemings. Each letter stands for a different leaning style.
V = Visual learners
A = Auditory learners
R = Read/write preference learners
K = Kinesthetic learners

Visual learners have a preference for seeing and learning. They can learn more if the information is transferred into pictures, visual aids such as overhead slides, diagrams, handouts, etc.

Auditory learners are comfortable with listening to lectures, discussions, tapes, etc. Reading or writing learners can learn through continuous reading and writing. Kinesthetic learners prefer to learn when they themselves experience the information in the form of moving, touching, and doing.

If a teacher is able to assess the class with the help of VARK questionnaire and prepare the pedagogy according to the learning abilities of the students, the outcome will surely be more.

Visual study strategies

Visual learning students are slightly more in B-schools compared to aural and reading or writing. More of kinesthetic learners are also seen.

For visual learners, presenters are expected to use gestures and picturesque language while delivering. Usage of pictures, posters, slides, flowcharts and graphs will grab the attention of these learners. They can also be advised to use books with a lot of diagrams and pictures, and underline important points with highlighters to increase their interest in the subject.

Along with this, they can be advised to use mind maps for each chapter/module.
   
Aural study strategies

If students in the class have preference for aural methods of learning, then teachers need to use more of hearing methodologies like running videos of related subjects with clear sound and voice, making them to summarize the subject taught in the class, giving them a chance to explain new ideas to other people, making them to be a part of group discussions, making them to describe the pictures, visuals, flowcharts, and videos shown in the class to others, making them to hear the famous speeches of many leaders relevant to the topic etc., which can make the aural learners learn effectively.

Once they learn the content in the class by the methodologies administered by the teacher, they can convert their learning into 3:1 notes. As these students are not very comfortable in picture reading, they can write elaborately and can put the summarized notes onto tapes and listen to them whenever they are free. These notes should be read louder and preferable they can explain the notes to other students.

During the exams, these students can recall the voices, can talk to themselves about the answers aloud, and can imagine the friend sitting beside to hear the answers. These techniques surely boost the memory power of the aural students and can perform well in the exams.

Read/write study strategies

Some students prefer reading and writing than any other styles of learning. These students are advised to take the information by reading or writing the headings, definitions, handouts, lists, essays, readings from library, books etc. They can also take notes during the lectures and can convert them into sentences after the class.
These students can write the words again and again or in the form of acronym to easily recall the information. They can rewrite the ideas and principles into words, they can organize the diagrams and graphs into statements, or they can even turn actions, diagrams and flowcharts into words.

They can also practice writing keyword answers for the old question papers. Through these methods they can also reduce the notes into 3:1.

Read and write students can write the information into lists during exams to fetch more marks. Instead of short, keyword answers for questions, they can produce lengthy answers. Presentation skills in the paper with meaningful hierarchical steps and headings will surely fetch them more than expected marks.

Kinesthetic study strategies

Most of the B-school students fall in the category of kinesthetic learning style. They learn things by doing. Unfortunately teachers do not recognize these students’ leaning style and consider them as naughty and restless students as they cannot sit and listen to the lectures for long hours. They can learn the concepts if they are asked to experiment themselves by doing it through role plays, exercises, activities, management games etc. For example, a Human Resource teacher can take the class of selection topic as a lecture for half an hour and can ask the kinesthetic students to act (role play) as per the sequence in the selection process.

After the class, these students can make the notes in the short form by recalling the entire role played sequence either in the form of flowchart or mind maps. As these students cannot or do not want to write, simple understanding and recalling of concepts using flowcharts and mind maps will be enough for reproducing the concepts during exams.

Kinesthetic students can use diagrams, flowcharts, and sequential points during exams to score more marks.

Teachers need to identify different learning styles at the beginning of a session and need to administer pedagogy accordingly. Instead of cornering a few students due to their different learning capabilities, by adopting the above said methodologies all students can be assisted to gain confidence, improve their self-esteem levels and succeed in their life.

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward .

(The writer is a teacher in a B-school.)