Strong (2002) states, “Teachers who successfully employ a range of strategies reach more students because they tap into more learning styles and student interests” (p. 43). Has this been your experience as a student? Give an example to either support or refute this statement.
Strong, J.H. (2002). Qualities of effective teachers. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
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ReplyDeleteI have found that my most of my education classes emphasize the need to accomodate a variety of learning styles, because all students are different. I find that i also believe this to be true. I think that if you were to only teach in one way all the time, it would benefit who learn that way, but hurt those who don't. I also think that it is important for students to get used to a variety of learning styles because they will learn to be successful in all ways.
ReplyDeleteAn example of this in my life would be american history teacher my sophomore year in high school. All year he taught us through powerpoints. Every class period, we would come in and listen to him talk. I didn't like this class at all because we did the same thing EVERY day and he didn't keep things interesting. I love history, but i found myself dreading going to the class. I think had he mixed it up and used a variety of teaching styles, more people would have been successful in his class.
I think that it is very important for teachers to teach in a variety of ways. Students do NOT all learn the same way. There are visual learners, kinesthetic learners, and auditory learners, they all benefit from different things. So, by teaching a visual learner with just lecture you are not really teaching them anything, because the information will feel overwhelming to them because they aren't able to process it as easily.
ReplyDeleteMy Health class that I am in right now at UNI is a class that is taught in many different ways with lots of learning styles. My teacher feels that we need to reach out to all students and keep the interest of students by doing fun and engaging things. So, every class she has something new for us to use in our classroom some day, which will be really great to have.
I agree with beth on her example from her life. I had a similar experience in one of my classes at NIACC. The teacher just lectured every single day for an hour and 45 minutes straight. I personally took nothing from the class because I am a visual learner. Even though I took notes about everything she was saying it still didn't help me, because I didn't understand the information. Plus, there was SO much information that I felt really overwhelmed with trying to learn it all on my own before the tests. So, I think that being able to teach in different ways in order to reach all of the students is vital!
ReplyDeleteI agree with this statement. As a student, the teachers who reached out in different ways definitely connected with me more than the ones who looked at it as their way or the highway. When teachers address different students by using different strategies it makes the students feel more comfortable and positive in the teachers classroom. An example would be when teachers give you a test that has multiple choice, short answer and matching. I enjoy these kinds of tests because I am usually better at short answer than I am multiple choice, but that changes with every student so the fact the teacher used different methods of assessing is helpful. This way, if I or another student are taking a test, if I am not good at one thing it doesn’t mean I will bomb the test visa versa for the other students.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Beth and Amanda, because education classes do emphasize using variety. If you only teach one way, the students who learn differently will suffer because you will not connect with them. I have also had bad experiences with this, and I tend to get extremely bored and day dream or draw in my notebooks. If I am doing that as a student, I don't think the teacher is reaching out to every student and that should change so everyone can learn and stay on task.
ReplyDeleteI have learned at UNI and experienced in the field that incorporating different strategies helps you reach more students. This is because not all students are the same and because they all have different learning styles. To make sure that each student is learning it is best to use a variety of strategies. This insures that you will reach more students. Last year while doing my level I a student was struggling with understanding the concept of converting feet to yards. So to help him I provided him with a visual example, showing him that 3 "regular" rulers (or 3ft.) was equal to 1 yardstick. After this he understood. He just needed that visual example.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Beth said about only teaching one way only benefits certain individuals. I also agreed with the statement that students should receive a variety of styles at a young age. This would make them successful learners in each style which would help them throughout life.
ReplyDeleteThinking back to elementary years, I recall having hands-on activities and more demonstrations instead of simply having the teacher present information from a PowerPoint. I think these were more beneficial to my learning, because the teacher would provide us with the information, demonstrate an activity and allow us to explore whatever we were learning about. People are different, keeping this in mind; it makes sense to have a range of strategies to use in the classroom. Some students may like more visual parts of lessons, but this doesn’t mean they won’t benefit from hands-on experiences. Also, I think the more a student works with a concept whether that be through having a teacher present content and then completing an activity, the better they will understand what is being taught. In other words, learning about something using a range of strategies can be more useful than using only one.
ReplyDeleteThis topic is interesting, I read an article titled, “Different Strokes for Different Folks: A Critique of Learning Styles” by Steven Stahl. The author concluded that research for the “learning styles” phenomenon has not been successful in proving that matching a student to a particular style improve a student’s performance. The author suggested it is more about where the student is developmentally rather than their “learning style.” This was just a different perspective on learning styles that may be interesting for others to read.
I have to agree with this statement. It seems to work out for students to not have all lecture or all hands on activities. Some students work well with hands on and some learn better by listening. My experience is with some of my classes here at UNI. I have been in lectures where I here a professor talk for about 50 minutes or so and I lose my focus during class. There is nothing that seems to keep me engaged and I don't get much out of the class. However, my science classes I have had we do a lot of hands on but still have class discussions and sometimes a little bit of lecture but I come out with so much more and actually remember things from those classes.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with this statement. With the growing diversity today there is going to be more and more differences with all the students in your classroom. They are all coming from different backgrounds so they are going to have different interests and learning styles. If you employ a range of strategies you will reach more students because more of then will be able to understand what you are doing. You can't reach students with different learning styles if you don't use different strategies. Some students are visual learners while others are auditory or kinesthetic learners. If you just teach by lecturing you may only reach the students who are auditory learners. By doing other activities in the classroom you will be able to teach more students.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Beth when she said she would have done better if her teacher would have used different styles instead of doing the same thing everyday. Last year I took a Sociology class and the professor just lectured from the front of the room everyday, without ever using power points. He said it was because he wasn't good with technology. I didn't think that was right. Teachers should think more about what is best for the students and how they will be able to learn the most. I came to not like the class at all, but if the professor would have taught it in a more interesting way, I think I would have learned a lot more from that class and actually liked going.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that this is true! Every student is an individual and each individual learns material in different ways. So if we can provide many ways of presenting information we want to teach our students then the more useful our teaching will be for students.
ReplyDeleteI can think back to when I was in Elementary School and I really struggled in Math. In this particular class we never did anything hands on, the teacher would go through the lesson that was in the book by explaining the content and then she would give us an assignment. The following year I had an awesome teacher, she had different activities for us to do and used manipulatives a lot. Also the problems she assigned us were authentic.
This example reminds me of a teacher who taught to one type of student and another teacher who reached out to more than one type of student. She was more concerned with the students understanding the concepts than getting the lesson explained and moving on.