This past Saturday I led a homeschool conference session on Learning Styles. Honestly, it's a hard topic to talk about in an hour. I'm going to break it up into several posts and post the information on this blog....
...to be continued.
Learning
Styles, Teaching Styles: Meeting in the Middle
Copyright
2014, Reproducible only for personal use and not for resale
lovetopaint.blogspot.com
Main Points:
- God gave you to your child and your child to you—you are the parent and teacher that your child needs. You know them better than anyone else and will understand them better than anyone else—they are a part of you.
- Observing your children's learning styles and your own learning style (and teaching style) can help your children learn more efficiently with less frustration and with more success.
- As my mother in law puts it, homeschooling is a calling. It's tough. God works on our children and us in the process of homeschooling. We need Him.
- Continually be a student of your students. Observe them. Ask what's working and what's not.
- Get help when you or your child needs it.
Outline:
Have you ever written down why you are
homeschooling?
Here are my priorities:
I want my children to learn--
To gain life and academic skills so
that they will be able to live independently as adults.
To enjoy reading.
To love others well and serve others
with the gifts God has given them.
To pursue their interests and enjoy
the life God has given them. (Eccl. 2:24-25)
How to learn.
My husband always puts it this way: We
homeschool because we believe it is the best thing for them. We are
concerned about their spiritual, academic, emotional, social,
intellectual, and physical development. Our society values
social and/or academic over all the rest. Whenever I say I
homeschool, these are what people always immediately ask me about.
School has two basic components: What
children learn and How they learn. Curriculum and Methodology.
There's so much that goes into that.
How our children learn is a complex
process. Honestly, it amazes me every day. I fluctuate between
amazement when they grasp and assimilate new concepts and impatience
when they don't grasp what I think they should easily. That is my
humanness. I fall into a mindset of impatience when I shouldn't. I
realize that I am often most impatient when my kids are frustrated
and can't master what they're working on. I know it should be the
other way around, but if I'm honest, it isn't.
So, how can I help them be less
frustrated and me? How can I help my children learn better-- more
efficiently, with better retention?
One way is to think about the whole
picture...
In 2003, Information Processing Theory
was expounded by Feden and Vogel. They explained that input
(receptive) is the information that comes in, then we process that
information into our working memory and long-term memory and finally,
it comes out through Motor Output (expressive). Our children can
struggle with processing input information, memory, or the expression
of what they have learned and know.
(Here's a link to a chart someone else made that's easy to read. Scroll down on the page to find the chart. I lump short-term and long-term memory together and call it processing, the second portion of the theory.)
(Here's a link to a chart someone else made that's easy to read. Scroll down on the page to find the chart. I lump short-term and long-term memory together and call it processing, the second portion of the theory.)
Learning styles and other educational
habits focus on the first two parts of that cycle (what inputs we
provide and how they are processed). A helpful place to start is to
make a Learning Style Profile for each of your children. A profile
is based on their observations and yours. Why right it down? I'm
sure you observe your kids all the time and notice things. Well,
it's the same reason that we do Bible studies. We write down our
answers, because it helps us process what's in our head in a succinct
way. It also helps us remember when we can go back later and read
what we've written. I don't know about yours, but I just can't keep
everything in it!
So, a Learning Style Profile can
include a bunch of different information. It can cover the modality
they best learn from, their learning personalities, their talents and
interests, natural strengths and weaknesses, character, best learning
environment, and love languages. These are different options. The
point is just to get a picture of how your child best learns. I've
put together a sample packet of forms and list of resources to help
you do this if you'd like to. Today, I'm going to focus on learning
styles and just touch on the other topics.
But, just as importantly is how you
learn. There are learning styles and there are teaching styles. So,
first I'm going to talk about learning styles and then about teaching
styles. This is really a huge topic, so I'm just going to touch the
surface.
Part
1:
What are Learning Styles? A learning
style is the term used to describe how one prefers to learn.
Visual learners learn by
seeing and looking.
Auditory learners learn by
hearing and listening.
Kinesthetic learners learn
by touching and doing.
Some people break it down farther than
that into 6 or 7 different learning styles. But, these are the three
primary learning styles people focus on.
In Melinda Boring's book, Heads Up
Helping, she tells a story of going to a Christmas Bazaar with
her daughter. Before going in, she tells her daughter not to touch
anything. She can look and see everything, but not touch. Her
daughter's face fell as she explained to her mom, “But, Mom, seeing
is touching.”
65% of the population are Visual
learners
30% of the population are Auditory
learners
5% of the population are Kinesthetic
learners
The traditional model of
teaching was to hand a child a book. Let the child read a passage
silently and then complete a worksheet on the material. This an
entirely visual way of learning. Then, there's the high school and
college classroom model-- A lecture, which is auditory, along visual
aids. Assessment is done with reading and written assignments
(visual).
I thought of an easy
example of how this can be applied.
Math Flash Cards:
Using xtra Math.com, a
visual learner looks at the cards and types in the answer using 10
key
Using flash cards, a
parent quizzes a child orally to the auditory learner.
Using cds with music like
Multiplication Mountain or 100 Sheep and Counting, a kinesthetic
child learns to count multiples and their multiplication facts by
singing along to the music.
I am a visual learner, so
it worked for me when my third grade teacher handed me the math book
and told me to work my way through it. But, it didn't work for me
with my third grade daughter who is kinesthetic, full of energy, and
needs to be taught explicitly.
This summer, I realized
that how I had been teaching my middle daughter wasn't working for
spelling and writing. She was very frustrated and so was I.
Frustration, I think, is the biggest clue that there is struggling
afoot. Teachers and parents alike want answers when teaching and
learning isn't working. Everyone wants children to learn and enjoy
what they are learning. So, I knew it was time for me to step back,
think, and pray. I needed a remedy. I needed to understand. I
needed to love my daughter better than I had been by understanding
her better. So, I stepped back and assessed what was working and
wasn't. How does my daughter learn best?
...to be continued.
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