LEARNING STYLES, Supervision and Conformity

WHAT ARE LEARNING STYLES?

Simply put, a learning style is the way a child learns. The full definition expands it into the way a child takes in information, processes it, and memorises it for later use. A child’s learning styles will consist of many aspects:

• whether they are visual, auditory, tactile or kinaesthetic,


• whether they have a need for silence, bright light or an informal work area,


• what time of day they like to learn.

Please see the pyramid for more information.

NEED FOR SUPERVISION

The need for externally imposed guidance and structure should not be confused with another important Learning Style element: working under parental and teacher supervision. Children who display a need for supervision and adult authority do not necessarily expect instructions from the adults. They simply enjoy having an adult close by to give them support to supervise the work, to check it at the end of each task and to give lots of feedback.

While some children enjoy that kind of attention, others prefer to be independent. As long as their independence doesn’t result in uncompleted tasks or inappropriate activities, there is no need to offer them unwanted supervision.

NEED TO CONFORM

Another aspect of Learning Styles that may sometimes be confused with the need for guidance is conformity. Some children, particularly younger ones, draw security from having boundaries and knowing the rules. Others, however, tend to defy rules, sometimes just for the sake of the rebellion.

Non-conforming children still need positive feedback from teachers and parents. They learn best when they understand why a learning task is important and they become less rebellious when they respect the person who sets the rules.

What is your child's style?

Thinking Child and Learning Styles

As parents, we get used to being in charge. We are usually the ones who set the rules, decide when it’s bedtime and what goes into the lunchbox. We know best how to tie a shoelace and what their friend would like for her next birthday. We run the risk of becoming too prescriptive in our parenting.

This in turn might discourage our children from thinking for themselves. It's particularly true of children whose Learning Style has a preference for externally imposed structure and guidelines.

If a child has a high need for externally imposed structure and guidelines, he or she will always await instructions from the teacher before they approach their school work or study projects. Being told precisely what to do and how to begin a task gives such a learner more security and confidence. In extreme cases, though, this may create a dependency on teacher instructions and feedback.

Do you recognise this need in your child? No worries. You can teach them to become less dependent on others in learning, by showing them how to set priorities and how to self-structure their tasks.

So, next time you find yourself doing too much around the children - stop and think: is there any way I can empower my child to tackle this task themselves?

The idea is not to change the child’s wonderfully unique Learning Style: it is simply to teach them a life skill in a gentle non-threatening environment.

FIFA 2010 and Learning Styles

With the soccer fever reaching its peak, it's only fair to look at some of the teams and individual players' sport style. Tempting as it is to discuss the benefits of fair play versus "diving", of back kicks versus headers and of goalies who stay put versus goalies who venture beyond the penalty box, the Creative Learning take on soccer is somewhat more unique.

What we are most interested in, includes:

• what learning style allows the players to remain calm and keep performing under the tremendous stress of playing in the World Cup;
• what learning style makes the best soccer players.

In order to stay calm under pressure, your "crocodile brain" style has to be pretty much the same as your "acquired style", because it's the crocodile brain that rules when the going gets tough. Having flexible preferences in your environment and physical needs also helps, because you won't get stressed by the vuvuzelas or the time of day.

When it comes to the learning style best suited for soccer, many styles will be suitable, though people with a strong preference for external kinesthetic learning and movement will naturally feel more inclined to learn physical skills. You will also need a preference for team playing with a coach, a lot of both internal and external motivation, a desire to conform to the rules (woe to the players who think they are above the regulations), high perseverance and responsibility.

Motivation, high perseverance and responsibility are in fact the necessary Learning Style Elements in any recipe for success.

While we cannot offer you a personal analysis of your Soccer Style at present, we do have an LSA Golf for the golfers out there. Please write to us if you'd interested in an LSA Soccer instrument.

The STOP-START Teacher

Wouldn't it be great if we could STOP-START the teacher any time we wanted? Like when our attention wanders, or when we didn't quite get what they drew on the board... what if we could just press the REWIND button and watch the explanation again?

Now you can. The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to the Internet community. Their menu consists of arithmetic, calculus, history, biology, finance... all in all, around 1,500 video clips that can be viewed online.

The learning style best suited to this method of teaching is:

• studying alone
• high responsibility
• visual (reading)
• visual (video)
• auditory (external)
• tactile
• no movement needed.

What is your child's learning style?

Use Creativity Correctly in Your Media Relations

(a guest post by Jonathan Bernstein)

Creative writers and thinkers can be some of the best – and some of the worst – media sources. Because we’re creative, we’re good at coming up with what journalists call “golden nuggets,” pithy sound bytes which make their stories read or sound better. For example, I’m fond of talking about the “Three C’s of Crisis Communications,” the notion that a good communicator needs to come across as Confident, Competent and Compassionate. Reporters eat that up. Ditto for another phrase I coined some time ago, “In the absence of communication, rumor and innuendo fill the gap.”

However, there is such a thing as being TOO creative, and getting caught up in hyperbole that turns a good interview into what sounds – to a reporter – like advertising copy or like someone trying to sound cute for cute’s sake, both being a real journalistic turn-off.

So, with that introduction, please enjoy this excerpt from Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training:

Welcome to a new way of thinking about media relations. Even if you have given many ‘good news’ interviews in the past, you’re almost certain to say or do things you’ll regret if you have not been media trained when in a ‘high pressure’ media interview situation. Heck, you may say or do things you’ll regret even if you are media trained – but it’s less likely!

There are some other benefits to this process. Formal media training will:

· Help you develop and refine key messages, to see what really works under the stress of simulated interviews ( and good media trainers will make you forget it’s simulated).

· Optimize your chances of achieving balanced coverage. You’ll notice I say ‘optimize’ – there are no guarantees in this arena.

· Improves skills that transfer to many other types of public speaking – e.g., community presentations, testifying at hearings or in court, giving webinars, etc.

· Allows you to identify who’s an effective spokesperson in general, and who, specifically, may be better for different types of interviews. See Section 4: Media Logistics. And who, perhaps, should not be a spokesperson at all.

In the six years since I published the first edition of this manual, I have seen a dramatic difference in the results of my media training when trainees read the manual pre-training. I think it would have the same result no matter who conducted the training, so I encourage you to take the time to make that happen.

Media relations is, of course, only one component of crisis communications (CLS footnote: Working Style Analysis is another), one of many methods of getting messages to your stakeholders, both internal and external. In times of crisis it’s absolutely essential that your communicators be trained in all those methods. And that they practice their skills regularly, which is why this manual now includes, for the first time, a special section about how to practice media interview skills effectively without a trainer present.

(We invite you to join us for the Keeping the Wolves at Bay virtual tour. The schedule and more details can be found at http://bookpromotionservices.com/2010/04/28/keeping-wolves-bay-tour/. For more information and to get your copy, visit http://www.thecrisismanager.com/ or http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Wolves-Bay-Media-Training/dp/1450582206)

A Learning Style Profile of a Teenage Video Gamer

The Pros

• Video games improve your hand-eye coordination.
• They can teach you problem solving, quick thinking, logistics, mapping, spacial manipulation and many other skills.
• Playing is more interactive than watching TV.

The Cons

• Video games eat up the time that might otherwise be spent doing active stuff outdoors.
• Even if you're playing in teams, gaming is not a social activity.
• For certain personality types, violent games may lead to violent behaviour in real life.
• It's an addictive pastime.

Of course, a teenager whose learning style is kinesthetic and social-groups is less likely to become addicted to gaming than a teenager who is a loner, concentrates best when sitting still, has a combination visual-tactile learning style with a high persistence component. To determine your teen's learning style, start here.

Anger Management and Learning Styles

Anger and Irritability

Are you prone to numerous outbursts of anger or frequent bouts of irritability? Chances are, you are experiencing a working style mismatch.

Everybody has a unique Working Style a way in which you concentrate, make decisions and solve problems. If you are forced to work in a different way, one that is not inherently you, you will usually experience stress and frustration, which may result in your losing your cool in front of your boss or your loved ones.

The mismatches can be anywhere:

• multitasking when you're a type of person who needs to concentrate on a single thread (In today’s electronic world, it’s not unusual to read emails while talking on the phone; and it’s virtually expected of you to handle several projects at the same time.)

• details versus the big picture
• communication style
• type of lighting in the room
• time of day
• see more here.

Are you feeling stressed?

If you find it hard to concentrate at work or experience feelings of stress when entering your office, it could be that at least one of your biological needs is not satisfied. Ask yourself:

· Do I need to sit while working, or would I prefer to move about?

· Would sipping a glass of water or eating an apple while reading email help my concentration?

· Could I work more effectively earlier in the day or later at night?

· Do I need silence or background music when concentrating?

· Should my office light be bright or dim?

· Should my office be cool or warm?

· Does my desk feel right or would I rather work on the floor?

· Do I like working on my own, or do I miss being part of a team?

To answer these questions, do a Working Style Analysis (WSA) today.