The Secret of Stress-Free Teaching with Learning Styles

Attention All Teachers

Everybody has a unique way of learning new and difficult information. To have a good day at school, all you need to do is satisfy the learning style needs in your class....

 

Easier Said Than Done?

If you look at Learning Styles, you will see 48 elements that need to be taken into account when teaching new and difficult concepts.

• Some students will need less light in the room.
• Some will need to discuss the new topic among themselves.
• Others will not function well in the morning hours.

How can you possibly please them all?

 

The Secret

A student whose learning style is not matched, is a student who won’t learn. The secret of Stress-Free Teaching with Learning Styles lies in clever classroom management that helps you match your lesson plan to suit everybody’s needs. Our free group profile tool allows you to see an instant overview of your students’ strengths and learning needs, while our LSA Manual offers generic ideas on how to teach your specific group of students.

 

A Bonus Tip

If a group within your class is highly tactile and needs Learning Style Tools, don’t panic. You need not make the tools yourself. Your tactile students will be delighted to make their own flip-chutes and Question-Answer cards (thus learning the material while they’re making the tool).

 

Now that’s what I call magic.

 

School Discipline and Learning Styles

Q: What do Learning Styles have to do with discipline at school?

A: EVERYTHING

 

Everybody has their own unique way of learning new and difficult information. A student whose learning style is not matched, is a student under stress. A student whose learning style is not matched, is a frustrated, discouraged and bored student. A student whose learning style is not matched will misbehave, either by playing the class fool or switching off and staring out the window. And that’s the best-case scenario!

 

Have you heard of incidents such as the following?

·        Children running around in class, not listening to the teacher?

·        Children not caring about consequences?

·        Children being violent in the playground?

 

That’s because their learning styles needs have not been met for such a long time, those children have actually lost their respect for the education system and their in-born drive to learn. Research around the world has shown a massive improvement in both behaviour and academic results following the implementation of learning styles.

 

Check out our free group profile tool to see what easy changes you could make in your classroom (such as flicking off the lights or moving a few desks) to ease your students’ stress... not to mention yours!

 

Do you teach the way you learn?

Do you teach the way you learn?

 

For decades, it’s been an accepted premise that we teach the way we learn. For example, if your learning style is highly analytic, you will teach in a highly analytic way, in other words, point by point and going into a lot of detail.

 

However, Creative Learning and Prashnig Style Solutions have embarked recently on a journey to explore the premise. We’re helping researchers to compare learning and teaching styles worldwide in an attempt to solve the global education crunch.

 

While the answers will still take many months to determine, here is a fun game for you. Have a look at the Learning Style Pyramid and try to guess which elements:

• will match the statement “you teach the way you learn”
• will be in direct contradiction to that statement (for example, if as a teacher, you rebel against authority, will you let your students rebel against you?)
• will match the teaching style’s logical “reciprocal” or correlated learning element (for example, if you learn by talking and therefore you teach by talking, your best possible match will be students who learn by listening).

 

Parents and teachers, what is your own Learning Style? 

Award-Winning Kung Fu Panda knew about Learning Styles

For those of you who don’t know the story (and it’s well worth seeing), here is the official summary from IMDB: “A CG-animated comedy about a lazy, irreverent slacker panda, Po, who must somehow become a Kung Fu Master in order to save the Valley of Peace from a villainous snow leopard, Tai Lung. ... Po ultimately becomes a Kung Fu hero by learning that if he believes in himself, he can do anything”.

That’s true enough. What they’ve left out is HOW Po learns the secrets of being the greatest warrior. Po loves food and he loves Kung Fu. His learning style is to strive for a food reward in order to master the ancient arts of martial arts, and he will stretch his skills to the limit and beyond in order to achieve. Simply put: as much as he loves Kung Fu, he is unable to learn it without the external reward.

So, the secret to learning well is two-fold:

• Believe in yourself
• Use your Learning Style to guide you.

Kung Fu Panda swept up film awards in 10 categories recently, so I’m sure its message is award-winning too!

(Do your children struggle at school? Read the solution here.)

 

 

 

Learning Styles and Classroom Management

As a teacher you are often expected to do the job of an educator, a counsellor, a parent, a guide and a friend.

 

That’s a lot to ask of one person, especially in a class of 25 or more students. We, at Creative Learning, can help.

 

Learning styles show you how to communicate with your students, plan your lessons, and handle any misbehaviour. Our free group profiles give you a handy summary of learning strengths and non-preferences in your class.

 

For example, if a majority of your students is holistic, it makes sense to:

• Tell your students the purpose of the lesson or of the task you asked them to perform.
• Provide an overview of the learning material before jumping into the details.
• Relate the lesson to the students’ experience.
• Use humour.
• Allow your students to map, graph or illustrate the material.
• Give positive feedback even for small achievements.

 

Do you experience discipline issues in your classroom? Probably. But did you know that some of the disruptive children or teens could be made over into exemplary students if you satisfied their learning style needs for:

·        mobility at frequent intervals

·        variety of learning tools and teaching methods

·        informal learning environment (because of their inability to sit on hard chairs for a length of time)

·        low lighting

·        tactile or kinesthetic sensory input 

·        late morning or afternoon study sessions

·        freedom to not conform

·        recognition of their high motivation irrespective of their school results.

 

What is your students’ Learning Style? Find out. To quote Kurek Ashley, the international life coach guru: “If you do one thing today, then make a decision, commit to it, invest in yourself and follow through.”