Chewing Gum and Learning Styles

Question: My daughter’s Learning Style indicates she has a strong preference for intake. I myself also noticed that her concentration improves when she’s allowed to chew or nibble on things. Unfortunately, teachers don’t allow chewing gum during ballet lessons or piano lessons, and gum is banned at school. What can I do?

Answer: The first step is to show the teachers your daughter’s Learning Style Results (see sample) and explain why chewing is such an important part of some children’s learning process. If they are not flexible on gum, perhaps they would allow a sports drink bottle in class. You can also experiment with chewable necklaces, ribbons or pens.

Question: Back up. What exactly is a Learning Style?

Answer: A Learning Style is the unique set of preferences and non-preferences that determines the way in which you concentrate best. In simple terms, it is a list of:

• things that help you learn, and
• things that make learning harder.

In the example above, a strong need to chew while concentrating on the new topic, was identified as 1 of the 49 elements that make up the girl’s Learning Style.

Question: 49? Really? What are they?

Answer: Amazing, isn’t it? There really are 49 things that affect the way you learn. Some of the elements that help or hinder your studies include:

• the amount of light in the room
• what time it is (earlier is not always better!)
• what motivates you
• whether you like learning in a group
• how happy you are with lists and bullet points

For the complete picture, please see our LSA Pyramid.

Question: I’m ready to give learning styles a try. What do I do?

Answer: Welcome aboard! Have a look here.

Success, Heroes and Learning Styles

Do you remember Pilot C.B. "Sully" Sullenberger? He is the captain who successfully landed his plane, full of passengers, in the Hudson River earlier this year? His quick decision and skill saved 155 lives.

Nevertheless, his solution was totally outside the box. The air-traffic controller who handled the flight thought landing in the river would be a death sentence for all aboard. "People don't survive landings on the Hudson River," 10-year veteran controller Patrick Harten said afterwards.

So what went right? Sullenberger said in an interview afterwards that his success could be ascribed to the years of training. It was part of his job to school other pilots to react under extreme conditions such as plane malfunctions, so he had played many fictitious scenarios of recovering a plane from an apparently disastrous situation.

What kind of a learning style profile can we expect from a person like C.B. "Sully" Sullenberger? (A learning style is the unique set of preferences and non-preferences that determines the optimal way in which an individual concentrates and works.)

“Very flexible,” answers Barbara Prashnig, an international expert on learning styles. “A person who doesn’t freeze in such an extreme situation is probably somebody who is able to receive and interpret information in a number of ways.”

The pilot’s learning style was probably very flexible. What is your learning style?

Incidentally, the same pilot has recently spoken up against pay cuts for professional pilots. He argued that pay cuts would drive experienced pilots away from the cockpit, leaving airlines and passengers more exposed to risk when things go wrong. That’s one recession lesson every employer should be taking on board: hold on to in-house expertise.

So, if do have to let some staff go, how do you choose? You need to know whose working style is best suited to the job. Learn more about Working Styles.

Sleep, Creativity and Learning Styles

• I know about sleep. But what are learning styles?

A learning style is the unique set of preferences and non-preferences that determines the optimal way in which an individual concentrates and works.

• Does your learning style help you solve problems and be creative?

In a nutshell, yes. If you work in an environment compatible with your learning style, you will be more productive, more creative and more able to solve problems.

• Oh. Is that all?

No, not at all. Did you know what the latest research discovered? They looked into the correlation between sleep and problem solving, and they discovered that people who’ve “slept on it” are generally more able to solve the problem in question than those who stayed awake trying to solve it.

· And the link to learning styles would be...

Simple. If your learning style allows you to stop the task you have just begun and go off have a nap, it’s good news according to Sara Mednick, University of California San Diego, who conducted the study into sleep and creativity.

Mednick summarised her findings as follows: "We found that for creative problems you've already been working on, the passage of time is enough to find solutions. However, for new problems, only REM sleep enhances creativity."

So...

• What is your learning style?

Parenting and Learning Styles

Parenting and Learning Styles

What is a Learning Style / Working Style? It’s the unique set of preferences and non-preferences that determines the way in which you concentrate and work at your very best.

1. The Busy Parent

The busy parent has:

· a job away from home,

· children in after-school care

· and dinner to make.

Objective-driven and focussed, the busy parent wears many hats and is a great organiser.

If that’s you, chances are that your Working Style is analytic (click here to see what that means). But how well do you react to change in your life? Does your children’s impulsive behaviour cause you stress? Would you be able to cope without a strict schedule? Discover your own Working Style and find out how best to manage your stress levels. Here’s how to do it.

2. The Cotton-Wool Parent

· Provides warmth and soft landings and padding from the big bad world...

· ... too much at times.

Today’s world looks more dangerous than the one we grew up in. The cars are faster, the competition fiercer and stranger-danger has never had it easier now that we’re all online. Is your child likely to enjoy socialising online more than in real life? What does their Learning Style indicate? Find out.

3. The Stressed Parent

No need to say more. We’ve all been there.

Stress is an integral part of parenting. However, if your blood pressure rises the minute you walk into the house, it’s probably because your Working Style doesn’t allow you to function at your best:

• in a noisy environment, and/or
• in a brightly lit room, and/or
• in the late afternoon, and/or
• without a formal structure, and/or
• given any one of the 40+ elements.

Discover what your Working Style strengths are so that you can enjoy your family.