Happy New Year 2014!

Wishing all our customers a peaceful and prosperous 2014. May your weather always be sunny and your ventures successful. May your health be great and your happiness greater. May your year be full of joy, wonder and fulfilment.

Happy celebrations!

Season's Greetings 2014

How time has flown! It seems like barely a handful of months ago that I was writing a Christmas blog. And yet, here we are again, at the end of another awesome year.

We hope 2014 will bring you health, happiness and success.

From all of us at Creative Learning.

Five Things Top-Ranking Countries Do Right In Education

New Zealand is still recovering from the shock of sliding in the PISA rankings. In the 2013 results that came out last week, the country slipped from 7^th to 13^th in reading, 7^th to 18^th in science, and 13^th to 23^rd in maths. Some academics may query the accuracy of the testing, or indeed the validity of comparing countries to one another. However, with a drop as significant as that, education experts should sit up and take notice.

And take notice they did. Some called for the immediate abolition of National Standards. Others pointed out problems in the secondary school grading system. Some said we should pay attention to the underperformers while others cautioned against “chasing the tail” at the cost of not nurturing the achievers.

But what we tend to forget is that we should learn from the countries who top the charts in education. And so, here are the five habits of well-educated countries:

1. Learning Culture

"Asian Tigers" understand the importance of school and learning. Children in those cultures are encourages (perhaps even too enthusiastically) to do their best in reading, writing, maths, science and music. 

In contrast New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain - just to name a few - are Western countries known for encouraging their children to win on the sports field while neglecting to instill the same kind of competitive spirit in the classroom. In fact, your child might bring home a report suggesting (in the nicest possible way, the way today's school reports are phrased) that your child should stop comparing themselves to others, and instead of trying to best their classmates at maths, they should simply concentrate on besting themselves. 

It's a noble concept, that, but without a competitive spirit and without the hunger to win, your chances of topping the charts diminish, whether it's school, business or rugby we're talking about.

Imagine the All Blacks coach telling his players they shouldn't try to be better than South Africa - they should just go into the game trying to play better than they did last year....

2. Valuing Teachers

Countries that do well in education have a healthy respect for the teaching profession. Children look up to their teachers and try to please them. Governments pay them a good salary. Fathers of brides say: "Thank goodness my daughter is marrying a teacher, not a lawyer."

3. Learning Styles

No country can expect to do well if they think they can apply one mould and one measure to every child. Read about Learning Styles on this page, and discover your own child's learning style here.

4. Research

Where are we failing? Why? What can we do better? What can we learn from other countries? These are just some of the questions successful educators ask.

5. Celebrate Success

Celebrating achievement is an important part of the learning journey. Reward big and small milestones, praise effort and determination, schedule complete breaks from learning. The children have earned it!

What's making headlines in New Zealand

Martin Thrupp: National Standards data fixation barrier to useful change - Opinion - NZ Herald News

Studies show schools under pressure - Bay of Plenty Times - Bay of Plenty Times News

NCEA system fails students, say universities - Education - NZ Herald News

NZ education facing a bad report - Education - NZ Herald News

NZ set to slip on international education table - National - NZ Herald News

Maths, science focus of $10.5m in extra school funding - National - NZ Herald News

Makes you think, doesn't it?

How smart are Smart Boards?

A Smart Board combines the simplicity of a whiteboard with the power of a computer. It’s an electronic whiteboard that interacts with users in a number of different ways: it can project the contents of a computer to the entire class (for example, the teacher’s laptop, or the iPad of the student doing a presentation, or from the Internet), and it can also be a gigantic touch screen that registers input from fingers and special Smart Board pens.

This technology encourages active collaboration by students, because it allows them to access large volumes of data, share their findings with others (even those who are not in the same geographic location) and save their work. Even quiet and withdrawn students respond well to Smart Boards and increase their classroom participation through interaction with this gadget.

Visual students love the colourful pens, the images and the video clips. Auditory students appreciate the sounds that accompany their interactions with the Smart Board, such as different beeps to right and wrong answers. Tactile students enhance their learning experience by manipulating data on the touch-sensitive Smart Board.

On the other hand, Smart Boards don’t offer kids an adaptive or individualised learning environment. They don’t provide social feedback. The teacher still controls the content and the lesson plan. At the end of the day, it's still just a blackboard that’s white, more appealing to techno-junkies and more media-enabled.   

Work Smarter, Work Less, Work in Style

Working long hours is not a badge of honour. Being busy does not equate being successful. How would you like to work half the hours you’re working right now and still achieve the same results? You can, with Working Style Analysis.

Understanding whether you work best in low or bright light may prevent you from feeling lethargic or burned out. Discovering your most productive time of day – early morning, late morning, afternoon, evening - could drastically increase your productivity. Learning whether background noise helps or hinders your work could further help you concentrate on tasks at hand and cut the hours you spend at the office.

Working in a team or alone, sipping water, adjusting the thermostat in the room – they all may have an influence on how much work you get through every day. Check what makes you more productive and shorten your hours – today.

How To Lose Business Fast

There are many tried and tested ways in which your business can lose customers: unreliable products, unhelpful staff, insufficient market penetration, convoluted purchasing process. Today, though, I’d like to name another potential pitfall: not catering to your customer’s Working Style.

Although you might think a working style has nothing to do with how a person spends money, research disagrees. People whose social preference is for groups will more likely spend more money on socialising than those people whose working style is working alone. People who function best in bright light will be drawn to generously lit window displays. And people whose working style lends itself to computer work (non-preference for mobility, preference for working alone, visual, tactile) will want to shop online. They will want to shop online so much that they will be tempted to buy from a competing vendor as long as they don’t have to visit a physical store.

Let me give you a real-life example. A friend of mine wanted the latest iPhone. She was up early the morning they were released and ordered it online at 5AM. A confirmation email told her she’d receive it within three to five working days. She was prepared to wait that long. However, when the phone didn’t arrive after a week, she started making enquiries. Two fruitless days of phone calls later, she discovered the online store didn’t have any iPhones in stock, because the physical stores were given preference when it came to stock availability, and that her best course of action would be to drive to a store herself. No word of apology about breaking the service agreement. No offer to phone up the stores to find out which one had the physical stock. How tempted do you think my friend was to buy the phone from another supplier, one who could deliver it to her door?

We are all governed by our working styles, whether we’re aware of it or not. The decision to switch on music when you walk into the lounge: working style. The inability to deviate from a recipe when cooking: working style. Choosing what products to buy and from whom… you guessed it.
What is your working style? Find out here.

Homework and Your Child’s Learning Style

If your child is auditory - they like to listen and talk - try one of the following homework hints:

• Make a learning tape together with your child. Let her explain the new topic into the tape recorder.
• Discuss the lesson together.
• Encourage your child to compose and record a song, a poem or a radio play about the topic (e.g., World War II, global warming, flower pollination, Mexico).

If your child is visual - they like to read and look at images - try one of the following homework hints:

• Create a mind-map, illustration, cartoon, poster, slide show, costume, historical time line, illustrated report.  
• Watch a DVD about the topic (“The King and I” about Thailand, “Little Einsteins”).

 If your child is tactile - they like to handle objects in order to learn - try one of the following homework hints:

• Make use of question-answer jig-saw puzzles), electro- boards (a bulb lights up for every correct answer), flip chutes, etc.  
• Encourage your child to make their own memory aids: sculptures of molecules or board games depicting new topics.

If your child is kinesthetic - they learn best through physical experiences - try one of the following homework hints:

• Bake a cake together to teach conversion from grams to kilograms.
• Pantomime or act out a history lesson.
• Play a board game to discover new facts.
• Take a field trip to the zoo, a court house, a factory.
• Put on a puppet show together.

Excelling at Maths with Learning Styles

There are two kinds of people, we're told: those who excel at maths, and those who don't. But if you read this excellent article (http://qz.com/139453/theres-one-key-difference-between-kids-who-excel-at-math-and-those-who-dont/), you'll notice that research suggests something quite different.

It turns out you can exercise your "maths muscles" until you improve so much, you can pass high school with flying colours! And guess what the most important learning style element you need? I'll give you a hint: it's not analytic thinking. It's persistence.

Do your children have what it takes to exercise your maths muscles? Check it out here: http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/Products/Learning-Style-Analysis/Junior-Mini/.

Your Child's School Report

How user-friendly is your child’s school report? One of the reasons behind introducing National Standards in New Zealand was to ensure school reports were easy to understand.

The School Report’s Structure

The report should include:

·        your child’s progress in relation to the standards;

·        your child’s progress in relation to their own goals;

·        recommended steps to support your child’s learning.

If you have a child in years 1 through to 8, the report will cover aspects:

1.      measured against the targets set out in the National Standards, namely:

·        Reading (fluency, understanding);

·        Writing (creativity, spelling, punctuation);

·        Maths;

2.      not measured against the National Standards, such as:

·        Science and Technology;

·        Health and Physical Wellbeing;

·        Key Competencies (works well with others, actively contributes to the class, asks questions).

The report will indicate whether your child is achieving Below, At, or Above expectations. Some schools also have the categories Well Below and Well Above to provide more detailed feedback. 

Want to find out more about learning styles and how to give your child the best chance of getting good results? Then email us with your specific questions on info@clc.co.nz.

About class sizes....

In his book, "David and Goliath", Malcolm Gladwell postulates that small class sizes aren't necessarily the best thing for students and their learning outcomes. This doesn't mean larger class sizes are better. The author simply states that just as there is a class size that's too large, there's also a class size that may be too small.

Small classes mean individual attention, but they also mean a lack of a certain energy, variety of opinions, momentum to undertake large projects.

Ultimately, it all comes down to the individual child's learning style. Check it today at Creative Learning.

Technology At School - Good or Should We Think Again?

Schools all over New Zealand, Australia, Europe and USA are doing it: making tablet computers compulsory for students, ordering smart boards, redesigning classrooms into e-learning centres. It’s cool. It’s trendy. It simulates the future workplace.

But is it for everybody?

By its very nature, e-learning is best suited to highly visual people, because of the wealth of imagery offered by the computer: text, pictures and diagrams, graphs, photos, videos. Please note that we distinguish the following types of visual learners: visual (pictures), visual (reading), visual (internal). While the former two styles are well suited to online learning, the latter one, which relies on forming images in one’s mind, is neutrally suited to online learning (i.e., it is neither enhanced nor limited by the use of computers).

Auditory (listening) learners can be accommodated if the online-learning course uses recorded speech and sound-effects (such as pings). Externally auditory learners who need to discuss the learnt material can be accommodated by using voice chat facilities.

Tactile learners are disadvantaged, although their need can be partially satisfied by touch-pads, mice and/or touch-screens. For the tactile learners, online-learning can be further enhanced by having to match pieces of a puzzle on the screen or match questions and answers using the drag-and-drop technique. Such students can also be encouraged to make their own memory aids offline, such as sculptures of molecules or board games depicting new topics.

The real challenge, however, comes with externally kinesthetic learners who need to move around and learn with their whole bodies. Because they rely on real experiences as the most effective way of assimilating information, online-learning is not ideally suited to this type of learner. To enhance their retention and enjoyment of information intake, the online-learning course should offer off-line projects to enhance the online sessions. These learners need to get away from the computer, move their body and DO something with the information they have just received via the screen. Learning sessions for these students will only be successful (and hopefully lead to understanding, skills, competencies, and knowledge) when they have physically experienced and/or actively ‘done’ something during the learning process.

Is your child visual, auditory, tactile or kinesthetic? Find out today.

When Too Much Reading Is Bad For You

 

Books are good. Whether you’re reading to your child or letting them read by themselves, there is an immeasurable amount of development going on. Visualisation, imagination, vocabulary, general knowledge, thinking and debating skills – they all increase in leaps and bounds thanks to being exposed to fiction. “At least ten minutes a day,” experts tell us. What they don’t tell us is, how much is too much.

Apart from the obvious strain on the eyes, too much reading is bad for your body, turning it into a couch potato and depriving you of the opportunity to run, climb trees, swim and jump on the trampoline. Furthermore, reading is a passive activity when compared to more creative hobbies such as drawing, composing music, play-acting, sewing, computer programming and free play.

Of course, if the choice is between watching TV and reading, let them read by all means. But if an opportunity arises to play outside, walk the dog or make Christmas decorations, that’s when putting down the book is the right choice.

Is your child in danger of reading too much? It all depends on their learning style. Do they have a preference for no mobility, working alone, perseverance, visual learning? If so, they may concentrate on books so much, they miss out on other essential development steps. Find out today.

Reading To Your Child

Oxford University Press conducted a research study which concluded that "parents should continue reading to their children up to the age of nine and beyond to help boost their academic results". It is awesome to hear that our intuitive belief now has a firm basis of scientific research.

It stands to reason, of course: when parents read aloud, they will typically choose books that are above the reading level of the child. This will increase the child's vocabulary and grasp of grammar, and it'll also expand their horizons by introducing them to more complex settings, ideas and issues, particularly if the parents take the time to discuss the book in between the reading sessions.

Although children with an auditory learning style will respond best to this exercise, parents should persevere reading aloud to children who do not have a preference for auditory input, as long as the child's other learning needs (for time of day, room temperature, intake, and so on) have been met.

What are your child's learning needs?

Working Style Analysis - More Than A Personality Quiz

Are you a good problem solver? How well do you manage anger? Do stress and anxiety interfere with your life? How strong is your relationship? If you were a tree, would you be a solid oak or a weeping willow? Are your emotional highs and lows normal? Do you focus on a task or zone out? Are you pushing yourself too hard?

If you like doing personality quizzes like the ones above, you will love answering our Working Styles questionnaire. Working Style Analysis is scientifically designed to determine your optimal working mode and environment. Unlike many of the tests available elsewhere, though, this tool will give you:

• a set of well-researched and reliable guidelines
• a comprehensive report with summaries and graphs
• a thorough analysis of 48 elements of your unique Working Style
• career guidance.

 Check out your Working Style Analysis today.

Help - my working style is interfering with me exercise routine!

Say the word routine and, depending on your working style, you will experience either a sense of stifling or a wave of well-being. If you have a preference for variety, the idea of an exercise routine, any sort of routine, will be enough to make you want to run a marathon in order to avoid it. It’s no good for your personal trainer to set up an upper body schedule on Monday, leg exercises on Wednesday and abs on Friday, it’s the mere thought that every Monday you work on your biceps and triceps from 6.30 till 7 will be enough o set your teeth on edge.

So how do you stay fit if you hate routine? Make it as un-routine as possible: swim twice one week and do aerobics the next. Jog around the neighbourhood instead of going to the gym. Play squash once a week for a month, choosing a different time slot every time – include weekends in your schedule. Exercise in the morning the one week, at lunchtime the next and before dinner the third week. Go swimming at the local pool. And at the beach. You may not get as much benefit as the person who has an optimal exercise routine, but at least you’ll stay healthy.

Good luck. Do it with your Working Style!

Carrot and stick - how to motivate your students using Learning Styles

There are two types of students in the world: those who are internally motivated, and those who are motivated by external means.It all depends on their Learning Style.

It’s very easy to get an externally motivated child to behave in class or learn the new work: all you have to do is promise her a reward. The reward can be verbal (you’re such a good girl, I’m proud of you), material (a star), accrued (a star-chart with a well defined reward once the child accumulates 20 stars) or a withdrawal of privileges.

It’s even easier to get an internally motivated child to behave in class or learn the new work: you don’t need to do anything at all, because the student will do it all out of her internal sense of “I want to do this”. That’s provided she herself sees that schoolwork and school behaviour as important matters worthy of engaging her internal motivation system over. If she doesn’t see them as important, you have a problem on your hands, because no amount of carrot/stick is going to have an effect on her.

So, what do you do as a teacher? The first step is, naturally, to establish what type of motivation works on your students, and to what extend: some students may have a strong preference for external motivation, others only a slight one, they may have a non-preference for it (in which case it’s really not a good idea to offer them external rewards), or they may be flexible in this area (in other words, a combination of internal and external motivation would work well). 

Check out your students' Learning Styles. You will also get a free group profile for your class, with a summary of how many of your students are internally and externally motivated.

Sport and Your Learning Style

A big part of your school life is probably centred around sport: be it basketball, soccer, rugby, fencing, or skiing.

Just like with anything else in life, the way in which you learn sport techniques and the way in which you play the sport will depend to a large extend on your LearningStyle.

 

Some style features to consider are:

·         Motivation

·         Perseverance/Persistence

·         Responsibility

·         Teamwork or training alone

·         Time of day

·         Need for structure

·         Need for routine

·         Sequential or simultaneous learning.

A beautiful example of this is golf as Wayne Thomas, a professional golf coach near Melbourne, Australia, describes it:

“I have always recognised that there is something missing with coaching, despite the excellent results many of my students reported receiving. What concerns me most is a person’s inability to sustain new levels of performance and continually falling back into old patterns. My continued pursuit of knowledge about golf swing, human movement, mental approach to oneself, equipment and communication skills wasn’t providing the key that would open the gate to the amazing potential we all possess.

When I first met Barbara Prashnig and she put forward the notion that HOW people learn is more important than WHAT people learn, it sparked for me a new era in coaching: I immediately began changing my coaching style and the learning environment to match the students’ learning styles. This has led to astonishing improvements and sustained playing ability in my golf students.”

Do you want to know what your Learning Style is? Click here. 

Learning Truths

Truth 1:

If you find learning difficult, it’s probably because your learning style is different from the teaching style of your teachers. You can learn anything you want if you do it in your own preferred way.

Truth 2:

You have the right to learn in a way that suits you best:

·         Using regular or electronic whiteboards, Power Point presentations and typed information sheets;

·         Listening to the teacher explaining subject topics;

·         Discussing new concepts with your peers;

·         Learning through role-playing and physical games;

·        Making something in order to understand it (e.g. posters of chemical reactions, clay models of hydrogen molecules, tactile/visual learning tools).

Truth 3:

Whether you like it or not, learning will always be part of your life:

·         Computer operating systems change every few years and with them the look of your email and browser applications.

·         Mobile phones get better and more advanced - you will have to learn a new interface soon.

·         You will have to acquire new skills on the job all the time in your future career.

·         You will have to learn to live with new friends and partners in your private life.

·         You will most likely want to learn to drive a car, scuba dive, play the latest electronic game, put up a virtual store of your DVD collection or create your own website.

·         You might even want to learn to live in a new country, with a new set of rules and a new language.

Teenagers, take note. If your room is a mess, you’re not alone. Most people your age battle with their parents for the right to keep their rooms the way they like it. 
 

But did you know that being messy could be more than a “teenage thing”? It's your Learning Style. Whether you are organised or disorganised, tidy or messy, punctual or unable to keep track of time is a biological (inherent and often inherited) function of your brain, difficult to change. 

Perhaps you and your parents can strike a deal: you will keep the bathroom, kitchen and lounge tidy in exchange for them allowing your room to be as untidy as you please but not filthy?

Your Learning Style report will tell you whether you are disorganised by nature. It will also offer you tips on how to help you get better organised.

By the way, this is a cool book about cleaning up the unusual way: THE ART OF CLEAN UP.

CLS – Learning Style and Experiencing Life

How do you experience the world around you? Is it a collage of images, colours, people’s faces? Is it all sounds, music, echoes of people’s voices, snatches of conversations from two decades ago? Does every object have texture, and even if you don’t touch it you know exactly what it would feel like under your fingers?
Depending on your learning style, you may experience the world in a visual, auditory or tactile manner. You will notice what people wear and the pattern of the wallpaper in a restaurant. Or you will be able to recognise a song after the first three notes. Or you’ll be able to select your favourite mug from the pantry by touch alone.

Depending on your learning style, you will get upset if someone’s late for a meeting… or it won’t bother you at all. Depending on your learning style, you will find bright light stimulating or stressful. Depending on your learning style, you will forever want to crank the thermostat in the office up or down.

In a way, it feels liberating to know it’s not your fault. Your spouse has given you three verbal instructions and you can only remember the words, “Honey, could you please…”? Not your fault. Your work station is messy? Blame your learning style.

The Creative Learning tool for assessing an adult person’s learning style is called the Working Style Analysis (WSA). Create your personal report now.

Natural Light and Learning Styles

If you've heard about learning styles, you know that some people prefer to concentrate in dimly lit rooms while others need bright light in order to think properly.

But that's not the whole story. Turns out, if you want a healthier child who gets better grades, let them play outside. Here's why.

No matter what their learning style, students and teachers alike can benefit from utilising natural light in the classroom. A Daystar article, Benefits of Natural Daylighting (1998), states that "there is increased student and teacher attendance, increased achievement rates, reduced fatigue factors, improved student health, and enhancement of general development. Furthermore, natural lighting eliminates noise and flickering from electric light sources and provides the best quality of light available in classrooms, gymnasiums, and corridors. Other research has shown that students in windowless classrooms are more hostile, hesitant, and maladjusted. Also, students in windowless classrooms tend to be less interested in their work and complain more."

Scientists know that the sun is a primary source of vitamin D, and increasing vitamin D intake stimulates calcium metabolism. There is a strong correlation between the amount of sunlight a child experiences and the level of dental decay. This means that day light is a crucial element in cavity prevention. Research shows that students’ rates of dental decay have decreased in schools lit by natural sunlight.

Still not convinced? The Capistrano Unified School District in Orange County, California, observed that the classrooms with the most amount of sun light had a 20% faster learning rate in math and a 26% faster learning rate in reading during one school year when compared to classrooms with the least amount of sun light (Heschong Mahone Group 1999a).

We don't know about you, but we're going to sit in the sun at lunchtime.

9 Reasons To Do Your Child’s LSA Today

Something Cool to Do

Children love doing the LSA evaluation because there are no right or wrong answers and because the questions are all about them.

3 Versions of the Report

That’s between 10 and 20 pages of easy-to-understand fully illustrated analysis of your child’s learning potential and advice. Your child gets a copy aimed at them, you get a parent copy and you get a copy for the teacher that tells them how to treat your child in class.

Reach Their Potential

Is your child word-visual, picture-visual or internally visual? Externally or internally auditory? Tactile? Internally or externally kinesthetic? Or even all of the above? Find out and you will be directly responsible for their improved performance in 2006.

Is Your Child Gifted?

These may be the signs that your child is gifted:

• can learn through several sensory modes
• has a preference for evening or early morning
• prefers to work alone or with true peers
• won’t accept authority
• is internally motivated
• never gives up
• dislikes rules
• doesn’t need help in structuring their learning.

  

Motivation

Carrot, stick or neither? Some people call it bribery, others an incentive. But do you know whether your promise of a special treat will help your child’s work or hinder it? Read their Learning Style report to see whether your child is externally or internally motivated.

  

Goodbye Homework Horrors

The Learning Style report  will tell you how to turn your child’s study area into their favourite place in the house.

Accept Your Child’s Style

You know, when they surround themselves with piles of books, papers and dirty plates with half-eaten apples, it doesn’t mean that they’re trying to annoy you. It may simply mean that they process information in a holistic way. Do their LSA to find out.

Banish Eminem

The Learning Style report  will tell you whether your child will benefit from listening to music while doing homework. But the report will also tell you (and your child) what music is conducive to learning. More importantly, it’ll tell you which music NOT to listen to during study time.

Is Your Child Safe On The Internet?

If your child has a preference for visual and tactile stimulation, if he or she prefers learning alone and structuring their own work, if he or she has a non preference for kinesthetic and auditory activities (all of these available from the Learning Style report ), then the chances are high that they will enjoy spending a lot of time on the computer - possibly in chat rooms. Internet predators look for quiet children, often those who are underachievers socially or academically.

Creative Learning Systems: Learning Styles Blog: Students Left Behind and Learning Styles

Creative Learning Systems: Learning Styles Blog: Students Left Behind and Learning Styles: The nine strong learning style needs in students who underperform are: A holistic teaching approach - overview first, depth later. ...

Students Left Behind and Learning Styles

The nine strong learning style needs in students who underperform are:

1. A holistic teaching approach - overview first, depth later.
2. Mobility at frequent intervals.
3. A variety of instructional resources from which to learn (to match students' low auditory and low visual modalities and their strong preferences for tactile/kinesthetic learning - hands-on activities - and their strong need for variety rather than routines and patterns).
4. Learning difficult content at other times, not in early morning classes.
5. Recognition of their high motivation despite their inability to learn through conventional methods; positive feedback instead of put-downs.
6. Friendly rather than authoritarian teachers.
7. Resources which introduce new and difficult information through multi-sensory methods (kinesthetic, tactile, visual, auditory) to make learning easier and more appealing.
8. Informal seating arrangements in classrooms to respond to their inability to sit on plastic or wooden chairs for more than 10-12 minutes and their strong need for mobility.
9. Soft illumination which means avoiding fluorescent lights in classrooms.

From the work we are doing with Learning Styles in New Zealand and internationally we can already see that the same features apply to underachievers everywhere. They inevitably become at-risk students and drop-outs when their learning needs are not matched over longer periods of time.

If schools had their students' learning styles assessed, trained their teachers to become more aware of diversity in the classroom and teach with matched instruction methods, as well as educate parents in their children's true learning needs, fewer students would experience frustration and the inability to succeed in academic classes. This could well be the cure for underachievement.

We at the Creative Learning are committed to helping schools eliminate underachievement. For more information contact us at: info@clc.co.nz

Save Money Or Increase Productivity?

More and more research nowadays is going into demonstrating that introverts are invaluable team members who've been sidelined for too long. You know, the people who sit quietly at their desks working while extrovert managers have one meeting after another?

We're not knocking managers or meetings. Both are crucial to the successful running of any organisation. It's just that those "backroom boys and girls" are as crucial. And they need an environment in which to operate as productively as they possibly can.

What an introvert needs when she or he concentrates on something new and difficult:

• a silent office;
• the opportunity to work uninterrupted;
• the opportunity to work alone, and to consult others when needed.

Unfortunately, too many companies try to save money by creating noisy open-plan offices which are said to aid teamwork. In fact, they aid talking instead of working, and they are the very opposite of what the introvert needs.

Next time your company is rethinking the office space, ask yourself how many of your employees would double their productivity if they were allowed to work from home, in a separate office, or with earplugs. You don't have to guess. Their Working Style profile will tell you everything you need to know.

Learn To Read Using Learning Styles

Even preschoolers have a well-defined Learning Style. Some may prefer to learn alone, others with friends. Some may prefer to play games which require a lot of full-body movements, others will be drawn towards pastimes that require working with their hands.

When it comes to learning to read the letters of the alphabet, here is a list of games to play that will engage the senses and appeal to many learning styles. To begin, cut out letters of the alphabet out of fine sandpaper. Use different colours for vowels, consonants and digraphs (qu ai ee ie oa ue ar er or ch sh th oy ou oo).

• Let the child feel the letters in the direction you draw them.
• Ask the child to touch “m”, find “o”, move “d”, hold “a”.
• Spread the letters around the room. Ask the child to hop to “m”, run to “d”, tiptoe to “ee”.
• Point to the letter and ask whether the child remembers what it is.
• Let the child cut favourite pictures from a magazine. Sort them according to what letter they start with. 
• Take one letter. Cut out everything from a magazine that starts with that letter. Paste it onto a page or put into an envelope.
• Every day, put out a basket of different goodies, each beginning with the same letter.
• Play “I spy”. Say, “I’m looking for something that begins with the sound bbbb." 
• Play “I spy” again, but with objects that end in the sound “k”: milk, book.
• Play a rhyming version of “I spy”: “I spy with my little eye something that sounds like book” (hook, nook).

What are your child's learning preferences? Find out.

Asperger Syndrome and Learning Styles

The wikipedia definition of Asperger Syndrome reads: "an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development."

The severity of the disorder varies, but most people affected by it can lead a normal life, often as very successful academics. However, experts warn that diagnosis may be difficult: "The cost and difficulty of screening and assessment can delay diagnosis. Conversely, the increasing popularity of drug treatment options and the expansion of benefits has motivated providers to over diagnose ASD."

Learning Style Analysis is not a tool for diagnosing ASD, however, it can provide guidance to determine whether further assistance from a specialist may be required. Some learning style trends displayed by ASD sufferers include:

• highly analytic with a non-preference for global information processing
• a preference to study alone
• a preference for a formal study area
• a non-preference for change
• high persistence
• internal motivation.

Check your child's Learning Style today.

Introverts and Working Styles

What does the Working Style of an introvert look like? They are usually the ones who prefer working alone in a quiet room. They don't usually communicate very effectively in a situation where they have to address a large audience. Sometimes their contribution to the workload will go unnoticed, because they won't brag about it.

In today's world, we value talkers (extroverts) and often choose them as our leaders. And yet this phenomenon is relatively recent and can be linked to the advent of TV. Prior to that, many leaders were introverts, although the term wasn't widely used back then. Check out this video about the power of introverts.

Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Your Working Style will hold the clues. Have a look.

Learning Styles and Stress Management

Think “childhood” and words such as “carefree”, “long summer days”, “doing nothing” or “fun” will instantly spring to mind. However, nothing can be further from the truth for the current generation of school-goers. In certain parts of the world, even preschoolers feel the pressure to achieve, and thus to secure a place in a reputable private education institution.

Some schools cite education and achievement as their top values. Others prefer to concentrate on learning through fun, treating every child as an individual with a unique learning style, and offering an all-rounded learning option that includes as much dancing as it does arithmetic.

The world out there is tough and competitive. Do you shelter your children and let them enjoy life as long as they can, or do you start grooming them for the rat race in kindergarten? That’s the choice that every parent has to make individually.

Meanwhile, if you think that your child is feeling stressed, their own learning style can give you a clue as to how to help them. Highly analytic children will want to retreat and solve the problem by themselves, while highly holistic children will want to discuss the issue with you. To find out how to deal with your child’s stress, please analyse their learning style.

Some ideas that might also appeal to your child include:

1. Listening to music with a beat that is slower than their heart rate.
2. Taking a walk together - a forest or a beach will particularly well.
3. Essential oils such as lavender, chamomile, mandarin or rose have a calming effect - you can burn them in the room if you have a burner or dab them directly onto the wrist.
4. A comforting healthy snack, like low-fat low-sugar apple pie or cocoa.
5. Distraction: ask your child what the best thing was that she saw or did today.

Just as prevention is better than cure in the area of physical health, so it is with stress. If your child does not thrive on achievement, it’s best not to push them. To check, do their Learning Style Analysis.