Creative Learning Systems: Learning Styles Blog

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Five Things Successful Teachers Do

There are lots of things highly successful teachers do differently from their colleagues. Here are the top five:

Successful teachers have fun in the classroom and make learning fun for their students.
Successful teachers communicate with parents, students and fellow teachers.
Successful teachers expect and encourage their students to succeed.
Successful teachers connect with their students and support them emotionally.
Successful teachers know the learning styles of their class.

Friday, January 10, 2014

5 things companies do right

Here are the top five things companies can do in order to retain staff and ensure overall quality:

Make the employees feel valued and rewarded, both in terms of finances, and public recognition.
Provide an opportunity for personal growth and development. Give challenging and stimulating work. Match projects with people's passion.
Ensure the employees' buy-in into the company's vision and goals.
Have fewer rules and more common sense. When dealing with people, being humane goes a lot further than being a bureaucrat.
Respect their employees' Working Style. (Did you know the wrong type of light at the office could make you sick?)

Sunday, January 05, 2014

Did you know? The way you like your coffee could be influenced by your Working Style. Picture this: you are on holiday in a different country. Everything is fabulous, the weather, the sights and the hotel, but there is one snag. The coffee you usually drink, let's say cappuccino, is not available. Do you happily try the local brew, or do you forego the trip to the museum in order to hunt down the exact cup of coffee you'd have at home?

If you have to have your usual coffee, no matter what, then your Working Style is one with a non-preference for variety. You are probably careful about tasting the local cuisine, too, and like your day to have a fixed routine, especially if you are about to embark on a new and mentally challenging task.
What is your Working Style? Find out.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

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!

Friday, December 20, 2013

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.

Friday, December 13, 2013

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!