Reply
Occasional Contributor
jennj
Posts: 10
Registered: 09-17-2010

Teaching for Different Learning Styles

I think every teacher teaches to accomodate the visual and auditory learning styles, but how often do you teach to accomodate other learning styles?  What do you do?  I'm trying to vary my teaching more and I wanted to see if anyone has any creative ideas.

WAT Staff
juliajayes
Posts: 17
Registered: 09-01-2009

Re: Teaching for Different Learning Styles

One of my two favorite, life-changing teachers had a great technique for going beyond the top 2 or 3 learning styles: She utilized peer input.  Early in the year she would identify each student's learning style, and then, when one student was struggling, she would call upon a peer with the same learning style and explicitly ask them to help explain it from their point of view. 

 

I think it's a great strategy on several levels - not the least of which being that it allows students to shine when they "get it".  Of course, it also means that the teacher (who is human, after all) doesn't have to master learning styles that are extremely difficult for their own grasp.