Some people talk of ‘learning styles’ but I think that, really, we use each main type of style (kinaesthetic, visual, aural) depending on what it is we’re learning. In fact, as a teacher, I’ve observed this in the classroom.
Those (high-flyers) who have the groundwork understanding to quickly assimilate concepts need merely aural input to learn effectively.
Those (most of the class) who need some consolidation of the groundwork before assimilation need things explained visually.
Those (SEN, etc) who need to re-explain the groundwork completely before moving on need kinaesthetic activities.
Feel free to shoot me down, but that what I’ve observed. And the same is true for my own learning.
At the moment I’m trying to apply Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity to my Ed.D. thesis. Specifically, I’m interested in finding out how terms such as ‘digital literacy’ and ‘electracy’ are ambiguous. It’s confusing. So I did my equivalent of breaking out the Duplo:
Note that this is visual learning for you but kinaesthetic for me – I did something similar when doing my MA.
Thoughts/comments? Do you do something similar? :-p
I was interviewed last week by Tim Bradburn of Connected Teaching (@cpd4teachers) who was interested in having me expand up the ideas contained in #uppingyourgame: an educator’s guide to productivity.
In the extracts below (taken from the interview) I explain my belief that productivity is a learned behaviour based upon serenity, reliability and focus. 🙂
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I have to.
I wouldn’t know what else to do – I’d have to leave the circus.
I heard an interview with Carly Simon recently. She’s in her sixties now and most famous for stuff she did before I was born – such as the song You’re So Vain. The interviewer asked her if she would keep on making music “even into her eighties”. Her response is above.
She meant, I think, to come across as someone with a lifelong passion. To me, however, it came across as quite sad. She’s no Bob Dylan, after all.
And then I got thinking about education and about teaching in particular. I know quite a few people who just wouldn’t know what else to do if they weren’t teaching. That’s not always a positive thing. Sometimes people need to leave the circus. :-p
(Image CC BY-NC hbp_pix)
