Week 1 - Activites

Every individual is unique and absorbs information through different learning styles and at different paces.  To fully understand your own character of teaching and the learning style of your students you must first understand what makes the brain tick.  


I always thought my learning style was kinaesthetic, hands on however when I did a a few multiple intelligence tests I discovered I was wrong.  On one test it was conclusive that I was visual smart.  This means that individual work, diagrams and posters help aid my learning.  The other intelligence test showed I was interpersonal/people smart closely followed by intrapersonal/myself smart.  The range of learning styles is very vast, it is going to be very difficult to cater for all learning needs within a classroom.


To profile students you could provide them with personality and learning style questionnaires.  You may see a strong pattern of a specific type of learner in your classroom therefore making lesson planning easier.  However you are more than likely to come across a range of different styles.  Felder and Solomon (2005) developed a learning style inventory online that can assess your personal learning style and inclination.  This quiz asks specific questions that gain information about learning preferences, problem solving skills and group or individual work.  


To help cater for different learning styles your lesson plans could incorporate different types of work such as group and individual time, writing and practical elements and various types on indoor and outdoor tasks and through the use of technology.


I feel that ICT is the new buzz words in education.  People are realising that we need to embrace it.  It has been proven that students learn better if the lesson relates to the real world.  The real world is technology!  In a lesson you could watch a video, download a worksheet or get students involved in researching a topic on a computer to help support the learners better.  By using ICT's such as social networking sites, individual research time on computers, visual aids/videos and interactive online games can help support different learning styles.


Knowing students learning styles isn't the only thing that will help you create dynamic lessons.  You also have to ask them what activities they like.  Get them involved in the learning process.  This will pass some of the responsibility onto the student.


This weeks' activities have really opened my eyes up to the different learning styles.  I am now excited about planning dynamic lessons for the students to interact and engage in :)

Click here to take the test yourself...

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/index.htm