Can you take a challenge? List at least 10 items you saw on the past 5 web pages? Did you manage to? Not many of us can remember everything we saw. Some of us are more tactile than visual. We need to write things down beyond just looking at the information. This is what learning styles is about – using our strengths to learn and remember information.
According to Prof. Rita Dunn, a leading educationist from St. John’s University in New York, USA, “The preferred ways in which we use for learning are known as our learning styles.” Knowing and applying our learning styles will allow us to achieve better results; just like what Mrs Mala discovered with her daughter.
The reality is that we are not strong in everything. Most of us learn best in certain ways. The key is to discover our strengths and maximize our learning through those strengths. After working with more than 16,000 students and 4,000 teachers in Singapore and China, we have discovered some patterns in the way we learn and express ourselves.
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Differences in Learning Styles
Below are some key findings for boys and girls up to the age of 18 years old.
|
|
Learning Styles |
|
|
Auditory |
Visual |
Tactile |
Kinaesthetic |
Girls |
10 yrs old |
38 |
50 |
55 |
50 |
|
14 yrs old |
37 |
42 |
59 |
35 |
|
16 yrs old |
39 |
59 |
68 |
49 |
|
18 yrs old |
37 |
60 |
78 |
55 |
Observations |
Stable |
 Slight increase
|
increase |
stable |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Boys |
10 yrs old |
37 |
47 |
41 |
40 |
|
14 yrs old |
39 |
46 |
40 |
35 |
|
16 yrs old |
38 |
54 |
51 |
47 |
|
18 yrs old |
35 |
55 |
61 |
55 |
Observations |
Stable |
Slight increase |
increase |
Slight increase |
Interestingly, the findings indicate that the students’ auditory and kinaesthetic strengths remain stable over time. Those who are good listeners or good at learning through experience remain essentially good at those tasks. From the data, we do find that there are students who discover their visual and tactile strengths as they grow older, possibly as a result of note-taking exercises and drawing concept maps and diagrams. It appears that both boys and girls show the same developmental changes in their learning styles.
To capitalize on students’ visual learning strengths, programmes that utilize visual teaching strategies are found to be highly effective in maximizing learning efficiency. For example, the PowerChinese Programme conducted for Primary School students (between 7 and 12 years old) utilizes video clips (from a notable Han Zi Gong series) and diagrams to teach Chinese. Focusing on the origin of Chinese characters, the concepts are taught in an interesting manner through pictograms and video clips. The result is a highly effective visual programme for the students.
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Differences in Production Styles
The complementary component to learning styles is production styles. Many parents and educators confuse the way we learn with the way we choose to express ourselves. Often, we type a child as ‘active’ or ‘kinaesthetic’ because we see him or her as being highly movement-based. The child moves around and fidgets all the time. However, while the child is obviously movement-based and active, the child may NOT necessarily be kinaesthetic. The difference between ‘kinaesthetic’ and ‘movement’ is the same as that for ‘auditory’ and ‘verbal’. The former is the way people learn while the latter is the way people choose to express their ideas or produce their works.
For example, how many of us have seen people who talk a lot but do not listen very well? Yes, all the time. We see children and adults falling into that category. These people are verbal (talk a lot) but they do not listen very well (are not auditory). Hence, the way we learn may not be the same as the way we choose to express ourselves. It is an important difference. What we observe in ourselves or our children may more often than not, be production styles rather than learning styles. We only observe learning styles when we or our children are concentrating on the information being acquired.
Production styles, on the other hand, are expression modes that reflect our abilities. Some may like to write (Visual-Tactile) to express their ideas. They are natural writers. They write blogs, diaries and emails. Their words flow fluently and people enjoy reading what the Visual-Tactile Producers write. The Verbal Producers are people who like to talk about their feelings and ideas. They enjoy talking often and to almost anyone. This could be their strength if used at the right time and place. Finally, the Movement Producers enjoy activities such as sports, dancing and project work. They like to do to express what they know. Hence, they could enjoy technical work and product design more than others. Obviously, sports and highly active computer games are also examples of activities that Movement Producers like to engage in.
With this as our context, let us examine the changes in production styles that take place in our children as they grow.
|
|
Production Styles |
|
|
Vis-Tact (Write) |
Verbal
(Talk) |
Movement
(Do) |
Girls |
10 yrs old |
37 |
45 |
76 |
|
14 yrs old |
42 |
55 |
53 |
|
16 yrs old |
55 |
57 |
52 |
|
18 yrs old |
60 |
67 |
55 |
|
Observation |
increase |
increase |
decrease |
|
|
|
|
|
Boys |
10 yrs old |
26 |
36 |
79 |
|
14 yrs old |
19 |
41 |
65 |
|
16 yrs old |
30 |
41 |
62 |
|
18 yrs old |
42 |
53 |
69 |
|
Observation |
increase |
increase |
Decrease |
For both boys and girls, their preference to write and talk as a means of expressing their ideas or feelings appears to increase gradually as they grow. Conversely, the preference to do things or get involved in sports, dancing or project work appears to wane as they grow. The steepest drop seems to be for girls at 14 years old when they are more self-conscious of the changes to their body and do not want to get involved in sports or outdoor activities that may seem unladylike. The decrease for boys as Movement Producers is less than that for girls.
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Implications
As we or our children grow older, some of our learning preferences may develop or even get discovered. The key is to be aware of the different learning and production styles that we have and develop them as we grow. Many children may have strong visual and tactile strengths but these strengths remain undiscovered till they reach secondary school or tertiary institutions because the children are not exposed to effective visual and tactile ways of learning. Many people may not even know of their strengths till adulthood! Some teachers came up to me to say that they wished they knew about learning styles when they were students. They would have gotten better examination results!
Similarly, our production styles reflect the abilities we have in expressing ourselves. If we can produce what we know in the style that we are good at, we will do much better in life. For example, if we are good verbal producers (talkers), we may choose to describe our ideas or thoughts verbally rather than write about them, if given the choice. A Movement Producer may express his ideas through building a model rather than talk about his ideas to fully showcase his thoughts. When we capitalize on our production styles, we are seen as more fluent in our expression and our abilities will show through our work. The ideas may be the same but the mode of showcasing our ideas may be different. Either way, we should not shortchange ourselves by using the style we are weak in. Instead, we should focus on our strengths, whether for learning or production.
Our learning and productions are also important factors we should consider when choosing the course we want to study in higher institutions of learning and the career path we want to take. For example, if we have kinaesthetic learning strengths, we can consider more hands-on subjects such as engineering or computer studies. If we are auditory learners, then subjects that provide more lecture-type or verbal inputs would facilitate your learning. Similarly, if you are a Verbal Producer, a career that involves more talking such a teacher, salesperson or a presenter could match your strengths better. Even if you do not have the necessary production styles or abilities, you can still develop those skills as long as you put time and energy into acquiring them. You can develop your production styles more easily than learning styles.
Whatever learning and production styles we or our children have, we are unique because God has given us different strengths and abilities. Our task is to discover our unique strengths and develop them. Let us not moan about what we cannot do or do not have but rather, let us celebrate the diversity of strengths found in the human society. Let us use our strengths to excel in our work, to help others and make a better world to live in. |
About the author
 Michael Choy have trained more than 3,000 students, 3,500 teachers and 1,500 parents over 5 years. Ratings have been in the region of 90% - 100% positive from the participants. Globally, Active Intelligence Consultancy is part of the International Learning Styles Network based in New York. With paper presentations on their research at International Conferences, Active Intelligence strive to share their learning experiences with fellow educators. Go to http://www.activeintelligence.net/ to find out more.
Copyright© 2008 ASKnLearn Pte Ltd. |
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