Week 1 Activities

My learning style?

According to Felder & Soloman, learning styles can be defined by four specific continuums which are:

·         Active and Reflective

·         Sensing and Intuitive

·         Visual and Verbal

·         Sequential and Global

A series of 44 questions were posed and the answers were analysed to produce the following results.

Results for: Jannine Peff

      ACT                          X                        REF

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

      SEN  X                                                INT

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

      VIS  X                                                VRB

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

      SEQ          X                                        GLO

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

These results indicate that my learning style is well balanced between active and reflective, which Felder & Soloman recommend as being ideal (what can I say.....I’m too deadly). However, I am predominantly more sensing than intuitive and strongly visual rather than verbal. Lastly, I am moderately more sequential than global.

In all, there are no real surprises in these results for me. Generally, I like to have a go and see what works and what does not but I also like to think first about how I might approach the task before I begin, so that I give myself every opportunity to be successful. It is important for me to be successful as I struggle with a fear of failure when learning.

When I consider my schooling days, the blackboard and step by step instruction worked a treat for me. I would say the IWB would be even more effective for me today being both active and visual. Demonstrations would also be another strategy that would satisfy my preference for visual learning. Furthermore, homework sheets that reinforce the day’s new concepts through practice. This would allow me time to reflect and answer the why question to give me a more complete understanding. I guess I can now put this down to the strong sensing learner that loves the facts.  

My learning experiences would be most successful if an overview of the lesson was provided at the beginning so that I could contextualise the activity. This is important becauseb I struggle to engage if I don’t understand how it relates to my learning (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999). Then I would prefer the lesson to be scaffolded so that I have my starting point which is often an issue for me.

As a learning manager, I would endeavour to incorporate many teaching strategies to support the different learning styles. These would include: explanations, demonstrations, think pair share, games and individual tasks.

Currently, I am only barely familiar with IWB. This new technology appears to cater to all learning styles and therefore, should be the focal point of today’s classroom. Importantly, being competent and creative in its use is critical if it is to support all learning styles in the class. Outside the classroom, there are a number of wonderful platforms for teachers to extend the classroom for students to support their learning. A few that I am familiar with are blogs, podcasts, wikis and social networking sites.

Profiling Questions

1. “Harry Potter” series, would you prefer to

a) read the books.

b) watch the movies.

2. Do you like learning about

a) real things.

b) new ideas.

3. In class, do you like to work

a) with others

b) by yourself

4. When putting together a new toy, do you

a) look at the picture on the box.

b) follow the instructions.