Learning Styles

Hypothesis:
I am a read/write and kinesthetic learner.  I learn best when I read then write about what I have learned.  As a young child, I have loved reading.  I vividly remember reading the World Book Encyclopedia when I was a kid.  I think that was before the term "nerd" was invented. Interestingly, for some reason, I used to hate writing.  Now that I am an adult, I enjoy writing and have written a book that is popular in football land.  Jerry's Book.  I also learn kinesthectically, watching video, using case study, practice and application.  My teaching/coaching model has always been: see it, say it, do it, teach it.

Analyze:
The results of my test matched my hypothesis I scored read/write 10, kinesthetic 8, aural 6, and visual 4.  I think the hypothesis that suggests we should teach to learning styles, is widely accepted because it is sometimes true. A broken clock is right twice a day.  As the article states, we like to categorize and put things  in boxes.  That being said, I think the point is that we need to vary our instruction to meet the needs of our students.  For instance, my survey showed, that being a visual learner ranked last for me.  Although this might be true, I still CAN learn using visual methods.

Pasher suggests that we need carefully controlled true experiments with identical outcome measures for all students.  We need educational and training scientists to conduct this research.

Students do have learning preferences, I think it is up to us as educators to find what works best for our students. "Students do not care how much you know until they know how much you care"  is an old cliche. This is not a learning style and I do not know how you would scientifically measure it but I do know it can be effective