When I first started this course, I knew little about learning styles. I knew my students and I knew some of them were cut out for this field while others were not. I wouldn't hold hands and if they didn't learn it the way I would teach it, I would go over it again and again and again, and, like my new lab puppy, figured that with repitition it would sink in, and if it didn't, then too bad. Maybe they need to try horticulture or welding or something not as high tech.
I took a learning quiz and found out what kind of learner I was, and what all that meant. I did some other reading and found out most of us are a combination of all the different learning styles, and most of us tend to lean a little towards one way or the other. I assumed most of the students I am teaching, because of the field I am in, and because of the hands on environment we are in, would be similar to me in my learning. How wrong I was.
I went home and had each of my children take the quiz and discovered my youngest is a hands on type of a kid, an my oldest is more visual. I guess that does not surprise me too much since my youngest is always taking things apart and surprisingly able to get them back togather again. My oldest has no real urge to take things apart. He is kind of a brainiac.
I have learned I need to be a lot more diverse in my teachings both in lab and in lecture. I am going to give the quiz to my students during the first week of school and am going to start by giving the quiz to my current students when they come back from the Christmas break ....opps, can I say Christmas on this site?? I think so.
I am going to try to mix things up a little more in class and am going to try to not be so short with my kids. My youngest needs to be told a few times and kicked in the butt on occasion to get him to remember and do things, while my oldest just needs a note. This must be something I can blame my wife for.
I wonder what learning style my pup has? What catagorie would a doggie biscuit fall into?
Friday, December 11, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
After taking the learning style quiz.......
Like i stated in my last post, I learn more hands on, but do ok visually also. I was instructed to go to http://victorhugor.blogspot.com/ and go to the May 09 posts about learning styles. Wow....Talk about eye opening.
What really grabbed my attention was an artical from 1999 entitled "different strokes for different folks" by Stahl. For more information, a link has been provided.
What caught my eye and led me to look at this site were exerts from the article. The first was many of the supporting learning style theory is not based on reliable study. Kind of sounds like the latest on the global warming theory. Is someone trying to cram something down educators throats?
What hit home more than anything in any of my reading was another quote from the blog that stated "... Never rely totally on any one method, but try to vary them. If a student does not seem to be learning, consider whether his/her learning style might be at odds with your teaching style. Remain flexible and be able to change planned learning activities if students are having trouble in a given area.”
That makes more sense than anything i have read so far! Be flexable.
http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/fall99/DiffStrokes.pdf
What really grabbed my attention was an artical from 1999 entitled "different strokes for different folks" by Stahl. For more information, a link has been provided.
What caught my eye and led me to look at this site were exerts from the article. The first was many of the supporting learning style theory is not based on reliable study. Kind of sounds like the latest on the global warming theory. Is someone trying to cram something down educators throats?
What hit home more than anything in any of my reading was another quote from the blog that stated "... Never rely totally on any one method, but try to vary them. If a student does not seem to be learning, consider whether his/her learning style might be at odds with your teaching style. Remain flexible and be able to change planned learning activities if students are having trouble in a given area.”
That makes more sense than anything i have read so far! Be flexable.
http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/fall99/DiffStrokes.pdf
Now that we have gotten that taken care of.....
So, I am hoping, from my last post, we have figured out there are people who are just not ready to go to school. I know when i was 18 and fresh out of high school, I had one thing.....no, two things on my mind. Beer and girls. Maybe not in that order, but they were definitely running neck and neck. If I would have went to college or tech school right out of high school, there would be no way I would have made it. You have to want it. You have to be disciplined enough to make it all work.
Now that we have decided what we want, and have decided on education, we need to find out what kind of a learner we are. Visual, auditory or kinesthetic. Visual means just that. We learn better when we see something. We may need to watch someone put something together, or see a video on the subject. They are good at remembering direction they read. Auditory, again, is just that. They learn best by listening to what is being said or happening at the time. They are very good at remembering what they hear. Kinesthetic is someone who can look at it and figure it out. They are very good at putting things together without looking at directions. Hands on is what we will call these people.
I am a combination of kinesthetic and visual. I, like most men, think they find anything and do anything without asking our using directions. I read directions and do not have many problems following them, but usually it is after all else has failed. Occasionally I will begin to read the directions, then jump head first into the project, and have to come back to the directions again at a later time. There are several different ways of determining your learning style, and I would suggest using a simple survey found by googling "learning style inventory questionnaire"
http://people.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/learning-style/
Now that we have decided what we want, and have decided on education, we need to find out what kind of a learner we are. Visual, auditory or kinesthetic. Visual means just that. We learn better when we see something. We may need to watch someone put something together, or see a video on the subject. They are good at remembering direction they read. Auditory, again, is just that. They learn best by listening to what is being said or happening at the time. They are very good at remembering what they hear. Kinesthetic is someone who can look at it and figure it out. They are very good at putting things together without looking at directions. Hands on is what we will call these people.
I am a combination of kinesthetic and visual. I, like most men, think they find anything and do anything without asking our using directions. I read directions and do not have many problems following them, but usually it is after all else has failed. Occasionally I will begin to read the directions, then jump head first into the project, and have to come back to the directions again at a later time. There are several different ways of determining your learning style, and I would suggest using a simple survey found by googling "learning style inventory questionnaire"
http://people.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/learning-style/
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Hello fellow classmates and who ever has an interest in learning theories. This is the first time I have ever created a blog. I normally use the net for checking the scores, seeing how what is now with the Colts, checking the weather or news, and maybe a little, and i emphasize little, shopping so please bear with me.
I teach Heating and Cooling at Southeast Technical Institute in Sioux Falls South Dakota. For more information on my school, please visit http://www.southeattech.edu/
Post secondary education should be a choice for a student and that student has hopefully done some initial investigations into a certain career. Parents seem to want to get into the mix of things and, God bless them, think they need to push their little Johnny into a certain or school. I have had to deal with several students who have parents that throw a pamphlet at their pride and joy and tell them to pick out a career because you are going to school.
Many of these students are fresh out of high school and have never been away from home or had to go out into the real world and discover what real work really is.
A person has to want to learn and has to want to go to school to succeed. To often parents want to continue their parenting into the students adult years. Its time to let little Johnny go and let little Johnny decide what they want in life. Maybe it will take a year or two, maybe five or 10, but they will decide. Let them go out and pour some concrete, or drive a dump truck. Let them figure out that $10 an hour is not going to make the house payments. It may make his beverage payments for some time, but eventually it will get old to the kid. Maybe your kid is ready for school. Maybe your kid is mature enough to really know what they want. If they are, that is wonderful, but if not, please do us in education, and your kid a favor. Let them decide when and where they want to go to school. Let them decide when they want to learn and how much they want. Pushing them is setting them up for failure. THEY have to want to learn.
One more thing. Sending kids to a tech school or a vo-tech is not an alternative anymore for those kids who are not "college material". Tech schools can be and often times are as challenging or more even than colleges or universities. The days of repairing cars by what sound they are making or charging air conditioners by feeling the refrigerant lines are over. Its a technical world.
I teach Heating and Cooling at Southeast Technical Institute in Sioux Falls South Dakota. For more information on my school, please visit http://www.southeattech.edu/
Post secondary education should be a choice for a student and that student has hopefully done some initial investigations into a certain career. Parents seem to want to get into the mix of things and, God bless them, think they need to push their little Johnny into a certain or school. I have had to deal with several students who have parents that throw a pamphlet at their pride and joy and tell them to pick out a career because you are going to school.
Many of these students are fresh out of high school and have never been away from home or had to go out into the real world and discover what real work really is.
A person has to want to learn and has to want to go to school to succeed. To often parents want to continue their parenting into the students adult years. Its time to let little Johnny go and let little Johnny decide what they want in life. Maybe it will take a year or two, maybe five or 10, but they will decide. Let them go out and pour some concrete, or drive a dump truck. Let them figure out that $10 an hour is not going to make the house payments. It may make his beverage payments for some time, but eventually it will get old to the kid. Maybe your kid is ready for school. Maybe your kid is mature enough to really know what they want. If they are, that is wonderful, but if not, please do us in education, and your kid a favor. Let them decide when and where they want to go to school. Let them decide when they want to learn and how much they want. Pushing them is setting them up for failure. THEY have to want to learn.
One more thing. Sending kids to a tech school or a vo-tech is not an alternative anymore for those kids who are not "college material". Tech schools can be and often times are as challenging or more even than colleges or universities. The days of repairing cars by what sound they are making or charging air conditioners by feeling the refrigerant lines are over. Its a technical world.
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