So I have been doing some reading and come up with this summary afterwards.
It's about the "The Seven Learning Styles" with its reference at the bottom.
The topic that I am going to cover was an interesting to cover as part of my learning. The topic comes to mind when I tutored one of the kids in my place. This kid is difficult to teach and learn on my teaching style which I do it through verbal teaching and some visual materials. As days passed, I change my style of teaching but still he cannot cope with what I am teaching so I decided to do some research to be able to give his learning needs. Schools generally use linguistic or logical learning styles, but other styles may be more effective for some learners.
When students are not performing as well as they could be, it is likely they just need to be taught in a different way. It is important to remember; diversity is not exclusively about qualities, beliefs and faith, it can also determine how we best learn new skills.
Some people learn through movements and hands-on activities, while some need visual information to fully understand a concept. A successful teacher is the one who does not only disseminate knowledge and encourage learning but can also identify the learning styles of students and tend to each one of them.
The idea of individualized learning styles started in the 1970s and since then has greatly influenced education. Neil Fleming’s VARK model is one of the common and widely used frameworks today. Fleming’s learning styles are categorized into visual, auditory, reading-writing and kinesthetic. To expand my knowledge about teaching I dig more on Howard Gardner's Seven Learning Styles.
First in line was the Visual (Spatial) learning style where visually students learn easily and comfortably. In this kind of learning, students draw and learn by seeing or using their sight.
Knowledge or concept maps use visual symbols as a way to express knowledge, concepts, thoughts or ideas, and the relationships between them. These are a great tool for visual or spatial learners as student can draw connections or use colour coding to group ideas.
By representing information spatially and with images, students are able to focus on meaning, reorganize and group similar ideas easily, and utilize their visual memory to learn. Visual learners often pursue careers such as architecture, engineering, project management, or design.
Second learning style is what we called Aural (Auditory-Musical). In here, people or students learn through music or by listening.
If someone tell a student something out loud and understand it, this student is an auditory learner. Students depend on hearing the information to fully understand it, rather than just reading it from a book. Group discussions are a great way for auditory learners to grasp new ideas.
Auditory learners have the aptitude to notice audible signals like changes in tone, or pitch to name a few. For example, when memorizing a phone number, an auditory learner will say it out loud first and take note of how it sounded to remember it. Aural learners often pursue careers such as musician, recording engineer, speech pathologist, or language teacher.
We have here the third learning style, Verbal (Linguistic). People or students learn words and writing.
People who find it easier to express themselves by writing or speaking can be regarded as a verbal learner. Students love to write and read. People like to play on the meaning or sound of words such as tongue twisters, rhymes and so on. Students are familiar with the definitions of many words and regularly make an effort to learn more meanings of new words.
Techniques used by verbal learners involve mnemonics, scripting, role playing and anything that involves both speaking and writing. Verbal learners often pursue public speaking, writing, administration, journalism or politics.
The fourth one is what we called Physical (Kinesthetic) learning style. Usually, students are physically hands-on learners.
In this style, learning happens when the learner carries out a physical activity, rather than listening to a lecture or watching a demonstration. Those who have a preference for kinesthetic learning are called ‘doers’ and much prefer hands on learning. Kinesthetic learners make up about five percent of the population.
Kinesthetic learners are often interested in careers such as emergency services, safety representative, physical education, or entertainment (such as acting or dance).
The fifth learning style is Logical (Mathematical) learning style. Students are great when it comes to numbers or math problems.
When students like using their brain for logical and mathematical reasoning, that person is a logical learner. They can easily recognize patterns, and can connect seemingly meaningless concepts easily. Logical learners often lean towards classifying and grouping information to help them further understand it.
People excel in numbers and are fine with doing complex calculations such as basic trigonometry off the top of their head. Logical learners could pursue careers in fields such as scientific research, accountancy, bookkeeping or computer programming.
Next in line is Social (Interpersonal) learning style. People tend to learn through social or social interaction.
Other learners prefer social or interpersonal learning. If the student is at best in socializing and communicating with people, both verbally and non-verbally, then that student is a social learner.
People often come to listen and ask for advice. They do because of the apparent sensitivity they have to their feelings, moods and even motivations. They listen well and empathize with what others are thinking and going through.
Social learners may pursue counseling, teaching, training and coaching, sales, politics, and human resources among others.
Last but not the least from this reference is Solitary (Intrapersonal) learning style. Students prefer to work alone.
Students have a solitary style if they are more private, independent and introspective. Their concentration is at its best when they focus on their thoughts and feelings without the distraction of others.
Authors and researchers often have a strong solitary learning style. However, having a good solitary grounding is evident for many top performers in a range of fields. Being able to learn introspectively works well with some of the more dominant learning style discussed above.
After learning these different kind of learning style I realized that I should not depend on one teaching style and I should keep observing the needs of every students in order for me to give them the right teaching style for them to learn.
I also realized that the child that I am tutoring was a social learner. Even if I do my best to teach him the ABC's he cannot learn it by just reading, although he know how to say them but cannot read them by seeing. If I show him the words or numbers, his eyes was exploring somewhere and just follow me on what I am saying. It really pissed me of but I regretted it later.
Now that I learned these learning styles once again, I can say that it was effective to study again and again on what I already learned from the past.
Reference:
https://www.inspireeducation.net.au/blog/the-seven-learning-styles/