Models of Learning & Teaching Styles

A student's learning style may be defined in large part by the answers to five questions:

1) What type of information does the student preferentially perceive: sensory (external)-sights, sounds, physical sensations, or intuitive (internal)-possibilities, insights, hunches?

2) Through which sensory channel is external information most effectively perceived: visual -pictures, diagrams, graphs, demonstrations, or auditory -words, sounds? (Other sensory channels-touch, taste, and smell-are relatively unimportant in most educational environments and will not be considered here.)

3) With which organization of information is the student most comfortable: inductive -facts and observations are given, underlying principles are inferred, or deductive -principles are given, consequences and applications are deduced?

4) How does the student prefer to process information: actively -through engagement in physical activity or discussion, or reflectively -through introspection?

5) How does the student progress toward understanding: sequentially -in continual steps, or globally -in large jumps, holistically?

Teaching style may also be defined in terms by the answers to five questions:

1) What type of information is emphasized by the instructor: concrete -factual, or abstract -conceptual, theoretical?

2)What mode of presentation is stressed: visual -pictures, diagrams, films, demonstrations, or verbal -lectures, readings, discussions?

3) How is the presentation organized: inductively -phenomena leading to principles, or deductively -principles leading to phenomena?

4) What mode of student participation is facilitated by the presentation: active -students talk, move, reflect, or passive -students watch and listen?

5) What type of perspective is provided on the information presented: sequential -step-by-step progression (the tree), or global -context and relevance (the forest)?

Dimensions of Learning and Teaching Styles

Preferred Learning Style

 

Corresponding Teaching Style

Sensory perception

Intuitive

Visual input

Auditory

Inductive Organisation

Deductive

Active Processing

Reflective

Sequential Understanding

Global

concrete content

abstract

Visual Presentation

Verbal

Inductive Organisation

Deductive

Active Student

Passive Participation

Sequential Perspective

Global

Russell Conwell Center

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