Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences

Adaptando suas aulas pelo melhor aprendizagem

Inglês Teacher Training Geral Learning Styles

Ask yourself,

In which way do you learn the best? Do you know how each of your students learn? Do you know how to maximize your students capacity to learn? Do you adapt your classes for each of your students?

If the answer is NO to any of the above questions, you could be doing more help your students reach their goals and meet their necessities faster. You yourself can also benefit your own learning if you are able to identify the way in which you learn best. Let's get started. Everyone responds to a variety of different stimuli: photos, music, graphics, movement, sound, videos, puzzles and the list goes on and on. Everyone has the capacity to learn in each of these manners, however, for each person there is always one which allows an individual learn more than another form. Essentially, there are three basic learning styles: Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic. To simplify the idea of Using Neuro-lingustic programming, each student responds better to one of these methods of learning more than the others. Adapting your classes to your students learning style will benefit them greatly. Generalizing a little for the sake of space, over the past 12 years in the classroom, I have identified that even individuals in certain professions have a tendency to have the same learning styles. Engineers in my experience tend to be more kinaesthetic learners where they tend to learn better by movement: rearranging something with their hands, rolling dice etc. Touch is directly linked to the creation of synapses in the brain. Others benefit from visual stimuli such as those who work in Marketing and advertising. For these students, photos, graphics and videos can be utilized to maximize their learning. Personally, I am an auditory learner and respond well to things I hear. Those who work in arts in general or languages tend to benefit more from this learning style. Music, sound, lectures and explanations are utilized to stimulate auditory learners. Again these are general examples and of course not every individual in these areas will learn in this manner, however, in my experience, a larfe majority do.

Beyond understanding the concept of learning styles, we also need to consider the idea of multiple intelligences. The idea of multiple intelligences is that as adults we all have a certain level and capacity for different subjects and disciplines: Mathematics, language, music, architecture, mechanics etc. Many times, the way in which we learn one subject using one learning style is not the same for another subject. A personal example for me, I have a natural capacity and gift for music. I can listen to a song or piece of music and reproduce it on a variety of instruments by listening. Many people say that music is mathematics. I believe mathematics is one of my weakest subjects. You can try to lecture and explain mathematical concepts until I turn blue in the face and I will not understand until I sit down and physically put pen to paper and work out the formulas and calculations. The same is for each of your students. In terms of language acquisition, find the form in which each of your students learns the best and then start to adapt the classes for their individual learning style for languages. Their development will be faster, and they will learn the content more profoundly. This will make you a better teacher and you can bet that recommendations from your students for you as teacher will folllow.