Fitting Learning Theory and Learning Style Pieces Together: My Views

Learning Theory & Styles Questions to Consider

• Now that you have a deeper understanding of the different learning theories and learning styles, how has your view on how you learn changed?

• What have you learned about the various learning theories and learning styles over the past weeks that can further explain your own personal learning preferences?

• What role does technology play in your learning (i.e., as a way to search for information, to record information, to create, etc.)?

The above questions were taken from my course at Walden University.  EDUC-6115-5 Learning Theories Instruction.

Image borrowed from: http://www.ccsf.edu/content/ccsf/en/about-city-college/slo/professional_development/learning_styles/_jcr_content/contentparsys/imagebanner/image.img.jpg/1360704177544.jpg

When I first started this course almost 8 weeks ago, I had theories and styles a bit confused, and it was all overwhelming.  I felt intimidated and could not believe that people could be stuck in one learning style or theory of learning.  Since sharing discussions on the forums and reading a vast amount of material on the Internet, and in books, I feel a lot more comfortable with how people, including myself learn.  

Since I am currently teaching I am working on adapting this to the needs of my students.  I have always wanted to help the ones who struggle with Sciences, History, and Math.  It is frustrating to see the ones who actually do study get poor testing grades.   That has been one of my areas of silent protest with the way I have to grade my students where I work. They can tell me what they read, and what they understand.  We can even have an interesting discussion about revolutions in France, Russia, and China, and of course compare it to the USA's revolution from England and the Civil War.  However something happens from the time they leave me, to the time they sit down to take the test.  All our tests are taken on computers in a designated room.

Some how it is difficult to get several of my students to think out of the box when it comes to studying.  I have always thought out of the box when it comes to studying.  I have made up songs, rhymes, associated a variety of things to remember a concept.  I will have to continue to explore ways to break through to my students that it is ok, to picture a paper clip and have it remind you of the Battle of Trafalgar.

Personally, I know that I need absolute quiet when I am reading, writing, or studying.  I know I need a lot of breaks to get up and walk around, unless I am totally into writing, then nothing can stop me.  Sort of how I am now.  I am too much of a rebel to go with the Behaviourist Theory of learning for myself, but can see how it applies to others.  I also have a friend who teaches Special Education for the county, and has very low learners.  She spends a lot of time with repetition, over and over.  She excels at Paper Plate Art.  Her photos are extraordinary.  The art is all with a purpose to associate drawings that students make of animals or objects that relate to words, pronunciation, letters, and spelling.

I learn by my discussions with her.  Perhaps is she can teach very low learners this way, I can adapt it to my high school students.  Perhaps by making fun out of something I run away from learning, I, too, can achieve mastery.  There are still things that I tend to want to run away from as far as my own learning.

I have looked at the way this course was designed and it had/has a very good sequence of learning to it.  I can see that we started from what we knew with the first week's discussion. The topic was about learning theories, but most of us wrote about our learning styles.  We all started in a comfort zone of what we knew, with a bit of learning theory introduction in the reading.  

I learn a lot by the social aspect of reading what others in the class have written, and responding to them.  Sometimes they use a reference that I feel I have missed so I can go reread the article, to see how I missed it.  The social interaction and sharing is very important to me.  Sometimes I feel that I am off track when my discussion posts seem to get lost in the sea of other discussion posts, but by taking time to read and respond to as many as I can, I gain valuable information, and see that several of my peers think very similar to how I think. That is reassuring.

I would be lost without technology.  I can chunk my learning into smaller bits and pieces by reading articles and then get more clarification by searching keywords to see what others have written about the topic.  It is great when I see at least 3 blogs mention the authors we are studying in our course work.  I am fortunate to have web access on my campus so that I can use a tablet during breaks to access Walden University, or google documents to work on my assignments, or read discussion postings.

I discuss with peers at work when I come up with great ideas to help our students that I have due to a discussion board posting, or a web based search, or course reading.  By sharing what I have learned it reinforces what I have learned.  Teaching is an excellent way to learn.

Image taken from:

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