“What is your learning style?” is a question that you or your child might have heard at one time in your lives, but is their any credence to this theory? More importantly, is there any practical advantage to understanding how one learns? If you have ever asked yourself that question, than you have already demonstrated the importance of learning styles.
There are many models for the styles in which people learn, almost as many models as there are researchers that study and develop them, which is a testament to the different ways that even scientists take in and synthesize information. Needless to say, however many styles and mixed styles really exist, the fact remains that an individual might learn a particular subject using any combination of preferred senses (i.e. sight, hearing, touch, etc.), and it is useful to know one’s strengths and weaknesses especially in the area of learning. Through the understanding of how you or your student best learns a particular subject, you will be able to master the said subject most effectively, and that is the crux of the whole issue.
However, there is another aspect that undoubtedly impacts learning on a whole, regardless of one’s learning styles, and that is motivation, or as Chris J. Jackson’s learning model suggests is Conscientious Achievement. An individual may be motivated for a host of reasons to learn and master a particular topic of interest. In this case, that person will employ all of their senses, augmenting whichever ones are expedient to grasp the topic at hand. That is not to say that the person does not find it difficult to utilize an underutilized medium. For example, the self-taught mechanic is forced to pour over books when the he or she is accustomed to figuring out a mechanical problem using his or her hands. Or in an opposite scenario, the book learned person must fix something mechanical without utilizing the textual resources he or she customarily uses. In both scenarios, each learner is motivated to learn how to fix a mechanical problem, and each is forced to use his or her senses to a different than he’s used to for the solution.
If you thoroughly study the topic, you will find researchers, who oppose a purely biologically driven sensory learning “style” and you will also find those, who oppose the notion that learning style is a purely constructed idea, meaning society and environment form one’s preference. These hypotheses oppose each other, and yet there is great evidence for both arguments. That can only mean that to varying degrees, they are both correct.
A person is both biologically influenced by his/her genes and externally influenced by his/her environment. That counts for a person’s learning process as well. For educators this means that they must pay attention to both a pupil’s learning styles and to this aspect of motivation. Like all human processes, whether physiological or psychological, they are interdependent, and so supporting one part of the learning process supports the other parts. An instructor must foster a motivating atmosphere and also recognize/support a pupil’s preferred mode of learning. The combination of the two is dynamic! Although this isn’t a sure-fire formula to impose on students, we have seen pleasing results among our students when our tutors use this balanced approach.
Would you like your student to experience dynamic learning in his/her academic area of need? Call the LP Learning Center and give your student a unique learning opportunity today.