Because students learn in different manners, SCHS students believe teachers must investigate various learning methods or strategies in order to create a classroom setting that is beneficial for everyone.
The Wilfrid Laurier University described learning styles as different methods of learning or a way of understanding information through how a person expresses and remembers information. One’s learning style can change over time, but being able to use the most effective strategy will be the most beneficial. Additionally, one can be a multimodal learner, in which two or more near-equally predominant learning preferences are portrayed.
Recently, evidence has suggested that it is a myth believed by many individuals that learning styles are set at birth and therefore can predict academic success for the future. A study by Shaylene Nancekivell from the University of Michigan, however, found that 90% of the 668 participants in the study believed that using a predominant learning style is highly effective for students.
Researchers suggest that many educators have ignored the existence of learning styles in their curriculum and have continuously taught a classroom of diverse individuals through the same strategy instead of adjusting for different learning styles. Parents can spend time and money providing resources for their children that are directed toward one specific learning style. Ultimately, this might not be the most effective since children must grow up with the best practices for them. There are four main learning styles: visual, auditory, reading or writing, and kinesthetic.
Visual learning allows for students to recall information with images rather than remembering with words. It can be difficult to keep up with long lectures and stay focused without having visual components to enhance one’s learning capabilities.
Auditory learners learn best from reading text out loud and lectures, as well as having engaging group discussions with other peers. Learners that use reading and writing are able to effectively learn from physical or digital texts, which enables students to utilize resources such as notes and textbooks.
Kinesthetic learners are able to learn through doing, using all senses of sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing. Being able to have hands-on activities is essential to having higher recall.
At SCHS, the implementation of learning styles, strategies and techniques is an active forethought for many teachers.
Hannah Blue, English teacher and Yearbook advisor is an advocate for students having constant discussion. She believes that with distance learning, teachers were not able to effectively teach their students because of the lack of in-person interactions. Students were not able to build their confidence as they did not have enough exposure to language with their peers, which was not an effective strategy for every student. Blue implemented more discussion opportunities in her classroom, such as giving feedback and sharing writing with other students.
“We read it out loud to our group because our ears and our mouths are more tuned to language than our eyes are,” Blue said. “It gives you the chance to kind of see what works and what doesn’t, in a lower-stakes environment, and you can get feedback from other people.”
In addition to supporting classroom discussions, Blue decided to apply ungraded writing practices in her curriculum, where she received positive feedback from students that they were given the freedom to respond to prompts based on what they were thinking. Using this technique has allowed students to base their grades on their improvement rather than completion.
“I obviously want students to have to get good grades, but what’s going to be more valuable is students finding intrinsic motivation, or to think about their learning and to set those next steps,” Blue said. “Ultimately, they’re going to learn more when they are aware and thinking about their thinking.”
One of the components Blue mentioned was about constantly practicing, as a lot of reading, writing and speaking skills are the core of English. Sophomore Ninya Udinoor depends on visual and audio learning, often completing practice problems to comprehend the content and flashcards for active recall. Udinoor has developed effective ways of studying for her classes.
“Revising every day, instead of just leaving everything to study until the day before the test. I usually, especially with chemistry, go home and go over everything that I did in class that day so that I can remember it,” Udinoor said.
Udinoor reflected on what strategies she used in the past, which were not as effective to help her absorb the content she was learning. Learning along the way, she focused on what she needed to improve in order to improve her study skills.
“I used to do Cornell notes, or I used to rewrite notes that I already wrote. I realized that I’m memorizing things instead of comprehending it, which is something I need to work on,” Udinoor said. “I used to like memorizing instead of comprehending, which was not as good because it wasn’t as effective as comprehending what you’re learning.”
Many feel an important aspect of being able to create effective learning strategies is to manage one’s time wisely. Blue highlighted how many students struggle with time management. She recommends her students to look at the agenda and use it to plan out their workload.
“I try really hard not to give homework. If I think that there’s not going to be a reasonable amount of time to finish something in class, I will say you have until the end of the day because some students learn at different paces,” Blue said.
Students all have different ways of learning and are inclined to be more effective with different strategies. Blue believes that it is important for teachers to make their lesson plans with this in mind and take the different kinds of learners into consideration.
“I think that there are some skills that are coming out of it that really will make them more successful in the long run,” Blue said. “All teachers are typically trying to think, ‘How can I support all of my students in all that, different modes of learning, multimodal learning, using different types of assessments?’”