Learning+Styles

=Learning Styles=

Research
There are many theories/ categories/ approaches about learning styles. You will find conflicting and differing information but that doesn't mean that one is right and one is wrong. In EDU 221, we focus mostly on Gardner's multiple intelligences, but there are other ways to differentiate based on student needs and interests. Below are resources to read or to watch. Some are digital, some are not. Any with an asterisk are required for you to use. Otherwise, select 3 or more to read/view/absorb. Additionally, using appropriate college-level research skills, you must find a resource not on this list that gives you additional insights to this topic. A professional interview with an expert-in-the-field is an appropriate resource. (3 of mine and 1 of yours is the required minimum...feel free to use more resources...see me if you want to substitute some of yours for mine)
 * *You took the puppy/clipboard/microscope/beach ball inventory in Dr. Grace's class. Now take a very different learning styles inventory by Memletics
 * *Read Richard Felder's literature review on the validity of learning styles:
 * [[file:LS_Validity(On-Course).pdf]]
 * from http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/LS_Validity%28On-Course%29.pdf
 * Neil Fleming's group has a model/theory of learning styles. They only have four main modalities: visual, auditory, read/write, kinesthetic (VARK), and multimodal. Look through their [|help sheets] on the various modalities. Notice how the helpsheets actually use the techniques for that modality to explain the modality.
 * The work of [|Roger Sperry started the notions of "right-brained" or "left-brained" thinkers]. If you consider that a learning style, what are the implications of that in your teaching? What are the [|implications for Second Language Learners]?

Reflect
Create a reflection (write/record/document) in your personal digital classroom management kit that captures your reflections on your research. It should be apparent from your documentation that you actually took in information from the 4 sources, i.e. don't just list the book you read or the video you watched, but include some actual information from the resource. In your reflection you can agree and/or disagree with the author/creator(s) of each resource. Include your results from the Memletics Learning Style Inventory.

Resolve -- Proactive
Now that you have this information (which is just the tip of the iceberg) on learning styles, what are you going to do with it? How will you apply it to how you want to manage your classroom? Describe one or more proactive approaches related to learning styles (above and beyond what you're already doing in Dr. Grace's class) that you hope to incorporate into your classroom management.

Resolve -- Reactive
Now that you have this information on this classroom management topic, what are you going to do with it? Even though you have a great proactive approach to dealing with this topic, there will come the day when the unexpected situation will arise in this area. Using the given scenario or creating one of your own, describe one or more reactive approaches you might take. Be sure to document how/why you know this is an effective reactive technique (i.e., cite one or more of your research sources).

Scenario

 * Abraham Lincoln said, “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. How will you keep your sanity while trying to meet all the learning styles for every lesson of every unit? (PS It's an unrealistic expectation to do that so this scenario is asking you to think about how will you keep it real?)
 * You have a great unit with a variety of ways for students to learn and choices for your students to demonstrate their learning. Your unit rocks and you know it. A student (or parent of a student) approaches you to say, "But my dominant intelligence is musical and you have nothing for the musical intelligence, so I'm not going to do this unit."

Hook resources :-) >
 * Nine kinds of students based on Team Fortress: http://matt.might.net/articles/nine-kinds-of-students/
 * Intense war/military music to play in the background: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAzn2tKISWQ