Learning Styles:
V = Visual
A = Auditory
R = Reading
K = Kinesthetic
P.A.C.T.
Proactive - feeling & doing
Assertive - thinking & doing
Creative - feeling & watching
Theoretical - thinking & watching
Why does it matter to me what my students learning styles are?
Don't fret too much as it doesn't particularly matter... as long as you effectively and efficiently incorporate a range of teaching styles into all your sessions / courses then you ensure that regardless of your students 'preferred' learning style they will all 'learn' from the session you've delivered.
So how are these included in your teaching/instructing?
Much of what we do as instructors already incorporates aspects of each learning style, for example, if you follow the E.D.I.C.T.S. teaching model you will find that you naturally tick most of the requirements:
Explain - Auditory
Demonstrate - Visual
Imitate - Kinesthetic
Correction - Visual / Auditory.
Training - Kinesthetic
Summarise - Auditory
But what happens in a classroom environment, when we are covering theory aspects of the course?
Its all about the way we prepare for our sessions and the teaching aids we have available.
As an example, how about this for a buoyage session:-
- Visual - Show photos, pictures, flash cards and diagrams
- Auditory - Explain and describe the colour schemes, shapes and relevance.
- Reading - Refer to the relevant pages in the manual or issue handouts
- Kinesthetic - Incorporate a game of pictionary and get your students drawing pictures of the buoys, or make up some tactile models of buoys and place them onto the chart in the relevant places.
