In education, capturing the attention and interest of as many students as possible is key to ensuring everyone understands lesson content. If you have an online Ed.D. in higher education or similar teaching qualification then you’ll know the three primary learning styles – visual, auditory, and kinesthetic – all require different teaching techniques and approaches to engage students effectively. This article will explore a few different teaching techniques catered to each learning style, ensuring that students have the best opportunity possible to engage in classroom content.
Before really getting into specific strategies, though, it’s worth mentioning that teaching styles in general should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s important to ensure that the diverse backgrounds and thinking patterns of students in a classroom are considered. This can be done through using multimodal strategies as will be discussed later in the article. However, surveying what students believe to be their learning style and catering lessons for this as a result doesn’t always lead to the best learning outcomes. Remember, the style that will suit students best understands where they’re coming from and engages with it.
Visual Learners
As the name suggests, visual learners absorb information through seeing. Visual representations such as diagrams, charts, and written instructions are all great examples of things that work for these students. According to the American Psychological Association, visual learners make up around 65% of the American population, which emphasizes the need for visual aids in teaching strategies.
Strategies
1. Making it Visual Through Diagrams and Charts: Incorporating diagrams, charts, and graphs can help students understand complex information and identify patterns more easily, especially in number-heavy STEM subjects. Using a variety of charts, like pie charts, can explain processes and enhance understanding for visual learners.
2. Color Coding: This is a great one that’s easy to implement. Using color coding in notes and instructions can help visual learners differentiate information and help break up lessons into easy-to-recognize segments.
3. Visual Schedules and Organizers: Talk to your admin about this one. Visual schedules are a roadmap for the day, so putting one at the front of your classroom can help remind students what’s coming and what they’ve already learned.
Auditory Learners
These learners excel when information can be heard. They thrive in environments where they can listen to explanations, discuss content with their peers, and receive verbal feedback.
Strategies
1. Read-Aloud Activities: Particularly useful in subjects like English, incorporating read-aloud sessions can help auditory learners process and retain information more effectively. Additionally, it has the added bonus of improving public speaking if the students themselves are tasked with reading aloud.
2. Audio Recordings: Recording parts of a lesson may seem like a strange exercise, but when included with the slides used or a picture of the whiteboard in a lesson, it can be invaluable to auditory learners who may need to remember parts of instruction or assessment.
3. Lectures and Discussions: Make your classroom a dialogic space and ensure that there’s always (relevant) discussion taking place. While lecturing is a useful component of any teacher’s toolbox, you don’t want to ‘stand and deliver’ for the entire block, make sure you engage students by breaking them up into groups to discuss what they’ve heard with each other. Discussing the content in their own words is often a strong indicator that they have absorbed the information and properly understand it.
Kinesthetic Learners
These students love hands-on activities. They’re able to engage with and understand curriculum content best when physical activities are involved.
Activities
1. Hands-On Activities: As the preamble suggests, this is the most effective strategy for engaging these learners. Incorporating lab experiments, building projects, and other interactive simulations allows these students to engage with the material physically. These activities can help them understand how abstract ideas can be applied to real-world contexts.
2. Interactive Technology: Not every classroom has a budget for a VR headset, but if yours does, then this is the moment to whip it out. Interactive simulations through virtual reality can provide all learners with immersive experiences that promote engagement and retention, especially in subjects like history where you can “step into the past”.
3. Field Trips: You don’t have to be on the Magic School Bus to make a difference with a quick field trip. Connect classroom knowledge with real-world experiences through visiting museums, historical sites, or nature reserves to get some hands-on experience.
Conclusion
Recognizing and adapting to different learning styles in the classroom can be an effective way to engage students, but remember the context of individual student lives and backgrounds. Incorporate assessment and teaching styles that acknowledge and respect their upbringing and allow them the space to share their perspectives in the classroom. Use some of the activities mentioned to assist with this. Implementing these strategies ensures that all learners, regardless of preferred learning style, have the opportunity to succeed and grow academically.
