New Faculty Teaching Newsletter # 20 (February 22, 2007)
Diverse Learning Styles in Your Classroom
When you stand in front of your class ready to begin a lecture, show a film, or maybe ask your students to engage in a small group activity, do you ever wonder if these approaches match how your students learn? As individuals, we all favor particular ways of learning new information. A lecture may appeal to you if you prefer to hear someone talk about new concepts. If you know learning works better for you if there is a visual component then a lecture supported with slides, charts, and images is a better idea.
Knowing the learning preferences or styles of your students does not necessarily mean that you change your whole approach to teaching. It may be more valuable for you as faculty to know your own learning preferences. (When a group of faculty took the VARK questionnaire [see below] in the fall, almost all were surprised that their own preferred learning styles did not match the teaching styles they used.)
Once you begin thinking about learning styles, a simple enhancement you can make to your classes is to vary what you do and what you ask your students to do. Lectures are good: how about lectures with interesting visual aids? Or lectures punctuated by discussions? Written assignments fit well for students who are drawn to that way of learning and demonstrating what they know, but how about occasionally assigning oral reports, group panel discussions, or debates?
There are a variety of ways to help your students assess their personal learning preferences. David A. Kolb's Learning Style Inventory [pdf] looks at the phases of learning; Robert Gagne examines the conditions of learning and suggests that each condition or type of learning be matched with different types of teaching.
An easy-to-administer questionnaire is provided by VARK. VARK stands for four predominate learning styles: Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic. Faculty and students are encouraged to use the online questionnaire; the only request is that you ask for permission and acknowledge that the tool belongs to VARK (see the "using VARK" link). After answering a set of questions you quickly receive feedback that describes your learning style or multiple styles. Help sheets provide more information about learning preferences. If nothing else this kind of information tells learners how they best learn and therefore what learning activities they are most likely to be comfortable with. Take it yourself. It's quick and interesting.
Campus Tour of the week: Mulford Hall
The hallways of the first and second floors of Mulford Hall are lined with boards cut from many species of trees. The boards on the first floor are mainly from the United States and Canada, while those on the second floor are from other parts of the world (primarily Japan, Argentina, and the Philippines).
Most of the specimens from areas outside of the United States and Canada were initially exhibited at the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, and were given to the then Division of Forestry after the exhibition closed. Most of the boards from Canada and the United States were donated by lumber companies or alumni. The exhibit was first located in Hilgard Hall. It was moved to Giannini Hall in April, 1931, and remained there until Mulford Hall was built in 1948.