Learning styles..

Environmental factors are only part of many components identified as affecting how individuals learn.

Some children love to tell stories, others seem to be constantly asking questions, while still others are always on the move. Some are quiet and prefer to be alone. Some always seem to have at least one project underway.
Numerous factors affect learning, and it is illogical to expect all children to function the same way in the same environments with the same materials and the same instructional methods.
Rather than thinking of these characteristics as idiosyncrasies, think of them as built-in tools for learning.

There are a number of ways to label, or categorize, learning styles. The terms we choose to use are not that important; in fact, like any use of labels, we must be careful not to put a child in a neat cubbyhole and base all of our planning and teaching on that assessment.

What we want to look for are tendencies, preferences, areas of success, and areas of difficulty. Then through trial and error we discover ways to adapt our teaching methods and materials to each child’s style.

No person has totally one style. In fact, some people seem to have strengths and preferences which cut across nearly all styles. But for the child who seems to be particularly difficult to motivate, it pays to try
to identify the predominant learning style and then adapt methods and materials accordingly.

Learning Styles

Style	Learns best by:	Methods & Materials
Visual Learner	Seeing, drawing, visualizing experience approach, computer-assisted instruction	Maps, charts, diagrams, language
Auditory Learner	Hearing, saying, telling	Music, tapes, choral readings, phonics, linguistics, computer with audio
Kinesthetic Learner	Moving, manipulating, touching	Model building, tracing, writing, physical activities, computer with graphics
Analytical Learner	Working from parts to the whole, solving problems, reasoning, likes following directions	Working with abstracts, categorizing, classifying, self-paced instruction
Global Learner	Seeing the whole, working from whole to parts	Whole-word reading integrated subject matter, cooperative project