Adapting Teaching Styles to Learning Styles

All people perceive and process information differently. As students progress through their years in school, they are able to discover what methods allow them to retain the most information. The key to learning is not simply repetition, but being able to understand a concept. That is how a student can be sure that he or she has truly learned something. Teachers must be able to accommodate their students by tailoring their methods of teaching and materials. Different teaching styles obviously suit different learning styles, and no one teaching style can be effective for all learning styles. Because of this, teachers must be flexible in their methods. A major problem in education teachers have a hard time going outside of their comfort zones, so they are not prepared to try different teaching methods. Teachers must be sure that they are comfortable experimenting with different teaching styles in order to instruct an effective lesson in which all students learn.

The three main learning styles are visual learning, auditory learning, and kinesthetic learning. Visual learning involves using sight to perceive information better than any of the other senses. Body language, gestures, and expressions of the teacher are often centers of focus for visual learners. It is also common for visual learners to focus on the material being presented. Visual learners tend to have success learning through picture association and recognition. Visual learners absorb information by taking detailed notes, making charts, maps, looking at photographs, working with hand outs, and other types of visual aids. These types of learners typically are thorough readers as well. As long as information can be perceived through sight, visual learners will have an easie...

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...ng methods to be sure that my students have a firm understanding of linguistics. The best way to learn a language is by using it in conversation, so an auditory style would work best for these subject areas. As for social studies, art, and computers, visual learning techniques can be very effective. Maps, pictures, and diagrams are all helpful in different ways for each respective subject area.

Teaching styles must be flexible and adaptable in order to accommodate the learning styles of students. I believe that teachers have a hard time going outside of their comfort zones, so they are not prepared to try different teaching methods, which is a major problem in education. People who decide to enter the teaching career must be aware that not every student learns in the same way, and that one teaching style cannot accommodate the needs and interests of all students.