Workshops/How To Work With Families

• Child Focus
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
• Foster Parent Training - Options For Youth
• Inclusion in Schools: Real and Perceived Views of Full Inclusion - Dark Ages? Bright Futures
• Infants and Toddlers in Your Care: How to Nurture 0-3 Year-Olds in Group Care and at Home
• Learning and Teaching Styles
• Preparing Personnel to Work With Parents and Families
• Reducing Stress in the Lives of Young Chlldren
• Sample Forms for Teachers
• Ask Dr. Susan

Learning and Teaching Styles Models of Learning

Felder, R.M., and Silverman, L.K. (1988). Learning and Teaching Styles in Engineering Education. Engr. Education, 78(7), 674-681.

http://www.ncsu.edu/effective_teaching

1. A student’s learning style may be defined in large part by the answers to five questions:  What type of information does the student preferentially perceive; sensory (external) – sights, sounds, physical sensations, or intuitive (internal) – possibilities, insights, hunches?
2. Through which sensory channel is external information most effectively perceived: visual – pictures, diagrams, graphs, demonstrations, or auditory – words, sounds?*
3. With which organization of information is the student most comfortable: inductive – facts and observations are given, underlying principles are given, consequences and applications are deduced?
4. How does the student prefer to process information: actively – through engagement in physical activity or discussions, or reflectively – through introspection?
5. How does the student progress toward understanding: sequentially – in continual steps, or globally – in large jumps, holistically?

Teaching style may also be defined in terms of the answers to five questions:

1. What type of information is emphasized by the instructor: concrete – factual, or abstract – conceptual, theoretical?
2. What mode of presentation is stressed: visual – pictures, diagrams, films, demonstrations, or verbal – lectures, readings, discussions?
3. How is the presentation organized: inductively – phenomena leading to principles, or deductively – principles leading to phenomena?
4. What mode of student participation is facilitated by the presentation: active – students talk, move, reflect, or passive – students watch and listen?
5. What type of perspective is provided on the information presented: sequential – step-by-step progression (the trees), or global – context and relevance (the forest)?

* Other sensory channels – touch, taste, and smell – are relatively unimportant in most educational environments and will not be considered here.

Dimensions of Learning and Teaching Styles