Accomodating Various Learning Styles in the Classroom

"Good teachers never teach anything. What they do is create the conditions under which learning takes place."
~B.I. Hayakawa

One of the most important aspects of being a teacher is being a caring leader who understands the needs and differences of how each child learns. There are various ways in which we absorb and process information and it all depends on how our brain's are organized and how we interact with the environment. Some of us are right brained dominant and are visually and spatially oriented as well as more wholistic in our thinking while some of us are left brained dominant and are more analytical in our orientation, being generally logical, concrete and sequential. Some of us are more people-oriented, and work best in groups preferring subjects such as history and english, while some of us prefer to work alone being interested in problem-solving and instructional approaches, and like subjects such as science or math.

There are many different theories and models of learning styles present, the most popular one's being: Dunn & Dunn's Model, Kolb's Experiential Model, VAK's Model, Carl Jung's Model, Myers-Briggs Model, Felder-Silverman's Model, Gregorc's Model. (See links on the right-hand side of blog for more details on these models). It is important for teacher's to incorporate a wide variety of learning style models and theories such as these in the classroom, in order to enhance and stabilize equal learning opportunities for all students.