Knight: Using Activities to Address Various Learning Styles

Using Activities to Address Various Learning Styles

Jenny Knight

Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

University of Colorado - Boulder

Keywords: learning styles, learning preferences, group work, concept maps

Abstract: Jenny Knight has developed a student-centered classroom in which she uses a variety of teaching methods and activities to reach students across an array of learning style preferences. Knight talks about the evolution of her course from a more traditional, lecture-centered classroom to a classroom where students needs are central.

Storyline: Jenny Knight packs her course full of lectures and activities that meet the needs of a variety of learning styles. Her goal: to provide every student with the opportunity to learn in their preferred learning style for portions of the class while also challenging them to grow and stretch by requiring that they learn in a variety of styles.

Knight's course didn't start out using diverse techniques; it was an evolutionary process. In fact, when Knight began teaching she relied on the traditional method of lecturing to note-taking students. Over the course of a couple of semesters, during which she continually reworked standard lectures, she found there were aspects of the course where her lectures were, largely, ineffective at conveying course content to her students. She sought help from colleagues at the University of Colorado-Boulder's renowned Physics Education Program. And, has since implemented new components throughout her course, substituting activities and experiences for lecture components where possible. Knight has intentionally developed these activities to address a wider variety of learning style preferences.

"Students come into class with a learning preference [or style]," says Knight. "Knowing this, I stepped back and examined what learning preferences my lectures were teaching to [often, auditory] and, then, I developed activities to meet the needs of students with other learning preferences," such as visual or kinesthetic learners. "My class is now student-centered instead of instructor-centered." That is, Knight no longer teaches in the style that is most comfortable for her; rather, she tries to teach in ways that meet her students' needs.

Meeting students' needs, however, requires that an instructor know what the students need. Knight finds out by asking the students. She schedules interviews with students to talk with them about what aspects of class work well for them and in which areas they are struggling. Using data from these interviews, Knight is able to adapt her course content to meet the wide array of student preferences and needs.

Knight now calls her classroom "non-traditional." She gives very short lectures. She employs clickers to engage students during lecture and in subsequent activities. Small group work is central to her courses. She has her students work with concept maps to see links across course material. And, when it comes to assessment her students choose, from several options, how they would like to convey what they've learned.

Knight finds that it's important to talk with her students at the beginning of the semester about how her class differs from most of their other courses. Even though she has adapted her course to meet the needs of her students, they may be reticent to break out of the more traditional learning modes they've been socialized into. To convince them that active participation will increase their learning, Knight is explicit about her learning goals for the class and how each activity and assessment contributes to that goal.

Changing an entire course can feel overwhelming but thinking about the every course as an evolutionary process instead of static pieces of content can help to ease the burden.

Commentary: By teaching to different learning styles, Jenny Knight connects with her diverse student population. Nearly every student has the opportunity to be an expert learner during some aspects of the course and nearly every student is in the position of a novice or disadvantaged learning during other aspects of the course. Because group work plays an important role in the course, Knight's students-whether than are in the expert or novice position on a given day-have the opportunity to help each other learn the material. In these instances, learning-through-diversity happens among students.

Recommendations for Adaptation:
1) Learn about learning styles. There are a variety of inventories and catalogs that have been developed. Find one that works for you and consider mapping your course activities so that they cover a variety of the identified styles. For a list of learning style inventories and theories see the Background Literature Section.
2) In order to build a student-centered classroom, instructors must have a clear idea of their own learning preferences and challenge themselves to research, imagine, and even try new ways of learning.
3) Recognize that a student-centered classroom that prioritizes activities over lecture is very different than a traditional, lecture course. Often activities that allow students to discover information on their own take longer than lectures that tell students the same information, which means that instructors who are considering this shift need to be willing to give up some of time spent in lecture and to adapt or omit some of the course content.
4) Start small. Choose one or two units and incorporate new activities into that section of the course. Each semester, consider adding a few new elements to your course.

Things to Consider:
1) Spend time at the beginning to bring students on board. Both instructors and students may be uncomfortable with this classroom style. Therefore, you should be explicit and intentional about talking to students about the new methods you're trying in class. Some students function well in the traditional classroom; others do not. Yet, almost all of the students have been socialized into (and have adapted to) lecture-focused forms of instruction. It is important to help students understand the reasons that you have organized the class in an alternative way.
2) The first time you attempt to make changes, your methods and materials are likely to have some weak points. Consider collecting data that helps you assess what students are learning and what they are not learning. Also, collect data about how satisfied your students are with the new approach. Done correctly these evaluations can helps students to see that they are part of the research process.

Background Literature:
About Learning Styles and Preferences:
Baron, R. (1998). What Type Am I: The Myers-Brigg Type Indication Made Easy. New York: Penguin.

Fleming, N. (2001). Teaching and Learning Styles: VARK Strategies. Neil D. Fleming Publications.

Gardner, H. (2006). Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice. New York: Basic.

Honey, P. and A. Mumford. (2000). The Learning Styles Helper's Guide. Peter Honey Publications.

Kolb, A.Y. and D.A. Kolb. (2005). "The Kolb Learning Style Inventory-Version 3.1" available at http://www.learningfromexperience.com/images/uploads/Tech_spec_LSI.pdf

Other relevant Background Literature:

Anderson, J.A. and M. Adams. (1992). "Acknowledging the learning styles of diverse student populations: Implications for instructional design." New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 1992:49, 19-33.

Stafford Dunn, R. and S.A. Griggs. (2000). Practical Approaches to Using Learning Styles in Higher Education. Greenwood.

Attachment:
Sample syllabus - activity sample