Learning Styles -
using the culture of your subject of your case study :
- Research and list the typical learning styles for that culture.
- Briefly identify and discuss your teaching style based on the information from Chapter 8, our eluminate discussion from last week, and the information in chapter 4.
- How will you adjust your teaching style to meet the needs of your subject? Will you need to adjust your teaching style? Why or Why not?
- Post your information in the comments section of October 11 Task Two and comment on one other posting.
- Remember, you can use this information in your Cultural Case Study!!
The parents of the student in my case study are from Mexico. The student was born in U.S. but most family members in his household, except for himself and middle sister were born in Mexico.
ReplyDelete•Learning styles vary among students in Mexico but generally they like to memorize information since most tests are multiple choices which require memory skills.
•Mexican students prefer a high degree of structure in their classroom, most likely lead by the teacher.
•A global versus analytic approach to solving problems and digesting information is preferred.
•Students are accustomed to working both individually and in groups.
•Mexican students can be described as highly kinesthetic, manipulation of objects or hands on activities are liked.
I would adjust my teaching style by including manipulatives solving math and science problems, keep a well-structured classroom but with the important time set aside for sharing thoughts and knowledge. I would also use movement to facilitate learning like science, reenactments and changing partners to incorporate kinesthetics. I would use small group, individual, and large group teaching opportunities. I would prepare lesson information providing the big picture (global view) first then teaching the small parts during the lesson.
Currently, I do not have an ESOL learner in my classroom but I do teach special education students and make alterations and changes to my lessons as I teach to the individual child. I teach lessons with a repetitive teaching style as rote memory is the first bench mark when learning a new skill for the ASD population. I use many manipulative objects in my classroom, incorporate movement into many activities because imitation is important to teach to the ASD population and I pre-teach and introduce every lesson as transitions and new information are tough for the ASD population as well. So, it seems, I am already teaching parallel to the Mexican students learning style.
I found this activity very informative for me personally
This makes me think of some of my Hispanic students I have had in the past. I do remember now all the memorizing they did. I would work on phonetics, but they just wanted to memorize. As I said to Denise, it is so great to hear teachers trying different styles of teaching. As a special education teacher, you are well aware of this!
DeleteIt was intersting reading what you found. You found more specific information than I found. I have worked with students from Mexico for 15 years in the regular classroom. I find the information about their learning styles interesting and helpful for planning future lessons.
DeleteAs I read this I had visions of one of my first grade ESOL pull-out classes. I am glad for the chance to revisit this information as I get ready to write my lesson plans for next week.
ReplyDeleteTask 2 using the culture of your subject of your case study.
ReplyDeleteVietnamese schools usually have a lecture format. Therefore children sit in their seat and take many notes.
This is mostly due to a lack of textbooks, according to Flaitz (2003, pp. 155-156).
My teaching style is to incorporate different lessons to reach different children. Of course, I like to give rewards
to children for trying, even if their were some mistakes. Students are taught by charts, graphs, as well as by modeling.
They are also given personal awards by a treasure box on Fridays. Zainuddin, Morales-Jones, Yahya, and Whelan Ariza (2011, p. 44),
discussed the different behaviors of teachers.
Noel (2008) mentions the learning senses as visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile. I try to use as many of these
learning senses as possible in my teaching. However, if I find that one of the senses does not work well for my student, I will
change how I am teaching. Sometimes it is necessary to try activities and make changes on the spot.
References
Noel, J. (2008). "Developing Multicultural Educators."
Zainuddin, H., Morales-Jones, C.A., Yahya, N., Whelan Ariza, E. N. (2011). "Fundamentals of Teaching English to Speakers
of Other Languages in K-12 Mainstream Classrooms.
Kuddos to you. It is always great to hear teachers that use different styles in their classroom. I use to teach special ed and found that many teachers just use one method. Then as the students get older, there are less manipulatives used in the classroom.
DeleteUnfortunately, I had very hard time finding information about learning styles for the Bosnian student. Studies have shown that there is a learning style preference in observations of Bosnian students. Although what I was able to find stated that studies showed the most popular learning styles are kinesthetic, tactile, and auditory. Many students find the visual learning style to be negative. The mother of the student for my case study reports that he best learns with tactile and kinesthetic learning. Although the students prefer kinesthetic, tactile, and auditory learning, students in Bosnia express their knowledge more in oral, rather than written, assessments if they can’t be assessed by the previous (Hum, 2009).
ReplyDeleteIf I were to have a Bosnian learner in my class, the biggest change I would need to make would be give the opportunity to have the students take assessments orally. There are times that I am able to do this with students, but it is very difficult for me, especially when I have parents that want the pencil and paper assessment. I do offer great deal of hands on approach with my students, but lack in the area of assessing them that way. Even though I do not have a Bosnian student in my class, I know that all of my students would benefit with me allowing many of them to take a test orally, rather than the paper pencil test.
Hum (Hum), issue: 5 / 2009, pages: 154161, on www.ceeol.com.
It sure would be interesting to have oral assessments in our schools. I know it is not possible because of how big they are. Assessments would be hard to show if they were oral. However, we probably could write comments as they take them to satisfy the parents.
DeleteI have recently used oral assessments with a few of my students. We have been studying life cycles and I wanted to see what they have learned. They were able to tell me so much more detail orally then if they had written it down. I agree that it can be hard to show proof of what they said or how you graded. I just wrote down the key phrases but since they did so well with it, I don't think I will have parent complaints.
DeleteIt seems like with all of the technology we have, we should have programs that allow us to create tests on a computer, the computer could read the test to the student, and if the student needs to respond orally, they could do that hand the computer turn their voice responses into text. That way parents could still have a printable test, and the assessment would be more accessible for the student. For sure this must exist for deaf children.
DeleteI have had several Bosnian students in my class and in my experience they definitely thrived with some Kinisthetic learning. This tends to be the case with most of my students who have learning disabilities.
DeleteI had a Vietnamese student in my class for three years, I teach an ASD Level 2 class and he had the most incredible work ethic of any student I have ever taught. He would work on assignments or art projects until finished and make corrections when needed until completed to both our satisfaction. He would attend instruction and even had a bit of a bossiness when other peers didn't afford me the same attention.
ReplyDeleteThe student from my case study is Japanese. He was born in Japan and lived there until the end of 2011. He finished half of first grade at my school and is now in my second grade class.
ReplyDelete1.) The Japanese learning style focuses mainly on memorization and rote learning. The teacher is the one to give the information and the student is supposed to receive it. Books play a huge role in the education of the Japanese because they lend themselves to memorization. The Japanese are also a highly visual culture. They use a lot of visuals from illustrations to charts and diagrams. My student seems to be a very visual learner. He does well when he has examples to use in class or when I model things for him first. When I was talking to him about school, he told me he prefers to have visuals in class to learn from.
2.) According to Table 8-1 in our text, I have more of a field-independent behavior. I like to work on tasks individually and do not require a lot of help. I do however realize that many of my students are field-sensitive. They need to work with others and get feedback from the teacher. They also need opportunities for modeling and demonstration.
3.) I am also a visual learner so I like to see examples of more difficult concepts. Pictures, charts, and diagrams are also very helpful for me. Since I am a visual learner, I think that I tend to use visuals in my classroom a lot. That is the primary learning strategy I use. I think this does help my student since he is visual as well. I do however believe that I need to use other learning styles and strategies so that he is familiar with them and might possibly find other learning strengths he is not aware of. Through my research I learned that if you stick to one learning style, you are not giving students the chance to stretch their weaker abilities. I have also learned that students that are visual learners need extra time to build their listening abilities. They need help hearing and processing information that is presented orally. For my student, I might have to repeat things a few times or give more wait time for him to process. Visual learners can also struggle with pronunciation, intonation, tone, and register. These are things that will require extra practice.
Research Links-
http://www.betterlanguageteaching.com/esl-articles/75-auditory-visual-learning-styles
http://www.ehow.com/about_5390067_japanese-learning-styles.html
Courtney,
DeleteI agree with your comment about allowing more wait time for students. I think no matter what culture or language, all students should have time to process the information we are giving them. I know that at times I feel rushed when teaching. I can imagine that my students feel the same way while learning. If I don't allow them enough time to process what they want to say, I am impeding their learning in a significant way. Thanks for the insight.
I also agree with giving more time to students to process the information it increase their performance!
DeleteSarah Findlay
ReplyDeleteCulture Class Task 2-Using the culture of your case study subject
I too had a hard time finding research on learning styles specific to the Dominican Republic. I did however find research on Hispanic-Americans, specifically Mexican Americans. I have many Mexican Americans in my classroom so I feel that this information can benefit me with the majority of my class.
Typical learning styles for Hispanic-American students:
• Environment Learning Style-cool temperatures and formal design
• Emotional Learning Style-responsibility, structure, persistence, and motivation
• Sociological Learning Style-variety in groupings, males prefer authority oriented activities while females prefer peer oriented activities
• Physiological Learning Styles-kinesthetic
• Psychological Learning Style-Field Dependent
My teaching style :
I found a teaching styles survey on line and took the quiz. It is interesting to think about how you really teach on a day to day basis. I scored highest on formal authority and delegator. Expert, Personal Model, and facilitator were moderate scores for me. I feel that this information is accurate. I tend to do most of the talking, not lecturing but leading the learning. I also delegate tasks to students who are capable of doing things the way I want them done. I am definitely a field-independent teacher. I do not do a good job of modeling how to do something, especially when it comes to teaching writing. I also tend to lead discussions rather then facilitating my students discussions.
How will I adjust my teaching style to meet the needs of my students?
I would first like to give my students a learning styles inventory so that I can see which student prefer which learning styles. I would also like to take that knowledge and provide choices and different activities using the various learning styles that my students can choose from. I realize now that having them do it “the way I want it done” does not allow them any creative freedom. I forget that my students too come with a plethora of knowledge and the way I’ve been teaching doesn’t allow them to use that.
http://longleaf.net/teachingstyle.html
Zainuddin, H. Y.-J. (2002). Fundamentals of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Dubuque, Ia: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.
I would like to give my students a learning inventory as well! I think the results would be so useful and beneficial.
DeleteSarah, I like the idea of giving my students a learning styles inventory too. I've been looking at all of my little kiddos now and wondering if part of the reason why some of them who have behavior issues are acting out is because they are not comfortable with my teaching style. If I had a better idea of how they learn, maybe I could tap into that. Now that I'm gaining an understanding of some of the different EL cultures in my class, I feel like I can at least reach them better.
DeleteSarah, I love the inventory idea, this could be done at the beginning of the year and we could keep it with us when planning lesson to make sure that we are creating lessons that are targeting those learning styles!
DeleteMexican culture: Students prefer to memorize info. Since most tests are MC.
ReplyDeletePrefer high degree of structure.
Global as opposed to analytic (Right –brained vs. Left Brained)
Students are accustomed to working individually and in groups, which happens more in the higher grades.
Highly kinesthetic learners.
Collaboration/Cooperation among students on assignments is important to students.
Chairs arranged in rows, teacher at front of classroom.
Although I possess characteristics of a Field- Independent Teaching Style and Field –Sensitive Teaching Style, I think I mostly see myself as Field-Sensitive. At first, I thought the opposite, though. I teach differently than I learn, and I learn differently when it comes to different subjects. As a teacher, I see things globally, but when I have to complete assignments or process information, I’m totally analytical. In my classroom, I tie my lessons to stories of when I was in school or how they will use the information later (even later in life). Concerning learning senses, I present most information visually and auditorily, but as often as possible I incorporate kinesthetic and tactile activities. Some subjects seem easier to incorporate different types of activities. Concerning the intelligences, I try to incorporate all of the intelligences wherever I can, but I haven’t included much Naturalist activities. That’ll be something to work on.
Generally speaking, Mexican students have learning styles that work well with my teaching style. We already work in cooperative groups or with partners several times each day. My classroom is pretty structured already. I do plan to adjust my teaching style to include more kinesthetic activities.
References
Noel, J. (2008). Developing multicultural educators (2nd ed.) Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press Inc.
Zainuddin, H., Morales-Jones, C.A., Yahya, N., Whelan Ariza, E. N. (2011). Fundamentals of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in K-12 Mainstream Classrooms (3rd ed.) Boca Raton, FL: Kendall Hunt Publishing Co.
Flaitz, J. et al. (2003). Understanding Your International Students: An Educational, Cultural, and Linguistic Guide. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
During my masters studies, we had to take a learning style quiz on line; it was the eight intelligences visual, auditory, kinestics, etc. It actually didn't tell me anything I didn't already know about myself but it made me take a harder look at my students and my instruction and I definitely made changes!
ReplyDeleteTeaching and Learning Styles
ReplyDeleteIn the text Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, the author discusses the importance of being aware of their own cultures and that of their students. He or she also needs to be aware of their teaching styles. Through getting to know ourselves and our students we can better meet their needs. In studying the chart on page 44 I found that I am more field sensitive as a learner in relationships to peers and instructional relationship to teacher. I am more field-independent in personal teacher relationship. As a teacher, I would say that I lean toward the characteristics of the field independent.
My student in my case study is from Mexico. She is field independent in her relationship with me, but field dependant in her relationship with some peers. This seems to ring true to the norm for Mexican students as explained in the text Understanding Your International Students. Since my child has only been to school in the US, she has only experienced our public education. She enjoys working in groups to complete tasks. However, prefers it to be quiet and left alone while reading or writing.
To meet her needs, I have to provide opportunities for her to read and write in quiet. She also needs the opportunity to work in groups in hands on activities in math and science.
Forgive me I put it in the wrong place the first time.
1. Research and list the typical learning styles for that culture.
ReplyDeleteMy case study student is Korean. Upon research of typical learning styles for the Korean culture I found that like most East Asian countries, student learning focuses on rote memorization. In addition, learning takes place with a mindset of teacher-centered environment, as opposed to one that uses student discovery of new ideas. Opportunities to display student opinions or ideas may not be present frequently in a Korean classroom. Visual learning is also a prominent form of learning for this culture, especially when combined with auditory learning. Logic and Analysis is far more present in the learning styles present in Korean schools compared to that of emotional and interpersonal thinking.
Source:
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Zhenhui-TeachingStyles.html
2. Briefly identify and discuss your teaching style:
As a learner I learn best by taking notes, usually from a lecture, and learning the facts. I’m not typically an analytical learner. I want to know the information I need, be able to use it practically, and move on to the next thing. I also do not like working in groups. When I began teaching I knew this would not work for all my students, so I try to incorporate as many learning styles into my teaching as possible, knowing my students have different learning styles.
3. When I was a classroom teacher I would always have several learning styles present in my lessons- visuals, movement, listening opportunities, etc. Of course, this was not always possible; however, especially when doing projects in class, I would present a project with multiple opportunities for students to complete based on their learning preference. For example, if it was a Social Studies project on the explorers, students would have the choice on how to present the information. They could choose whether to do a visual representation of an explorer’s journey, create a play detailing the explorer’s journey, write a report on an explorer, etc. I would also, at times, let students make the decision to work in groups, or complete assignments individually, as I believe it has an effect on student learning.
Currently, teaching ESOL, I can focus more on the individual student. For my case study student, I work with her in a group of 5 students and also individually. As I stated before, I tend to like lecture, as a student and teacher; however, I know with this student it is not a benefit for her learning to be taught with lecture. Through working with her daily I know that she is a visual learner primarily. I use visuals to reinforce my teaching daily with this student. If we are reading a book, I do not rely only on the pictures/illustrations contained in the book. I like to reinforce new vocabulary and ideas with pictures as well.
-Carrie Rice
Chris Evans - The student in my case study is Hmong. His parents’ families immigrated to the U.S. about 30 years ago from Laos. Researching the “typical” learning styles of the Hmong culture has been a challenge. Until recentl y (within the last 30-40 years) , the Hmong were considered pre-literate. In the country of Laos, the majority of the Hmong people received little or no schooling and were considered an oral culture. Students whose parents were originally from Laos and attended school here in the U.S. do tend to show some similarities however. The Hmong culture is very family and group oriented. As a result, they tend to demonstrate more Field-Sensitive Behaviors. They tend to have good social skills when it comes to dealing with diverse groups of people. They are not usually competitive in the classroom and seem to be sensitive to teachers’ reactions. Their performance is often influenced by how they perceive their teacher feels about their abilities.(McIntyre, 1996)
ReplyDeleteI think overall I tend to be more field independent in my teaching. I tend to encourage competition in my classroom as well as independent working. I do understand the importance however of embracing the difference orientation of teaching and make sure that I include Turn and Talks in my lessons , and group activities. This is especially necessary for those learners who learn best by bouncing ideas off of another. I think with my particular student, I need to be sure that I am providing him with lots of constructive positive feedback since that tends to be more of a motivator than competition.
Tom McIntye (1996). Education and Treatment of Children, volume 19,
issue 3, pages 354-370. Retrieved from www.behavioradvisor.com/C-Learn.html
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete1. The family of my case study is from Cambodia.
ReplyDeleteMost Cambodian students feel more comfortable having things written on the board so that they can copy them down and learn at home. They expect to have handouts of rules,summaries or lecture outlines. Cambodian students often perceive that expressing oneself in the classroom is inappropriate. They may view a productive learning environment as one where everyone is very quiet Cambodian students have a tendency not to seek help from the teacher when they do not understand something in the classroom (Walker, 1985).
2. My teaching style is a combination of traditional when it comes to seating. I teach a special educaiton self-contained class; I have my desks arranged in rows where everyone sits facing the board with desks apart. This decreases distractions and allows for everyone to have their own personal space which prevents conflicts. I teach in a variety of styles, teacher-centered for direct instruction in reading and writing; more student-centered for math.
3. I won't need o adjust my teaching style for my student because I already write some things down for them to copy after we discuss-I write it on individual whitebords only for student who need it so this would benefit my subject stuent. We do have morning meeting, and this student was hesitant to express himself at the beginning, but always has something to share now.
My case study was done on a student from Mexico and I found this information on the learning style for Hispanic-American learning style.
ReplyDelete• Environmental Learning Style elements include sound, temperature, design, and light. A cool temperature and formal design were identified as important elements for Mexican-American elementary and middle school students (Dunn, Griggs, & Price, 1993; Jalali, 1988; Yong & Ewing, 1992).
• Emotional Learning Style elements include responsibility, structure, persistence, and motivation. Sims (1988) reported that Mexican-American third- and fourth-graders were the least conforming of three ethnic groups studied. Yong and Ewing (1992), however, found that Mexican-American middle-school adolescents were conforming. The disparities between these data may result from subjects' age, lifestyle, and urban/rural differences in the two studies. Both of these studies reported that Mexican-Americans required a higher degree of structure than did other groups.
• Sociological Learning Style elements are concerned with the social patterns in which one learns. Learning alone (as opposed to in groups) was preferred more by Caucasian students than by Mexican-American children (Dunn & Dunn, 1992, 1993) and more by Mexican-Americans students than by African-American children (Sims, 1988). Mexican-American students required significantly more sociological variety than either African-Americans or Caucasians (Dunn, Griggs, & Price, 1993; Jalali, 1989). Mexican-American males were authority-oriented and Mexican-American females were strongly peer-oriented (Dunn, Griggs, & Price, 1993).
• Physiological Learning Style elements relate to time of day, food and drink intake, perception, and mobility. Puerto-Rican college students exhibit a strong preference for learning in the late morning, afternoon, and evening. The time-of-day preferences of Mexican-Americans are less clear. Sims (1988) found that Caucasians preferred drinking or eating snacks while learning significantly more than did Mexican-Americans. Yong and Ewing (1992) reported that Latinos' strongest perceptual strength was kinesthetic. Both Caucasians and African-American were significantly more auditory and visual than Mexican-Americans (Dunn, Griggs, & Price, 1993; Sims, 1988). The study by Sims (1988) indicated that Caucasian students exhibited a higher need for mobility than did Mexican-American students. Contrary to findings for the U.S. general population, Mexican-American females had a significantly higher need for mobility than their male counterparts (Dunn, Griggs, & Price, 1993).
• Psychological Learning Style elements relate to global versus analytical processing. The construct of field dependence/independence is a component of this learning style. Field dependent individuals are more group-oriented and cooperative and less competitive than field independent individuals. Research generally has indicated that Mexican-American and other minority students are more field dependent than nonminority students. Hudgens (1993) found that Hispanic middle and secondary school students were more field dependent than Anglo students; Hispanic female (and African-American male) students had a greater internal locus of control than other groups; and Hispanic male (and African-American female) students had a greater external locus of control than others.
After reading about Hispanic-American learning style I feel like I am in the right track, I have a very structure classroom with a lot of routines, my students are ask to memorized a lot of information.
http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Hispanic_American/
Learning Styles - Task 2
ReplyDeleteVietnamese students are noted for being hardworking, resourceful, attentive, and good at following directions. Thu is no exception to this generalization. Thu clearly prefers using her visual and tactile learning senses and is meticulous at taking notes and copying down examples that are written on the board. Thu is most comfortable working independently and she is very willing and capable of completing additional work at home. She also has plenty of support in the form of encouragement and monitoring from her parents.
In our school culture, we expect students to ask questions when they are confused. Vietnamese students, including Thu, are very reluctant to ask questions. In the Vietnamese classroom, students remain quiet out of respect for the teacher. Vietnamese students also consider learning their own responsibility. If they do ask the teacher a question, it is generally after class that day or before class the next. This cultural difference makes it difficult for a Vietnamese student to get immediate help in the way that other students might do so.
Thu is comfortable and performs well when given the opportunity to work independently. Thu is very capable of remembering skills, procedures and algorithms and practicing those skills to a level of mastery. She naturally has the opportunity to excel in a setting where the teacher models problems and then students are expected to do similar examples on their own
It is not natural for Thu to work with other students, discussing mathematical ideas, collaborating, and making connections to other students. It will be important for me to create activities that fall into those settings so that Thu has the opportunity to develop as a collaborative learner.