Worley - Ch. 4 Reflection - Classroom Orientations and Learning Styles

Review – What I Learned

            Classroom orientations, learning styles, and multiple intelligences – that’s quite a bit to consider when planning instruction. However, they all affect the way students perform in the classroom, and maybe the way we perceive each other, too.

            To begin, the two different types of classroom orientations, or “how teachers view students” (2008), are deficiency orientation and difference orientation. Deficiency orientation is characterized by the teacher viewing the student as “lacking something, something that the teacher feels the student should have in order to succeed properly.” (2008) For example, the teacher may think the deficiency is that the child doesn’t verbalize in class often. In contrast, difference orientation is characterized by the teacher seeing the student’s characteristics as different, not deficient. In fact, “the teacher sees the differences as possible strengths that could be built upon in the teaching – learning situation.” (2008) Difference orientation would point out that the child is hesitant to verbalize in class because he or she is shy, or because in the student’s culture it is customary to be a passive participant in class. It’s all about the teacher’s attitude.

            Next, the concept of learning styles and multiple intelligences is one with which most teachers are familiar. It has become a hot topic in education in recent years, with entire college classes established to teach teachers how to recognize them in their classrooms, and plan instruction and assessments, accordingly. Learning styles are composed of preferences in physical settings, social settings, learning senses and cognitive learning styles. (2008). In layman’s terms, the physical and social settings are where a student prefers to learn or study, such as on the floor or at a desk; in silence or with music in the background; with a group of students or alone. These are just a few examples of the preferences in setting. Another important aspect of learning styles is learning senses. In education, what is most often referred to as a student’s learning style, is actually the learning sense. There are four learning senses: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile. Most young children, in my experience, learn better when kinesthetic and tactile activities are employed. Finally, a student’s cognitive learning style is often called right-brained or left brained. Right -brained students like to “have a grasp of the overall goals and ideas to know where they are headed before they begin learning.”  In contrast, left-brained students “like to learn in a step-by-step process, moving in a sequential order through the material.” They prefer to “move toward the end goal, which they plan to reach at the end of their work.” (2008)

            The final individual learning differences concept addressed was the idea of learning intelligences.  Howard Gardner points out “that we will all have some level of each of these intelligences, but we will each have our own unique pattern of strengths within the different intelligences.” (as cited in Noel, 2008, p. 144).  One student may excel in musical intelligence, while another excels in spatial intelligence. Yet another might excel in linguistic intelligence. Given the same content to learn, they could all demonstrate their knowledge by performing different tasks. The student who is strong in musical intelligence could perform a rap about the content, the student who has excellent spatial intelligence may create a piece of artwork depicting some part of the content, and the student who exceeds in linguistic intelligence would probably prefer to write a poem or essay about the material. All of these tasks would accomplish the goal of having the student demonstrate their learning of the content, but in a way that is comfortable to them.

Reflect – What It Meant to Me

            This whole chapter is about finding individual students’ strengths in the classroom. We have learned so much about looking at students as individuals, while also learning about the common characteristics of their cultures, and now we are connecting it all together with how they learn. For the teacher of ESOL students, or any culturally diverse class, it is critically important that we embrace the cultural differences, and make them part of our instruction, to enhance the quality of learning for all of our students. We can all learn so much from each other. In addition to cultural differences, for every teacher recognizing the different learning styles in the classroom is important because as teachers it is our job to make learning accessible for all learners. So, if that means allowing students to work on the floor and planning lessons that incorporate the different learning senses, even if they don’t match up with my particular learning style, that is what a great teacher does. Concerning multiple intelligences, we have to give students more opportunities to demonstrate what they have learned in ways that really show off their talents. With that said, I think it is also important that we stretch students beyond their comfort – zones in order to help them to be stronger in other intelligences, and facilitate continued learning.

Refine – How I Will Use the Information in My Classroom

            I feel motivated to start putting these ideas into play in my classroom. Regarding classroom orientations, I certainly plan to be aware of my attitude about students’ differences. Normally, I try to see the differences as what makes students unique           and use them in the classroom, but sometimes differences do seem like they are hindering children. So, if I can be aware of when I am thinking of the differences as deficiencies, then I can stop and think about how I could instead build on them, and make them even strengths.

            Next, I plan to use the theory of multiple intelligences and plan performance tasks that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge of content, while giving them freedom to choose a task that matches the intelligence in which they are strongest. Sometimes, however, I will encourage students to move out of their comfort zones and choose a task from a different intelligence, just to keep them on their toes!

            Finally, I would like to give an informal inventory to determine students’ preferred learning styles. It will include kid – friendly questions about the learning senses, learning settings and cognitive learning styles. The information gained from this inventory will help me better understand my students, so that I can have classroom spaces set up for different learners, and plan instruction for all of the learning senses. I know these ideas are just a start, though.

References

Noel, J. (2008). Developing multicultural educators (2^nd ed.) Long Grove, IL: Waveland    

           Press Inc.