"Intellectual distinction is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for election to a Rhodes Scholarship. Selection committees are charged to seek excellence in qualities of mind and in qualities of person which, in combination, offer the promise of effective service to the world in the decades ahead. The Rhodes Scholarships, in short, are investments in individuals rather than in project proposals..."

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

How To Get Your Kids To See the Light! Or Feel It! Or Hear It!

Learning Modalities for Home Educators

This was the third talk I presented at the 2010 Minnesota Catholic Home Educator's Conference this weekend.  Attendance was amazing.  This was the last slot of the day (3:00) and I had about 40 attendees.

This presentation has 57 slides, which makes it far too large to post all here.  I did have some requests for more data, though. I thought I would include some of those things.  Feel free to make requests for more information in the com box.

This was one diagram I was asked to include.  It is from:

The Quality Teaching Blog

at the Center for Quality Teaching and Learning and it is a diagram showing how to apply Learning Modalities to Learning Styles.  The Learning Modalities are in the yellow areas.  The Learning Styles are in the colored text on the outside of the diagram.

Individual learning style is a combination of environmental, emotional, sociological, and physical responses that characterize how each person learns.  Learning style is a function of heredity and experience, and develops individually over the life span.

Now, we did not delve into Learning Styles in our discussion because we were focusing specifically on how to adapt your teaching to a persons primary Learning Modality or how to incorporate Multi-sensory teaching, in case of multiple modalities in the home.

The Learning Styles in this diagram are based on Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory (ELT). 
A typical presentation of Kolb's two continuums is that the east-west axis is called the Processing Continuum (how we approach a task - either doing or watching), and the north-south axis is called the Perception Continuum (our emotional response, or how we think or feel about it).  These learning styles are the combination of two lines of axis (continuums) each formed between what Kolb calls 'dialectically related modes' of 'grasping experience' (doing or watching), and 'transforming experience' (feeling or thinking).  The result of these two decisions produces (and helps to form throughout our lives) the preferred learning style, hence the two-by-two matrix . We choose a way of 'grasping the experience', which defines our approach to it, and we choose a way to 'transform the experience' into something meaningful and usable, which defines our emotional response to the experience. Our learning style is a product of these two choice decisions:
  1. how to approach a task - preferring to (a) watch or (b) do , and
  2. our emotional response to the experience - preferring to (a) think or (b) feel.
In other words we choose our approach to the task or experience ('grasping the experience') by opting for 1(a) or 1(b):
  • 1(a) - though watching others involved in the experience and reflecting on what happens (watching) or 
  • 1(b) - through 'jumping straight in' and just doing it (doing)
    And at the same time we choose how to emotionally transform the experience into something meaningful and useful by opting for 2(a) or 2(b):
    • 2(a) - through gaining new information by thinking, analyzing, or planning (thinking) or 
    • 2(b) - through experiencing the 'concrete, tangible, felt qualities of the world' (feeling)
      The combination of these two choices produces a preferred learning style.

      Interestingly enough, these tend to coincide with our Learning Modality!  So, Kinesthetic Learners are usually "Sensing Doers".  Tactile Learners are usually "Thinking Doers".  Visual Learners are usually "Sensing Watchers" and Auditory Learners are usually "Thinking Watchers".

      Those quadrants can help you understand how those learners approach problems and learn.

      Tomorrow I will add more information from my presentation.  Have a pleasant evening!

      1 comment:

      RealMom4Life said...

      Thank you SO much for taking the time to put your notes here. (and for speaking at the conference) I often end up buying the CD's (it's a boost for me during the school year when I need it). The talks were so good I got ready to go to the last one and realized I hadn't finished my shopping. I just listened to the CD for this talk and it is amazing. I have a pretty good understanding for how some of my kids learn. This will help me with rest. But, I found it quite interesting how/why some of my methods with one child irritates another. I found it strange that one of my older kids cannot stand some of the sing-song learning CD's but Vegie Tales was fine. I assumed that it was the kiddiness, but now I realize those songs go completely agaist her modality. I think we'll play those songs AFTER dropping her off for a class rather than on the way.

      Again, thank you so much for posting the notes here. The pictures help me tremendously, the audio CDs peak my interest, but I have a hard time learning from the. :)