By MICHELLE WILLSON
Editorial Editor
Should schools embrace other teaching styles more? Personally, I struggled through grade school and even into middle school. I felt like I was not learning as fast as the other kids. Especially when it came to English and Math. I could not seem to grasp the concepts they were teaching.
Around my freshman year of high school I found that note cards and labs helped me remember topics better than listening to the teacher lecture.
There are 3 main styles of learning. Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic. An article posted in Macrothink Institute’s Journal of Studies in Education stated “While students use all of their senses to take in information, they seem to have preferences in how they learn best. In order to help the students learn, teachers need to teach in as many preferences as possible”.
I am a Kinesthetic or tactile learner. I like to physically be able to touch what I am doing. It is kind of upsetting that I realized it so late. I feel I could have done much better in my classes if the teachers did not just lecture because I could never stay engaged with what they were saying. I now use tactics such as note cards and do subject-based activities whenever I can.
I feel schools should use all 3 types of styles to their advantage. Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic. Visual learners tend to benefit from things like illustrations and presentations and taking notes, Auditory learners benefit from Listening, Participating in group discussions and reading aloud. Where Kinesthetic learners tend to Learn from activities and things they do.
The Journal of studies in Education also stated “In order to achieve the ultimate goal of student learning it is important to use a combination of teaching methods and to make the classroom environment as stimulating and interactive as possible”
Using the learning style will help engage the students to the subjects because nothing loses your attention more than not being able to understand what the teacher is trying to teach you.
The class I learned the most from was Advanced Biology my Junior year of high school. We were studying Anatomy and Physiology and instead of the teacher just reading from the book.
My teacher would lecture for a little bit, we would watch a video clip on a certain muscle group and than we would go to the lab and build it out of clay to put on a little cadaver. He taught us using all 3 different styles of learning techniques.
I feel like if school would embrace all of the learning styles it would help all the students stay at the same pace.
Southwestern Community College of North Carolina stated “No one person uses one style of learning exclusively, but they do have preferred learning styles. It is therefore important to attempt to cater for all learning styles during lessons to enable the most efficient learning to take place”