In my view there are many varying theories relating to the effective learning of students. Are the students right-side of brain learning based, or left-sided learning based. Do they fit in to the category of activist, pragmatist, theorist or reflector as espoused by Honey and Mumford (1992).
Kolb’s Experiencial Learning Cycle is yet another popular model of which to refer, expanded by Gibbs(1998).
Indeed I adhere to Laird’s theory (1995), whereby if as a teacher, one stimulated the multi-senses of the students, they in turn would learn. It is however to another direction that I turn to evaluate today’s learning in the so-called modern era.
Welcome to the “techno-age”. We have multi-sensory technical devices, whereby students can integrate core concepts of the course curriculum via experiencial learning. Students permanently and independently download information, songs, videos via the World-Wide-Web; they connect with peers, have chat room sessions, actively involve themselves in their directions of interest. Indeed they require a third hand to hold the mobile phone which is today’s diary, phone book, computer et al! As educators, it is my belief that classroom techniques need to embrace this more. Empower the students to work in and around the subjects independently, garnering information from the teacher, the literature and other means. If the learning relates to the actual community environment of the student, it will mean so much more; it will be relevant and therefore more easily remembered. This is a progressive form of education, an element from the cognitive school of thought as the students are constructing their own knowledge with positive reinforcement and support.
The Review on Course Selection And Course Experience On Students’ Learning Style
... paid to the congruence of learning activities within students’ learning style, the better the students will learned. This is due ... examines whether course selection and experience could influence students’ learning style. Specifically, this study examines whether: 1. Course ... not specifically focus on examining accounting versus engineering students’ learning style. The selected sample in this study ...
Learning is a process which is individual, and to make progress in the learning continuum, we as teachers need to address all the varied styles to light the fuses of all the students. As teachers, we should facilitate in a positive and motivational environment, which allows the students to both be taught in the classroom and then to independently assimilate information to add to their core base of knowledge. Students learn by doing, by being involved in a process against which they can link it to theory, by building constructs from past learning, and from evaluating what it is that they have been shown.
In conclusion therefore, it is my belief that students require the integration of multiple intelligences, the stimulation of varied teaching techniques to address the varied learning styles, an element of empowerment and independent learning and a very real application of community association. In addition to this, I feel that the teacher should be a positive facilitator, with a handle on motivational techniques to build a wall of progressive learning.
