Teaching Resources

Learning Styles

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Tags/Keywords

learning centered teaching engaging students motivating students bloom's taxonomy of learning

Overview

Learning styles are simply different approaches or ways to learning. Visual learners do best when they can approach information graphically--they use symbols, pictures, colors to organize their material. Visual learners often do best when they can see their teachers, interpreting body language and expressions to understand content. Auditory learners learn best in lectures, discussions, podcasts and other formats that involve talking and listening. Tactile/kinesthetic learners do best when they can experience learning through touch, movement, and doing. Understanding how your students best learn so that you can consider your teaching style will actually have an impact on how students ultimately assess your effectiveness.

MTSU Resources

First Tuesday Series on Visual Learning, 2008, Deborah Belcher, Sharon Coleman, Lauren Rudd.

See the provost's office for mapping software program. Request our vertical file on visual literacy.

LTITC Resources

From our library--

Anderson, L.W., & Krathwohl, D.R. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Boston, MA: Longman.

Campbell, L., Campbell, B., & Dickinson, D. (2004). Teaching and learning through multiple intelligences. 3rd Ed . Boston, MA: Pearson. Contains ready-to-use assessment tools and lesson plans for helping students develop their learning styles (intelligences). Includes checklists for identifying styles.

North, Vanda with Buzan, Tony. 1991. Get Ahead: Mind Map your way to success. Dorset Books.

Teaching Tip Visual Learners

Online Resources: Tips and Strategies
Learning Styles Overview & Diagnostic
Learning Styles Web Site with Tests
Learning Styles Resource Page --excellent site provides comparative views of leading research and tools for working with different kinds of learners. For higher ed.
Annotated References on Learning -- terrific collection of links for information on learning, critical thinking, pedagogies, active learning...

Graphic Organizers Podcast from Learning Times. Karen Franker, an expert in graphic organizers, discusses instructional tools used to visually represent information.

Online Publications: Viewpoints, Articles, Books...

VARK: A guide to learning styles
Learning Styles and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Learning Styles Online: Overview of Learning Styles
7 Things You Should Know about...Data Visualization. Educause.
3 Visualization Projects Point to Things in the Humanities. Chronicle. June 2008.