Guild & Garger

...Style What and Why

First of all, I am in agreement with everyone that not all students will be reached by changing or including different learning styles. Perhaps that is why it is suggested that one teach to the lower ten percent of the class—at least you can reach most of them.

As an instructor, it is important to be aware of as many of the learning styles as possible in order to understand in what ways you need to change the way that you would present the material to the class. This obviously can be difficult as Guild states that “even as we verbally accept the existence of diversity, we also recognize how often it is ignored in practice”. (Guild p5) It is also stated that “accepting diversity of style can help us to create the atmosphere and experiences that encourage each individual to reach his or her full potential”. (Guile p5)

We all agree that teaching/learning is a two-way street and that it is not solely the responsibility of the instructor. Administering a questionnaire, and I don’t call it or refer to it as a test at all, is a good thing. I do believe that the purpose should be fully explained to the learners in that it is an aide to help deliver the course content in the best possible ways. There should be feedback from the students, often and their suggestions to help improve the delivery of the course material should be fully considered. Until I enrolled in this program, I never truly understood the idea of stating objectives. Now, I definitely see the benefits and I also believe that these should be explained in full—not just read over as though with a glance. If we actually start to think as the students think, then perhaps we really do have a chance to be the best teachers that we can be and at the same time, help the students become more than they think they can be.

As for my muddiest point, I would agree with Arlene that in the Cranton article, pp35-36, the explanation of Conceptualizing Styles is somewhat ambiguous. In general, I found the article to be pretty straight forward and gave me much insight to various aspects of my own styles.

To expand upon that—well, I think that using the tests to determine your learning style should only be a guideline. I don’t want to say that I can only learn one particular way because it depends on other factors, such s the teaching style, course content, my own self-doubt, the classroom environment, whether I feel it is a safe place to be or not, the attitude of the teacher, how I perceive my own place in the class etcetera. To say that I can only learn one way is misleading and I would much rather do the tests as a way to indicate what is best for me. It would also allow me to see what other learning style there were and to work on changing how I assimilate information. I’ve said it before that our styles will change as we learn and grow. Most of us have not been locked in a closet all our lives and have been exposed to various learning environments growing up. I am sure that the way each of us learn now is not the same as when we were in grade 2 or grade 12. Guild and Garger say it best when they state “to understand styles and their implication for education, it will be helpful to think about these categories while always keeping in mind that all the characteristics are integrated in the total personality of a real human being. (Guild p6)