Essay: Nora Wheliss Essay:
ESSAY: NORA WHELISS WHAT ARE LEARNING STYLE DIFFERENCES IN CHILDREN WITH A FOCUS ON CHILDREN IN GRADES 4TH- 6TH? For the service scholar project, I chose to use my love for children to inspire my service work. I worked with three different organizations that focus on different parts of early childhood development and education. They were Nashville Dolphins, WPC Children, and Preston Taylor Ministries. Within each organization, I was placed in a leadership role for some type of teaching opportunity for the kids with whom I was working, whether it was reading, swimming, or outdoor activities. Within these experiences, I was able to observe the different learning and teaching styles that each individual favored, and I wanted to see if their background or activity helped to determine the learning style that most benefited them. There are four main types of learning that kids use. Those are Visual, Auditory, Tactile, and Kinesthetic. Each of these learning styles was represented in different ways in the experiences with the kids. (Gardner) The first is visual learning. (Gardner) Children who use visual learning learn through seeing, they learn through the ideas of observation of parents or teacher’s body language and facial expressions. (Edwards) They are more likely to understand concepts through demonstrations and descriptions. They often are the ones with the brightest imaginations. In learning situations, too much action or movements tend to distract them. (Pennington) The second is auditory learning. Auditory learners learn through listening. Children who are auditory learners tend to learn the best when they are able to talk through different concepts. (Gardner) Verbal instruction is typically more informative than written instruction for auditory learners. (Edwards) Often the biggest problems for auditory learners occur when they are in loud circumstances, quiet learning spaces tend to work best for auditory learners. (Pennington) The third type of learning is tactile. Tactile learners learn through touch. Kids who are tactile learners tend to learn best when they have a project they can do with their hands. Tactile learners tend to prefer drawing to aid their memory and learning. Their primary learning struggles occur when listening to a class lecture, when writing extensive essays, or when reading for long periods of time. (Pennington) The fourth type of learner is the Kinesthetic learner. Kinesthetic learners learn through moving and doing. (Edwards) Kinesthetic learners typically learn best when they are able to move around and experience hands-on approaches to learning. Their main struggles occur when they are told to sit down for long periods of time without experience in the actual process of the topic they’re trying to comprehend.(Gardner) With the Nashville Dolphins, the kids fall under multiple sections. Many are visual learners, meaning it is most beneficial to them when the volunteers demonstrate the proper swimming techniques to them, allowing them to visualize what they are trying to learn how to do. (Pennington) Very few of them were tactile learners, it wasn’t very helpful to draw a picture of someone swimming in order to help, but it would
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