2.14 Applying Learning Style Concepts to Science Teaching

There are many things you can do to help students learn in the science classroom, and certainly applying what is known about learning styles is a place to begin. There are many sources of information for specific ideas, such the ideas of Rita and Ken Dunn. In this section I will present some ideas on an approach to learning that incorporate brain research and student learning styles (The 4MAT System), specific suggestion for teaching students according to their own learning style, and introduce some tools to help students learn about their own learning (metacognition).

The 4 MAT System. 4MAT, devised by Bernice McCarthy (1987), is a learning style system that identifies four types of learners:

1. Imaginative learners

2. Analytic learners

3. Common sense learners

4. Dynamic learners

Imaginative learners (type 1) perceive information concretely and process it reflectively. They are sensory oriented as well as reflectors. They are imaginative thinkers, and like to work with other people. Their favorite question is Why?

Analytic learners (type 2) perceive information abstractly and process it reflectively. They are abstract thinkers who think about their creations, which tend to be models and theories. They value sequential thinking. Their favorite questions is What?

Common sense learners (type 3) percieve information abstractly and process it actively. They are practical thinkers; they need to know how things work. They are skilled oriented, experimenting and tinkering with things. Their favorite question is How does this work?

The dynamic learners (type 4) perceive information concretely and process it actively. These learners integrate experience and application. They learn by trail and error, and are risk-takers. Their favorite question is What if?

How did McCarthy arrive at these four types of learners? McCarthy based her model on the work of David Kolb, who had studied learners and ways in which they perceive and process information. Kolb theorized two continuums as follows:

By combining these dualities, McCarthy developed a system in which four distinct learning styles emerged, each being defined one of the quadrants in the model.

McCarthy's model is a cycle of learning. If you examine the model above, imagine it as a clock. Learning begins at 12:00 with concrete experience. According to McCarthy, by moving clockwise around the circle, students then experience reflective observation; from this place they move to abstract conceptualization and finally to active experimentation. In this way, all students are taught in all four ways. Each is comfortable some of the time, while at the same time being stretched to develop other learning abilities.]

Another feature of 4MAT is that each of the four learning styles are integrated with left and right brain processing giving teachers a comprehensive teaching model. Activities for each quadrant are equally divided between left and right brain modes. For example, a teacher would begin a learning sequence in Quadrant I (Concrete/reflective) with a right brain activity to help the students explore by observing, questioning, visualizing, imagining. Students would be helped to develop a reason for studying the material. The right brain activity would be followed by a left brain activity in which the students reflect on the active/concrete experience they began with. This pattern, alternating between right and left brain modalities, is continued round the remaining 3 quadrants of the 4MAT model.

In their book 4MAT and Science, Samples, Hammond and McCarthy describe science teaching plans showing how 4MAT can be applied to the science classroom. Plans can be created for any concept or topic in science. Following are two examples, one on clouds and the other on galaxies. Juxtaposed to these plans is the generalized 4MAT model.

Teaching to Student's Individual Styles: The Multisensory Classroom. According some researchers, students who do well in school tend to be the ones that learn either by listening or by reading. The focus on these two senses, especially at the high school level tends to play havoc with the tactile and kinesthetic learners. Because so much of what happens in classrooms is focused on the auditory and visual modes, students who prefer tactile and kinesthetic modes are actually handicapped. In this section, a few suggestions are included to show how these other modalities can be included in science teaching, thereby creating a multi-sensory approach.

Keep in mind these characteristics: visual learners learn by seeing and imagining; auditory learners learn by listening and verbalizing; kinesthetic learner learns by participating, moving and talking; tactile learners learn by doing, touching and manipulating. Also remember that these modes can be combined.

• Bring color into the science classroom. Posters, bright bulletin boards, new paint. One technique that is effective is instead of writing on the chalkboard, write your notes and make drawings with bright marking pens on a flip chart. If you use the overhead projector, write with a variety of colored pens.

• Make tactile learning aids. The Dunn's describe a number of tactile aids which can be used repeatedly from class to class and year to year. One example is the task card. This multisensory resource can be used to help students review and check whether they understand material, allows students to work at their own pace, or with someone else, and frees the teacher to work with others. Suppose you want the students to review the meanings of important ideas and concepts. The teacher would prepare a set of questions with answers (or concepts with associated meanings) and prepare cards as shown below. The cards are made by cutting oaktag into strips, laminating the strips after writing the information on the cards, and then cutting each card in a unique fashion.

 

 

• The computer as a multisensory learning aid. Computers are powerful tools in their own right, but can be used to help the tactile and kinesthetic learner. By establishing a computer center in the classroom, and providing opportunities for individual or small groups of students to work in the center with games, tutorials, simulations, or problem solving software, the tactile and kinesthetic learner is given opportunities for personal involvement, manipulation of the keyboard and movement (to a different place in the classroom).

• Movement. Plan occasionally a field trip, role-playing sessions and debates, games in which the students move from one place in the classroom to another and manipulate objects. These activities favor the kinesthetic learner.

• Hands-On. Plan table-top learning activities in which students handle and manipulate science materials, objects, and specimens. You do not have to wait to go into the lab to favor the tactile learner. Is is possible to teach every lesson wherein there is some tactile learning happening?

• Don't forget the auditory learner. Showing films, video, listening to tapes, and hearing music (related to science) are activities that favor the auditory (and visual) learner. Discussion, debates and question-and-answer sessions favor the auditory learner.

There are many other ways to create a multisensory classroom. These will be presented in Chapter 3 and Chapter 6. For now it is important to remember that providing a variety of sensory modes will ensure that each student's learning style is attended to at least some of the time.