Learning Style
© Phil Builder 2003

'Learning Style' describes the state of a person's learning health.  It is made up of a collection of key indicators.  It can be thought of as a part of the learner's make-up, personality, or approach to learning.  Although it describes the learning style of that person generally, there will usually be differences between their learning styles in different subject areas.  Learning styles can change over time for any subject area as a result of the learner's experiences.  However, improvement in learning style in one subject will not necessarily flow into another.

Use the 'Learning Style Scale' below to record a 'score', placing a mark (or tick) somewhere along the line between the extremes.  Ask yourself, "For Reading (or any subject), is the child more attentive or inattentive, anxious or calm, dependent or independent, cautious or confident"?  Do a separate scale for each subject area (eg. spelling, reading, writing, maths) and see if there are differences between them.  There are no numbers on the scale so you need to judge the position approximately on each line.

Instructions Observe the child over a period of time in learning situations at home or at school.  Then use the Learning Style Scale to: record the Subject, and the Date record your observations (for that subject area) by scoring on each line. decide which indicators are of most concern set goals to change that aspect of their learning while teaching them how to be successful at it. Keep the Learning Style Scale with his/her program so that it acts as a reminder of what your goals are, and so that you can compare later assessments with it.  At some point in the future record a second LS Scale.  You will get a more honest result if you don't refer to the first one.  Compare the two to see if there is any change, and if the  teaching program is helping the child become a healthier learner.

This scale is most useful for helping you identify the well-being of the child as a learner.  The aim is not to construct a program to improve (say) overall self confidence, but to change the child's learning experiences in a subject (such as Spelling) so that s/he changes from being inattentive, anxious, dependent, and cautious when spelling, to becoming attentive, calm, independent, and confident.  Remember that you have to look at each subject separately. Performing well in Maths, Art, Craft, and Drama lessons may help a child to be more confident and outgoing but this will not change the child's confidence or strategies as a reader or writer.

The challenge is to work out how to achieve this.  To make children confident they need to be successful at what they do.   To help them become successful you need to understand how the natural learning process works, and what strategies to teach your children so that learning becomes easy for them.  I suggest that you read the article on Natural Learning next, before getting into a specific subject too deeply.

As you work with your children use the Learning Style Scale to monitor how well your teaching-learning processes are working.  If your children are happily involved in relevant learning tasks you will be ticking all their indicators on the right hand side.   You will then know that they are healthy learners. If this is not happening you must re-examine what is happening in the teaching-learning program and change it.

Notes

Attentiveness    I have used the terms inattentive and attentive because I have in mind children up to 5 or 6 years old who are easily identified as not attending when someone tries to demonstrate something, read them a story, or get them to stay on task, etc.  I could happily have used the term Engagement as used by Brian Cambourne (1988) because I consider his treatment of the subject to be absolutely correct.  I recommend that you read Cambourne's book, The Whole Story, Natural Learning and the Acquisition of Literacy in the Classroom, Ashton Scholastic, 1988, Auckland, for a comprehensive study of children's learning to read and write.

Anxiety    Anxiety shows itself when you watch their body language and see children fidgeting, wriggling or squirming in their seats; avoiding tasks by various means such a feeling sick, or going to the toilet, questioning, making excuses, or crying when confronted with a task; or deliberately doing the wrong thing which draws attention away from the task towards their behaviour.

Dependence  Adults (and siblings) teach children to be dependent upon them.  Learners learn to be dependent upon others when they are 'rescued' when confronted by a problem instead of being given time and space in which to solve the problem themselves in some way. We need to rethink this and allow, encourage, and teach learners how to solve their own problems when reading, writing, spelling, and doing mathematics.  

Confidence   Cautious learners will not engage with the learning task, nor take the risks necessary to enable themselves to learn efficiently.  Essentially, they are reluctant to 'have a go' at things because they are afraid of failure. 

A starting point
To turn them around a starting point is simply to accept what the child does now as being where they are at.  Look at what they can do, and what they have achieved.  Spend time observing them and recording everything they know, and how they do things.  You can share this with them and show them that you recognise that they have learned so many things and can teach themselves!  Focus on the processes (the way that tasks are done, or activities played) rather than the end result (the winning, the quality of the writing, or the number correct). 

If you focus on who won, the neatness, or the number scored you will be telling the child that you value them when they achieve these things. You will be promoting  competitiveness which destroys the motivation of children who can't compete. What happens when they don't achieve a good score next time?  Or their brother or sister doesn't do as well?  Competition to achieve between siblings is quite damaging.  It is much safer to reward the effort.  When they come to you excited because they got 10/10 for a test, be excited for them but let them know you recognise that they got their result because you saw the effort they put into learning.  So next time they get, say 5\10, you can refer to that again, and still praise them for their learning effort (if they put in), or point out that they are in control of what score they get.

We can build their confidence by guaranteeing them success.   We do this by structuring learning tasks so that no one can fail or be seen to be not achieving as well as others.  We must eliminate failure and competition from our teaching.  For instance, to help children to write we can demonstrate to children that we (adults) have to think hard about what to write, make mistakes when writing, need help to spell, cross out bits that don't sound right, and we don't show other people every bit of our writing (especially the messy bits).  Apply this same set of facts to children and guarantee that their writing will not be judged, marked, or otherwise criticised in any way.  In fact, you need to accept the child's first best effort, display it as it is, celebrate it, certainly praise or acknowledge what the child can do (not what they can't do), and find another time to teach what is needed.   See the article on Natural Learning for a better understanding of this.

References
 

Cambourne, Brian, The Whole Story, Natural Learning and the Acquisition of
                Literacy in the Classroom, Ashton Scholastic, 1988, Auckland