INSTITUTION AND/OR DISTRICT:
Indian River State College
                                                                                                   
BEST PRACTICE FOCUS:
Professional Development

CAREER PATHWAYS CONSORTIUM:
Research Coast Career Pathways Consortium

DESCRIPTION:

Learning Styles Course for school district teachers, paraprofessionals, and substitute teachers in our service area (offered three times an academic year on Saturdays (Fall, spring,) and Monday - Friday (summer).

Since we tend to teach the way we learn best ourselves, we often find it very difficult to reach students who learn differently. When we do not teach in the way the student learns best, lessons can often be a challenge In spite of liking the student and knowing that they are intelligent. When I discuss learning styles with school district teachers, paraprofessionals, and substitute teachers the most common comment is, "I never thought of teaching something that way" – because perhaps that is not how they were taught or how they themselves learn.
 
Students preferentially take in and process information in different ways: by seeing and hearing, reflecting and acting, reasoning logically and intuitively, analyzing and visualizing. Teaching methods also vary. Teachers develop a teaching style based on their beliefs about what constitutes good teaching, personal preferences, their abilities, and the norms of their particular discipline. Some believe classes should be teacher-centered, where the teacher is expert and authority in presenting information. Others take a learner-centered approach, viewing their role as more of a facilitator of student learning.

Students have grown up with television, movies, video, and video-games.  After all, the “video game” generation has developed finely honed skills in interacting with machines having computer components, computers, interpreting visually displayed data, and “seeing the big picture.”Having become aware of the importance of learning styles, you can take steps to reach your students who fail to respond to your instruction as well as you would like.  Even so, current instructional technology can help you “spice up” your lectures with all manner of visual and auditory support.  In fact, appropriate use of instructional technology can even be fun.  For your students it can help increase retention, make learning relevant, and even enjoyable.
This course helps to increase motivation or to provide incentives and opportunities for minority, at-risk, disabled, or gifted students. When mismatches exist between learning styles of most students in a class and the teaching style of the /teacher, the students may become bored and inattentive in class, do poorly on tests, get discouraged about the courses, the curriculum, and themselves, and in some cases change to other curricula or drop out of school. Instructor/teachers, confronted by low test grades, unresponsive or hostile classes, poor attendance and dropouts, know something is not working.

 Project Goals

1. As teachers we need to help our students learn how to be life-long learners. If students haven’t   
learned how to learn, they may not be able to be effectively trained in a career that they choose.
2. Helping our students understand how they naturally take in and process information will go a long way toward making them life-long learners.
3. By understanding our students’ learning styles, we will be better able to adapt our teaching styles and strategies to meet their needs.
4. To take your students' learning styles into account when you are teaching English language learners. (ESL) ESL students may be highly literate in their own language but experience difficulties when acquiring English because they are accustomed to learning through a different style. Most American teachers, especially in the upper grades, teach to students with an auditory learning style. This can be very difficult for the ESL students.
5. To prevent:

• boredom
• poor test performance
• become discouraged with course, curriculum,  and themselves
• teachers from becoming defensive
• society from losing potentially excellent learners

6. To coach and guide on the side, not the “sage on the stage”
7. To develop a single change to teaching that would have a large impact
8.  To plan an effective curriculum to address different learning styles
9. To provide assignments, projects, exams to challenge students

As a result of taking this course, a teacher in Indian River County received a grant from the Education Foundation to create manipulative and resources for her students based on the Learning Styles course curriculum and another teacher in St. Lucie County won a second place award for how she used Learning Styles in the WOW curriculum.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Lorraine Coughlin
Assistant Professor in the Education Department
3209 Virginia Ave.
Fort Pierce, FL 34981
(772) 462-7509
lcoughli@ircc.edu