321 Assignment 2.1

Assignment 2.1

Find at least 2 to 4 resources that discuss other learning style theories. Based on the information you find, discuss the following:

• How does the information you found compare and contrast to the theories discussed in the book?
• What new knowledge can you take and apply to your learners or to your approach to instruction from this resource that you found?
• Be sure at the bottom of your post to include reference information so that your peers can find the resource if it is something they would like to add to their resources as well.

Sudbury Model of Democratic Education

The Sudbury Model of Democratic Education is a model that literally does incorporate all learning styles. Even those we don’t think exist or have not thought of yet. This model of learning styles is backwards to everything we have learned so far. Instead of trying to figure out what the learning style is or categorize it, this model let’s the student decide it! The concept has blown me away in thinking how we approach education. This is truly a working model in practice since 1968. The basic premise is that the student decides what they learn, how they learn and when they learn. They have complete and total control over their learning. The reason I chose to investigate this is that it was discussed as a “Response to Intervention” model.  RtI is very popular right now in Special Education circles and working with these folks, I get to hear a little bit about it. One premise that comes out of this is that we don’t have learning disabilities, we just learn differently and at different rates and times throughout our lives.

I will take away something very powerful from researching this model. As we have learned from previous readings and research in this course, we are all motivated to learn. As facilitators we must avoid putting up roadblocks to unmotivated our students. One of the questions I would like to test on my students is “What would you like to learn today?” This puts the motivation back on them in what they come away with from the class or workshop.

GSU Master Teacher Program: On Learning Styles

This article by Dr. Harvey Brightman of Georgia State University is about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The article describes the four dimensions of the MBTI and teaching suggestions for each type. The information in the article was conformative to the theories discussed in the book. By that I mean the MBTI classifies personality traits into groups of people that we can normalize educational situations for. It is somewhat different in that it is all cognitive in relation to preference.  It seems many of the other learning styles theories are based in senses and some cognition where this particular theory is based solely in cognition.

This article will be very beneficial as I review the development of lesson plans in the future. It gives good concrete examples of how I might develop activities suited to a particular learning style. For example, as I think about teaching to the “Perceptive” student, I may create a set timeline through out the day in a full day workshop to keep them on target. On the flip side of this, a “Judging” student will likely learn better having note taking strategies at their disposal. This may mean having a split page outline as a hand out or some other note taking tool I can create for them.

References:

Gray, P. (2007). Nature’s Powerful Tutors; The Educative Functions of Free Play. Psi Chi – The International Honor Society in Psychology, 12(1), Retrieved from http://www.psichi.org/Pubs/Articles/Article_645.aspx

Brightman, H. J. (1998, December). Gsu Master Teacher Program: On Learning Styles. Retrieved from http://www2.gsu.edu/~dschjb/wwwmbti.html