Hi!

I would recommend to abandon this thinking with learning and teaching styles altogether. Yes, teachers teach differently. Yes, students may prefer different modes of communication and different content formats, but I know of no complete successes on how to organize this in practice within a class population. One thing that use of ICTs can do, is to broaden the possibility to variation in studying, offering different alternative formats of content (text, animations, lectures). That is what students will try to do anyway with surfing around, if they don´t understand x in the presented format.

See also resources on Learning Debunking Club, http://www.debunker.club/learning-styles-are-not-an-effective-guide-for-learning-design.html 

Dear Noshad:

Great question! Most times we compromise our students' education by not accommodating for the difference in their learning preferences. I addressed your question from the cultural perspective, looking at how children from different cultures learn differently due to the way they were socialized in their culture. For example, Mexican children learn better in groups. I hope you find the attached article useful to your question.

Many thanks,

Debra

Article One Style Does Not Fit All: Facilitating Cultural Difference...

Dear Husain

Drawing inspiration from both Piaget and Vygotsky, I would say that the best method is to give children learning tasks that are are a little bit difficult but nevertheless achievable with effort and also a  well thought out degree og cognitive scaffolding. Best Paul

Hi!

I would recommend to abandon this thinking with learning and teaching styles altogether. Yes, teachers teach differently. Yes, students may prefer different modes of communication and different content formats, but I know of no complete successes on how to organize this in practice within a class population. One thing that use of ICTs can do, is to broaden the possibility to variation in studying, offering different alternative formats of content (text, animations, lectures). That is what students will try to do anyway with surfing around, if they don´t understand x in the presented format.

See also resources on Learning Debunking Club, http://www.debunker.club/learning-styles-are-not-an-effective-guide-for-learning-design.html 

I agree with Anders that there is no match that fits all circumstances. That set, I believe that the contributions of Piaget and Vygotsky (and Bruner, along the way) have universal application, even though some contextual refiguration might be necessary based on the situation to hand. Paul

Effective matching between teaching style and learning style can only be achieved when teachers are first of all aware of their learners' needs, capacities, potentials and learning style preferences in meeting these needs. The teacher can ask students to work in pairs to share notes from the mini- lecture. The teacher can mini-conference with them individually. The next step is for the teacher to  organize a whole-class discussion of the style assessment results. When such style discussions are constructive, students' initial interest in self-awareness is rewarded and deepened. The prospect of altering language instruction to somehow accommodate different learning styles might seem forbidding to teachers.

I would second Anders statement and say - Don't match your teaching style with a learner's learning style...:/

I think it is more important to match your MIT with the learning outcome/objective then try to match various styles. i would concur with Mr Belcher here.

I think it is more important to match your MIT with the learning outcome/objective then try to match various styles. i would concur with Mr Belcher here.

To put a different spin on this, you could consider "what are the best ways to engage students within their own learning expeience," I am working on the assumption that the premise is that the student has a responsibility for their own learning.

The answer to this is dependent on the needs and wants of the individual student (personalised learning). For example, students who work alongside their degree, day students (who travel in) or just-in-time learners. Thus, the pedagogical (teacher centred) or andragogical (student centred) approach to the transmissition of knowledge and its assimuation by the student must reflect these needs (teaching and learning styles) and by doing so will help to engage the student within the learning process. You could have a quick look at the reasonable adjustment debate as this will feed into the needs and wants of the students. 

Good luck with your enquiry.

Catch their attention within the first 10 seconds of talking, maximize interaction from the outset, enable any student to contribute, never humiliate, always support, and be consistent in your manner of teaching. Allow contributions from the class generously, and protect confidential or sensitive information. Keep the door open for after teaching enquiries, while not being 24/7 ! Be sure to read each student well, and not make a hasty judgement about their style. Not all students have the ability to sync with you quickly so work with them. Create a situation when the session ends, but they all want more. That way, you next class has a head start.

The benefit of doing this, according to available research, is questionable, although the concept makes sense. Ideally you would use an instrument that can measure both that use similar language profiles so that the results are equivalent. One measure that I have seen used to meet both in the middle to match preferences/competencies is the MIDAS (http://www.miresearch.org/). Here are some other articles that may be helpful:

http://chronicle.com/article/Matching-Teaching-Style-to/49497/

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1473-4192.00001/abstract;jsessionid=7BC0F7E2A3513D191EF66D45E7D56C2E.f02t04?systemMessage=Subscribe+and+renew+is+currently+unavailable+online.+Please+contact+customer+care+to+place+an+order%3A++http%3A%2F%2Folabout.wiley.com%2FWileyCDA%2FSection%2Fid-397203.html++.Apologies+for+the+inconvenience.

Dear Dr. Husain,

Your question is interesting since it refers to a possible match between teaching and learning style and more basically to the question  "How to adapt instruction to individual learner characteristics" . It is, however, based on some suppositions: (1) that matching teaching style and learning style is most fundamental for realizing adaptive instruction (2) that teaching style and learning style are well-defined concepts, (3) that the foundation of both styles shares compatible theoretical frameworks and (4) that the instrumentation of teaching and learning styles allows matching endeavors.

A contribution that focuses on the theoretical basis for comparing and matching teaching style and learning style (see supposition 3)  is the following one of my close colleagues in the Netherlands:

Vermunt, J.D. & Verloop, N. (1999).  Congruence and friction between learning and teaching. Learning and Instruction, 9, 257–280

"Theories of learning and theories of teaching often originate and operate independently from one another. This article attempts to contribute to the integration of the two types of theories. First, the cognitive, affective and regulative activities students use to learn are analyzed. Next, different ways in which teachers can regulate the learning and thinking activities of students are discussed, as well as the teaching strategies they can use for that aim. The third part focuses on different ways in which student-regulation and teacher-regulation of learning act upon one another. Congruence and friction between these modes of control are discussed. From this interplay implications are derived for process-oriented teaching, aimed at promoting congruence and constructive friction, avoiding destructive friction and reducing the gap between learning and teaching".

You can find the article on Scholar Google

Discursive interactions with students is key.