learners learning preferences

[dmadzete]

I am a 29 years presently studying as a student-teacher in Francistown teacher training college in Botswana. Here they preach that when designing learning materials for a session, should take into consideration aecn and every individual learner learning style. I fail to understand how one can cater for the whole if you have 16 learners with different learning styles in a class. What are other student teachers views?

[Clix]

I think the idea here is not that you have to cater to every learning style every day, but that you want to make sure you balance the way you teach. Some lessons, you might be able to use music or rhythm (poetry, for example, works well here) for an auditory learning style. If you have students clap or march to the beat, you're incorporating kinesthetic learning style as well. For other lessons, you might use visual representations - charts, artwork, maps, etc. - which are more helpful for visual learners.

The idea is to use a variety of styles, so that all students are sometimes challenged in new ways and sometimes in their comfort zone. You don't want to have anyone who's always excluded.