Making a difference through learning styles

By Henry S. Tenedero (Manila Bulletin, March 4, 2009)

It has been said before in many different ways, but it all boils down to the same thing and applies equally well to learning:

“Different strokes for different folks.”

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

The point is that persons are a highly diverse lot. The point is that each person is unique. This uniqueness finds expression in every situation, including the classroom. Uniform, unvarying teaching styles are not only boring to the max; they are also ineffective.

Consider the classroom as a steak restaurant, the teacher a cook, the subject matter as beef, and the students as the diners. Old teaching paradigms would have the teacher-cook say, “This is the kind of steak I choose to serve you guys, and this is the way you are all going to have to take it.”

A new teaching paradigm says it’s a diner’s world there inside the classroom: it is the diner’s tastes that must be met. You want your students to take their steak, better serve it up the way they want it. Sure, it will mean a bit more work for the teacher. But once you see your diners lapping it up and asking for more, you’ll know that it was worth it.

This new teaching paradigm goes by the name of Learning Styles (LS). Over the past 22 years, this model has been field-tested and fine-tuned through research in more than 60 institutions of higher learning in the United States and other countries.

According to the model, there are at least 22 items in the learning preference menu, and these are grouped under five major categories: environmental, physiological, social, emotional, and psychological. It defines learning style as the sum of an individual learner’s preferences in all those categories.

Hey! 22 years of research; 22 items; five categories; 60 educational institutions – that’s a whole lot of cooking! Makes you wonder how we managed to learn anything at all under the old paradigms.
(Henry S. Tenedero is the president of the Center for Learning and Teaching Styles and MINDful IDEAS, an affiliate of the International Learning Styles Network, based at St. John’s University in New York. He is a graduate of the AIM Masters in Development management and of the Harvard Graduate School for Professional Educators. He can be reached at htenedero@yahoo.com.)

The Teacher Factor

by Ina R. Hernando
from Manila Bulletin

Just like many schools, Bridges Foundation Inc. is also being affected by the exodus of teachers. But Bridge’s Grace R. Reyes believes that there will always be good people who will come to teach children with special needs.

Reyes says that one of the major strengths of their school is their teachers. This is why they are very meticulous in hiring. Aside from the educational credentials, they try to discern whether the teacher applicant has the heart, the compassion, commitment, patience and perseverance to deal with special needs children.

Beyond the educational knowledge and basic skills, teachers should also have the creativity to present the lessons in a varied manner and be equipped with basic communication skills to relate with the parents and caregivers. “They should also have the willingness to learn from other co-teachers and the sense of humor to laugh at their challenges and celebrate the ‘Aha’ moments with the children,” Reyes adds.

Furthermore, the teacher should have a positive attitude towards life in general.

“Our job is hard enough so it is important that the teachers we get are more in love with life because they are more inclined to share of themselves, and to be happier in what they do.”

She says that being a SpEd teacher is not just a job title but a vocation. “The teachers who stay and who turn out to be good SpEd teachers are those who have embraced that it’s a vocation.’’

To measure up, Bridges conducts training the whole year. “It’s a constant sharing in school, whether through informal discussions during lunch breaks or scheduled formal seminars. We teach and train based on what we have learned from other specialists we meet all over. Ours is a continuous learning process because there is so much that needs to be improved.”

Bridges also continuously trains teacher aides, parents and child’s caregivers to ensure that they handle children in the manner that will help them most. “We need all the help we could get in developing the capabilities of children under our care. This is also why we encourage the teachers to pursue further studies to hone their teaching skills.”