Learning Styles

Instructors should adapt their teaching styles to accommodate different learning styles of students. Various learning style instruments, such as LSI, LSQ, CLSI, and ILS, can be used to assess students' preferences. Incorporating different teaching methods, like lectures, demonstrations, tutorials, and self-study, is important. Engaging students with games like Kahoot! and providing self-study guides can be effective. Practical classes should include academic components and hands-on demonstrations. The information in the podcast is reliable as it is derived from reputable articles. Hi, my name is Lizzie Sloan and I'm a Registered Massage Therapist. Today, I will be talking about the findings in the article Learning Styles, a Review of Theory, Application, and Best Practices. As the diversity of students and delivery methods in education continue to change and increase, it is important for instructors to adapt their teaching styles to accommodate the many different learning styles of students. Best practices might involve offering courses that employ a variety of teaching styles so that some content in every course will be presented in a manner that is suited to every type of learner. The changes in technology have led many instructors to reconsider traditional instruction methods and are considering the importance of student learning styles in the design and delivery of course content. Learning styles are one factor of success in higher education. There are several skills that are available for the standardization of learning styles which employ a variety of learning style descriptors. These skills focus on environmental preferences, sensory modalities, personality types, and cognitive styles. One learning style instrument that was developed by Kolb is the Learning Style Inventory Instrument, or LSI. Another instrument developed by Honey and Mumford is the Learning Style Questionnaire, or LSQ, that presumably has improved validity and predictive accuracy compared to the LSI. An alternative to LSQ is the Canceled Learning Style Inventory, or CLSI, which describes learning styles in four dimensions. Lastly, Felder and Silverman introduced a learning style assessment known as the Index of Learning Survey, or ILS, that was specifically designed for classroom use. It outputs a preference profile for a student or class and has several advantages over other instruments such as conciseness and ease of administration. The argument exists that instructors should not have to adapt their teaching styles to meet the learning styles of their students, but if there is a misalignment in the two, it might challenge students to adjust, grow intellectually, and learn in more integrative ways. The study by CARB suggests that 61% of students had multimodal learning style preferences, opposed to 39% of students having a unimodal preference. This study shows the importance of incorporating various teaching learning methods such as lectures and demonstrations, tutorials, practicals, and self-study. In the massage theory classroom, it can be important to incorporate multiple teaching methods to allow more students to have a better understanding of the material. For an academic setting, it can become very monotonous to listen to an instructor cover a different PowerPoint lecture every week. To engage students, I would include a Kahoot! game every other class. Kahoot! is a game-based student response system that transforms the classroom into a game show, where the instructor is the game show host and the students are the contestants. The instructor is responsible for creating questions on Kahoot!, which can include true or false, multiple choice, or fill in the blank. This would be a great way to review the material covered from the previous couple of weeks and to engage the students. On the opposing weeks, I would create a worksheet on the material covered as a self-study guide. For a practical class, it is important to teach the academic components of the class through a PowerPoint lecture or worksheet first, but for students to understand the hands-on component, a demonstration and practical component is vital. I would spend the first part of the class covering the material before moving on to a demonstration of the strokes, techniques, sequences, and massage. Once the students have a better understanding, they could break out into pairs and practice. This simulation allows for the instructor to walk around the classroom and give feedback while they are practicing. I also believe the information covered in this podcast is reliable because it is derived from two articles from the National Library of Medicine Journal. The one article is written by two doctors of pharmacy who have their Masters in Public Health, and the other article is written by professors in the Department of Anatomy, School of Medical Sciences and Research in India. The citations of references used in both articles are accurate and reputable.