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Learning Styles – Doers, Feelers, Thinkers, Watchers

A learning style is the way a person’s sensory, perceptual, memorial, decision-making, and feedback mechanisms operate. Or more simply, the preferred technique to approach learning. Some students have a dominant style and others are comfortable in more than one.

PSIA references different theories on learning styles, this is a classic one.

Doers
  • Values active experimentation
  • Pragmatic, practical, functional
  • Good problem solvers, work well with others
  • Constantly active, doesn’t like being idle and gets frustrated with too much talking
  • Learn by experimenting, trial and error
  • Instructor should provide experiences that will guide the child
  • Experiential learning is an effective method for all students


Feelers
  • Values concrete experience
  • Learn through gut intuition
  • Very senstivite between what s/he does and it outcomes, aware of similarities and differences of experiences
  • Tell student how it feels to do a particular movement
  • Need concrete exercises designed to develop a particular movement pattern
  • Children are often inward looking, help them learn to look ahead
  • Will loose interest if instruction is too analytical
Thinkers
  • Values abstract conceptualization
  • Analytical, logical, thorough and theoretical
  • Can me loners, dreamers, meticulous
  • Learn best by using cognitive abilities
  • Focus on why something works
  • Provide rationale for activities
  • Try to involve them in solving problems and discussing conclusions
  • Spend time talking through technical questions on the lift
Watchers (visual learners)
  • Values reflective observation, want to see the picture
  • Most attentive when presented with visual information
  • Good listeners who are introspective and contemplative
  • Encourage students to view the whole movement, parts of a movement, a specific body part
  • Tends to hang back to study other’s performance
  • Likes to follow behind the instructor
  • Have children mimic the movements of others by synchronizing them
  • You can also ask them to pay attention to path left in the snow and ask them to follow it

Comments

  1. THANKS DIVA - FROM SKIMEBOB Roundtop We had breakfast at the WiffyBOG

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good job, really helpful thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. People have a tendency to teach the way they learn.
    It’s important to be able to adjust your teaching style to your students learning style. You’ll get the best results when teaching styles and learning styles match. But,
    in a group lesson where you do not know everybody’s learning style it is important to introduce new movement patterns that would be recognized by all four learning styles. A verbal explanation, a visual demonstration, followed by practice.
    Just an interesting observation is that if you’re having them do a task, you will find the Dewers and the fielders at the top of the line, wanting to go. The thinkers, and the watcher will be at the bottom of the line so that they can grasp the theory and the visual of previous students.

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