Teaching & Learning Styles
Individual teaching and learning styles are one of the things that make teaching so
complicated. Teachers who have taught for any length of time begin to realize how hard
it is to be all teachers to all students. Below are several links for teachers to figure
out their "teaching styles" (how they view authority, knowledge, power, etc.),
as well as the sort of "learning styles" their students come to classes with.
McKinney, for example, explains how important it is for teachers to engage various
learning styles in classes, which doesn't always require a massive overhaul of the
teaching style with which the teacher is most comfortable.
Teaching Styles
- Instructional Design and Teaching
Style (Indiana State)
- Based on the instructional theories of Anthony Grasha, this site offers hints
on how to design courses based on the level of authority and control you need to
have over a class and its workings.
- Teaching Styles Inventory
- Forty-question inventory of classroom-related questions for teachers to answer
based on specific courses they teach.
Learning Styles
- Learning Styles (Charles
Claxton & Patricia Murrell, NTLF)
- Claxton & Murrell encourage teachers to engage in classroom inquiry into learning
styles by paying attention to "(1) personality, (2) information processing,
(3) social interaction, and (4) instructional methods."
- Learning Styles (Richard
Felder, NCSU)
- This site is a clearinghouse of articles and information on learning styles, most
of which is written as well by Felder.
- Multiple Intelligences:
An Overview (Pearson)
- On Learning Styles (Harvey
Brightman, Georgia State)
- Brightman discusses the impact that Personality Type can have on learning and teaching.
- Supporting Individual Learners in Classrooms
with Diversity (Kathleen McKinney, Sociology)
- McKinney offers several options for engaging different sorts of students, involving
modifying personal behaviors, class design, etc.
Other Resources
- Learning Styles v. Teaching Styles (Southeastern
Oklahoma State)
- Matching Teaching
Styles with Learning Styles in East Asian Contexts (R. Zhenhui, China)
- Teaching and Learning
Styles in Foreign and Second Language Education (R. Felder)
- Teaching Styles and Instructional
Uses of the World Wide Web (Indiana State)
