My Reflective Teaching Blog: Week 9: Learning Styles and Motivation

Yet another week to reflect on motivation. I am convinced that teachers must encourage and support their students to perform to the highest standards and realize their potential. A purposeful and meaningful teaching job is likely to have a more personal impact on students and give them a sense of achievement and personal growth.

One of the theories that promote motivation is the theory of learning styles. It was new to me and I decided to try it on myself and test my own learning styles and see if the theory proves to be true. So I took the test at ‘What Is Your LearningStyle?’ and found out that my learning styles are:

Intrapersonal – 75% (Those with intrapersonal intelligence do well in careers where self-management is important, such as being a writer, a teacher, a counselor, a police officer, or a pilot);

Linguistic – 67% (You have the ability to use words effectively for reading, writing, listening, and speaking);

Interpersonal – 56% (You enjoy teaching and sharing your thoughts. Careers that require insight and the ability to read what someone else is thinking or feeling – such as teaching, psychology, or sales – would be a great match for those with interpersonal intelligence.)

Other styles showed the results of less than 50%.

I felt the results of the test were correct and proved once again that I am a natural-born teacher. It is a good idea to give this test to students at the beginning of a course to see how to plan lessons more effectively. Taking into account their learning inclinations and tendencies, a teacher will inspire and motivate and students will accomplish the tasks they like faster and with more aspiration which, in turn, will bring higher final results.

Learning styles theories have become the foundation on which to build adult learning. It has been known for some time that students retain more knowledge and are able to better

transfer knowledge to the workplace when they have been taught in their preferred learning

style. What are these learning styles (just in short)?

• Visual (Graphical Representations, Photos, PowerPoint, etc.);

• Aural (Learn by Listening, Enjoy ‘Lectures’, Need Directions Read Aloud);

• Read / Write (Written Word – Read or Write, Textbooks and References);

• Kinesthetic (Learn by Doing, ‘Hands-on’).

The important aspect of Learning Styles is that a variety of training strategies need to be in place to accommodate the different ways that we prefer to learn. A ‘one size fits all’ approach will not work and will consequently affect motivation and achievement of successful training.

PS: Other nice articles on Motivation and Learning Styles: