This book provides a timely review of learning style research. It examines those approaches that purport to promote effective learning. It affirms the need for instructors and trainers to recognize the importance of individual learning differences and to use methods that help create a learning climate which increases the potential learning for all students or trainees regardless of their preferred way of learning. The ability to understand and to teach to the various learning styles of students is essential to improving the effectiveness of college-level education. In this book, Sims and Sims bring together significant research to aid academics and organizational trainers in understanding and applying learning style research and knowledge to program, course, and class development.

Learning Styles is full of practical, helpful, and eye-opening information about the different ways kids perceive information and then use that knowledge, as well as how their behavior is often tied to their particular learning style. When we understand learning styles—imaginative, analytic, common sense, and dynamic—and adjust our teaching or parenting to those styles, we begin reaching everyone God gives us to teach.

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′[Gavin Reid] provides some useful links to websites devoted to different approaches. Some of the ideas relating to specific areas of the curriculum, for example, the suggested approaches to the teaching of modern languages, are likely to be particularly valuable. Reid also outlines strategies using learning styles for pupils with learning differences, including attention disorders, dyslexia, developmental co-ordination difficulties, number difficulties, and those on the autistic spectrum′ - Times Educational Supplement Extra for Special Needs `We have been lucky enough to hear Gavin speak twice in the last year and those of you who have also heard him will know that he is at the cutting edge of his field. This book really encompasses those areas that are particularly topical and the "buzz" words on everyone′s lips! This book clearly sets out "who" is involved in inclusion and "what" is actually meant by learning styles. Gavin not only offers practical strategies but also suggests how "old hands" could vary their teaching styles to appeal to all types of learners. Therefore we feel this book is for the main stream teacher as well as the specialist and, if this is a target area for your school, this book might be a valuable addition to your bookshelf′ - SATIPS `In this book, Gavin Reid has grasped the nettle (of inclusion) with both hands and provided a text that is full of common sense and practical suggestions as to how the mainstream teacher can draw upon recent psychological theory and research to enhance the learning of all children. He jumps on no bandwagons but draws judiciously from a wide range of approaches to assessing learning styles and links what can be learned about groups and individuals from such techniques to helpful classroom practice′ - Professor Bob Burden, School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of Exeter `Gavin Reid is that rare professional who not only explains how and why children learn best, but also suggests a myriad of practical strategies to help them. I highly recommend this book for everyone from undergraduates to "old hands" working toward successful inclusion. Parents, too, will profit from Dr. Reid′s wise and comprehensive experience′ - Jane M. Healy, Ph.D., Educational Psychologist and Author of "Your Child′s Growing Mind: Brain Development and Learning from Birth to Adolescence." 3rd Edition. NY: Broadway Books, 2004. Drawing on his considerable experience as a teacher, educational psychologist, lecturer and author, Gavin Reid illustrates how to assess pupils′ different learning styles and how to vary your teaching style to appeal to all types of learners, including disaffected students and those with special educational needs. This book provides an overview of the different stages in the learning cycle; describes the differences between learners; and emphasizes the role the classroom environment and different teaching styles play in children′s ability to learn. Readers will see how an understanding of learning styles can be used to encourage and promote good inclusive practice. Ideas for assessment of learning styles and examples of different teaching styles will prove invaluable to class teachers, trainee teachers, SENCOs, LEA advisers; NQTs and NQT advisers and school management

To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners. Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights into how memory is encoded, consolidated, and later retrieved have led to a better understanding of how we learn. Grappling with the impediments that make learning challenging leads both to more complex mastery and better retention of what was learned. Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.

In the tradition of The Power of Habit and Thinking, Fast and Slow comes a practical, playful, and endlessly fascinating guide to what we really know about learning and memory today—and how we can apply it to our own lives. From an early age, it is drilled into our heads: Restlessness, distraction, and ignorance are the enemies of success. We’re told that learning is all self-discipline, that we must confine ourselves to designated study areas, turn off the music, and maintain a strict ritual if we want to ace that test, memorize that presentation, or nail that piano recital. But what if almost everything we were told about learning is wrong? And what if there was a way to achieve more with less effort? In How We Learn, award-winning science reporter Benedict Carey sifts through decades of education research and landmark studies to uncover the truth about how our brains absorb and retain information. What he discovers is that, from the moment we are born, we are all learning quickly, efficiently, and automatically; but in our zeal to systematize the process we have ignored valuable, naturally enjoyable learning tools like forgetting, sleeping, and daydreaming. Is a dedicated desk in a quiet room really the best way to study? Can altering your routine improve your recall? Are there times when distraction is good? Is repetition necessary? Carey’s search for answers to these questions yields a wealth of strategies that make learning more a part of our everyday lives—and less of a chore. By road testing many of the counterintuitive techniques described in this book, Carey shows how we can flex the neural muscles that make deep learning possible. Along the way he reveals why teachers should give final exams on the first day of class, why it’s wise to interleave subjects and concepts when learning any new skill, and when it’s smarter to stay up late prepping for that presentation than to rise early for one last cram session. And if this requires some suspension of disbelief, that’s because the research defies what we’ve been told, throughout our lives, about how best to learn. The brain is not like a muscle, at least not in any straightforward sense. It is something else altogether, sensitive to mood, to timing, to circadian rhythms, as well as to location and environment. It doesn’t take orders well, to put it mildly. If the brain is a learning machine, then it is an eccentric one. In How We Learn, Benedict Carey shows us how to exploit its quirks to our advantage.

How do you get a fourth-grader excited about history? How do you even begin to persuade high school students that mathematical functions are relevant to their everyday lives? In this volume, practical questions that confront every classroom teacher are addressed using the latest exciting research on cognition, teaching, and learning. How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom builds on the discoveries detailed in the bestselling How People Learn. Now, these findings are presented in a way that teachers can use immediately, to revitalize their work in the classroom for even greater effectiveness. Organized for utility, the book explores how the principles of learning can be applied in teaching history, science, and math topics at three levels: elementary, middle, and high school. Leading educators explain in detail how they developed successful curricula and teaching approaches, presenting strategies that serve as models for curriculum development and classroom instruction. Their recounting of personal teaching experiences lends strength and warmth to this volume. The book explores the importance of balancing students' knowledge of historical fact against their understanding of concepts, such as change and cause, and their skills in assessing historical accounts. It discusses how to build straightforward science experiments into true understanding of scientific principles. And it shows how to overcome the difficulties in teaching math to generate real insight and reasoning in math students. It also features illustrated suggestions for classroom activities. How Students Learn offers a highly useful blend of principle and practice. It will be important not only to teachers, administrators, curriculum designers, and teacher educators, but also to parents and the larger community concerned about children's education.

Case study observations and analyses of learning styles in U.S. secondary schools comprise the crux of this monograph. The text provides testimony to the accomplishments of schools actually integrating differentiated learning styles into their diverse educational programs and concomitant coursework. With the notion that learning style provides important insights into the ways individual students process information, this research documents the implementation of learning styles successfully in 12 schools. The schools are of many varieties: public and private (including parochial and nonsectarian); rural, suburban, and urban schools both large and small; an alternative program; and a university-affiliated laboratory school. In addition to the 12 case studies, learning styles are defined and effective leadership and management strategies facilitating learning styles' applications are diagnosed. A reference list of 8 pages and an annotated bibliography of 21 items are included. (JAM)

Students have different learning styles! Understanding Learning Styles helps teachers determine the learning style of each student and the appropriate delivery methods to target and address the needs of as many of the intelligences as possible. Different learning-styles are presented in this professional book that helps teachers determine how best to teach their students. Surveys, practical ideas, and suggestions for designing lessons that incorporate multiple learning styles are provided to show teachers how to differentiate instruction. This resource is aligned to the interdisciplinary themes from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. 208pp.