Learning Style:
Sensation and Intuition, Judging and Perceiving
I have included part of Assignment #1 here because I think it is a good demonstration of my understanding of the difference between sensation and intuition and the type of language and assignment choices each learning style benefits from most - plus I'm happy with my work here.
In order to help their students learn a teacher needs to be aware of a whole range of things from classroom politics to district policy, from teaching methods to student’s prior knowledge. But, because learning is about how we receive information, the most important information a teacher can have has to do with their student’s learning style. A teacher who offers his students a series of cookie-cutter assignments or who limits students’ choices on how they work with information is seriously limiting their learning potential. An important part of learning involves the student’s need to feel connected to their learning; they need to see the value in it. Therefore there must be some personal meaning and a way for each student to learn in the way that best suits them. Since sensation and intuition are the two most important aspects of learning style (p.24), curriculum that appeals to both styles is a crucial step in attempting to give students intriguing and challenging work that they care about doing.
The following questions and assignments for sensing and intuitive students are part of a curriculum for a grade 10 English class. The questions/assignments are meant to give the students come choice as well as various degrees of challenge.
Sensing Learners:
When planning this English lesson for sensing style learners I considered their appreciation of realistic, practical, results-oriented work, their preference for doing rather than listening, and the likelihood that they would disengage if I planned a lecture. They are organized and prefer to have immediate feedback so they know they’re on track. They want to know exactly what a task involves and what is expected of them. Sensing learners pay attention to detail, are more fact-oriented than interpretive and like to apply their knowledge in ways that are practical and useful.
Preamble: Stephen Coyne’s “Hunting Country” is a short story that describes the life and 40 year marriage of Edna and Coy. We will be looking at the story in a couple of different ways:
-Structurally, as a short story - what are the elements of a short story?
- The mental images evoked through descriptions in the text
- How the devastation of the forest in the story relates to real forestry issues in BC
- Feelings and values represented in the story: Edna, Coy and the dogs
Complete at least 2 of the following assignments to demonstrate your understanding of “Hunting Country”. Answers should be in paragraph form using the Standard English department font and letter size. You will have 2 weeks to complete and hand in your 3 chosen assignments (date).
[Setting out the format in this way lets the sensing learner know what to expect and gives them some instructions right away]
1. Elements of a short story: To do this assignment you will need paper, pen and a partner. If you are interested in this assignment you will let me know and I will help you find a partner. You and your partner will (quietly) brainstorm together for 15 to 20 minutes and make a list of all the elements there are that makes short story a distinct genre.
For example: short stories have a short timeline and usually a small amount of characters.
--When your 10 minutes is up, compare your list with the one in the back of your reader. Adjust and/or fill in your list until you have all the elements of a short story.
--Now, without your partner, find examples of each element in “Hunting Country” and make a list. When you are done, join your partner again and share what each of you has listed. Hand this assignment in by (date).
[This exercise allows the sensing learners to start with knowledge they already have and check their work before handing it in for evaluation. There is also a teaching element built into the partner work which will appeal to them. The tone of this assignment is one of “what do you know?” rather than “what do you think?” Immediate response and feedback is also built into this assignment.]
2· In “Hunting Country” both Edna and Coy talk about the devastation they see in what’s left of the forest. Pulp wooding was once an important part of the lives of everyone in the area. Stephen Coyne’s descriptions of the forest are vivid and sad: “...you can drive all the way from Polk County and not pass nothing but saplings no bigger ‘round than a dog’s waist, the ground underneath choked with weeds and green briars.” (p 2).
--Find and record 2 passages in the book that describe what the forest was forest was like when Coy and Edna were young and 2 passages of what it is like at the time of the story.
--Find 2 pictures or images (or draw/paint/colour your own) that demonstrate how the forest looked 20 years ago and how it looks now. Make a caption for each image of as many emotion and visual words as you can to describe the feeling they evoke in you.
--Find 5 facts about forestry in Canada and how it has affected our forests and explain them in a paragraph. Hand in your assignment by (date).
[This choice gives sensing students a chance to relate events in the book to real life. It calls for specific information and gives step-by-step instruction. Matching images to their research also makes their learning more concrete and will stimulate their visual sense.]
With the sensory learner in mind I have tried to include questions/assignments with various types of content such as factual, detail specific, opinion, text-based, working in tandem, and explanatory. I have included step-by-step directions and included examples to make the sensory learner comfortable. There are opportunities for research, list making, and sorting and the relevance of each step of the lesson is clear because it relates to other parts of the lesson as well as the story.
Intuitive Learners:
While considering the best way to go about planning lessons for intuitive learners I thought about their preferences for tasks that allow them to work independently and think things through for themselves. Creating patterns and making connections between things is appealing to intuitive learners. This means they enjoy inventing theories to explain people’s behaviour or how certain outcomes came about. Intuitive learners like surprises and change, are comfortable with not knowing exactly where they are going, need stimulation, and enjoy complexity. They should be given choices as to which assignments they do, have plenty of time to do them in but be given deadlines, and the tone of their assignments should be “What do you think?” more than “What do you know?”.
Intuitive Learning Style:
Preamble: In Stephen Coyne’s short story “Hunting Country” we meet Edna, a wife and mother who is looking back over her life and her 40 year marriage to Coy. We will consider this story in light of some of its main themes – particularly change – and will also look at the elements of the short story genre. Complete any 2 out of the 4 assignment choices below. You have 2 weeks to complete them, due date is (date).
1· Edna is brutally honest about the changes her husband Coy has undergone over the years. She also laments the changes in the forest that used to surround her. Write an essay that compares and contrasts the changes Coy undergoes with the changes the forest undergoes. Use evidence from the story to support your thoughts.
[This essay gives plenty of room for interpretation and making connections. It is clear what the assignment is but there is leeway in exactly how the essay is structured. An intuitive learner will be more interested in an assignment that asks what they think rather then what they know – or for facts. Using words like “brutally honest” and “laments” appeals to the intuitive love of language]
2· In the story we only get Edna’s side of things. We don’t know much about what Coy thinks of Edna and their life together. Imagine you are interviewing Coy for the local paper. Write 10 to 15 questions you’d like to ask him to find out what he likes and who he really is and then write the answers you imagine he would give. If you like you can so this assignment as a script and record the interview with a partner playing the reporter and you playing Coy.
[Here the student is given a choice within a choice and is able to be as creative as he/she wants while making connections between what Edna has told us and what she/he knows about people like Coy (real and fictitious)]
Overall, I have included a lot of variety and choice in these lessons: teaching, social interaction, imagining, creativity, drawing connections, comparing and contracting, and predicting. In the last lesson exactly how the learner chooses to get information is left entirely up to them. They are invited, through essay format, to explore and share their thinking. These choices are not heavy in detail but give enough information for the student to get started.
With such a wide variety of work coming from both sensing and intuitive learners evaluations would be difficult. How does one compare an imagined conversation between characters with factual information on BC’s forest industry? I think the way to do it is to take each student into consideration and mark them on whether they did their best work, if they pushed themselves to go beyond the usual, on how clear my sense is of whether they got the point of the assignment or not, and whether the project was properly presented – punctuation, spelling, structure, and tidiness as well as the quality of the content.
This assignment has continued to raise my awareness and admiration for all of the aspects of teaching that are invisible to a parent/student. I have been asking friends and family the questions in the text to determine their learning types. Doing this is helping me formulate how I can use knowledge of learning types to be a better counsellor. I am realizing the advantage of being able to present theory or intervention strategies to a client in the way they are most likely to understand and accept them. Knowing a client’s type will also assist in creating a plan of action that is appealing and has meaning for them, making it more likely they will stick with it.
