Week 9: Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences

Curry's Onion Model. The Curry Onion Metaphor (1983)

I have learned about Curry's Onion Model from the article by Terry O'Connor “Using Learning Styles to Adapt Technology for Higher Education”, http://iod.unh.edu/EE/articles/learning-styles.html/, which I found very interesting, as it directly addresses my personal needs.

In this article she states that most teachers tend to rely almost exclusively on sequential, verbal presentations, combined with private reading & writing activities. However, students learn best when they can address knowledge in ways that they trust. Curry's model provides categorization of human learning differences:
1. Environmental preferences regarding sound, light, temperature, and class design;
2. Emotional preferences addressing motivation, persistence, responsibility and structure;
3. Sociological preferences for private, pair, peer, team, adult or varied learning relations;
4. Psychological preference related to perception, intake, time, and mobility;
5. Psychological preferences based on analytic mode, hemisphericity, and action.

According to O’Connor ‘The concept of learning styles has gained growing attention from educators because it provides a stable-enough characterization to plan pedagogical strategies. These strategies appear more responsive to students needs’.
Here are some general conclusions for teachers:
• Students will learn better when using preferences in which they're successful
• Students will be better learners when they can expand their preferences
• When teaching accommodates various preferences, more students will be successful.
• Teachers can construct activities that include specific (& multiple) learning preferences
• This can be done by adding alternatives or, completing learning cycles that incorporate all styles or, by utilizing holistic, complex tasks.

In her article I also came across the Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model, and found a very interesting presentation at: http://www.slideshare.net/bking/edu-5701-7-dunn-dunn-learning-styles-model1-presentation/ which I recommend to view.

I found particularly helpful for me “Sailing the 5 C's with Learning Strategies” http://www.nclrc.org/sailing/, as it deals with Foreign Language Learning Standards, the 5 Cs: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. The thing is that besides teaching, I am also involved in designing and developing National Standards for Foreign Languages (English in particular) for all stages of schools: Primary, Basic and Secondary. One of the main directions in our standard is Learning to Learn. That’s why, the material provided here is very valuable for my further work on the Standard.

Currently a Presidential Program “Teach and Learn Georgia” is underway: within this program volunteer teachers (native speakers) from all over the world are invited to teach in Georgian schools together with local teachers.

On Saturday I had a very important mission: I had to make a presentation to the group of 60 volunteer-teachers about the objectives of the National Curriculum, The National Standard for Teaching English and the Assessment System. Equipped with all the theoretical and technological skills, the presentation was successful, though very tiresome: the whole week I was working on the presentation material, and yesterday I had to traveled by car for 7 hours to and fro (as it was held in another city). So, please forgive me if you find my writing a bit incoherent.