by Cassidy G. Callahan Cash

Students are individuals, and they learn uniquely. This means that when we are working with them, we have to present the new material in a way that makes sense in their brains. Students who are not visually oriented may get really confused when all we offer them is a white board presentation of a problem. To help, I have outlined three learning styles I encounter most often and how you can help these types of students learn effectively.

1 ) Analogies. This student works well with analogies. He never understands what we are studying until I can connect it to sports, guitars, girls, or football. Once you find that analogy that works for him, though, and man he goes to town on the lessons and gets all A’s. Try connecting the concept you are learning with something your student already likes. Are they into sports? What about music? How might an athlete or musician use the concepts you are learning today? It can take some pretty well-thought out plans and a few “Well, let’s just work with it” moments to make it fit, but if you can get your student interested on a personal level with what they are learning, they will pick up the concepts much faster, and with much more retention. Note that with this approach there are lots of moments where the numbers do not come out exactly “right”. So be prepared to fudge the exact answer in lieu of grasping a larger concept. Focusing on right answers will be a secondary step for this student.

2) Self-Teacher This student cannot follow the typical “teacher format” explanation of a problem. If I explain the problem to her on paper, working it “For her” and “telling her” how to do it, she zones out. She starts looking off into other directions, and is easily distracted by everything else. She is not trying to be a smart-alec, and she is not intentionally avoiding studying. She is, instead, simply the kind of learner that has to work it herself. So whenever she and I are working on a new concept, we start with her working the problem on her own. After she is finished, I tell her “There is a problem in step 3. Can you find it?” and she is usually able to find on her own what she did wrong. With this kind of learner, you intentionally resist the urge to say “It’s this! It’s this! You missed this, already!” and be sure to give the students the time to find their own mistakes and fix them by themselves. Since this type of learner is often also plagued by insecurity, your presence and availability helps give them confidence to try it on their own. They know you’re going to be there to help them if they get stuck.

3) The Quiet One. This type of student enjoys quiet while they think. They have to work through, and process mentally, the concepts on the page. Background noise is great, because silence is creepy, but while they are solving a problem, you cannot talk to them. When they have done what they can with it, they will raise their head and say “Is this right?” And show you their work. The trick at that point is to ask “I don’t know, you tell me.” Obviously, you do know if it is right or not because you have an answer key, but go ahead and make that student gain confidence. If they are unable to tell whether their problem is correct or not then help them. Show them the right answer, and then show them how to find it on their own when you are not there. The ultimate goal with this student is to teach them to work independently of you—a task they are learning towards naturally anyway. This student is mostly a self-teacher, but without the collaboration. They like to do it totally on their own start to finish, in silence, then have you readily available at the conclusion to be evaluated on their progress. With this student, you often cannot go off and do other things while they work, though, because they need help between problems. They need to learn one concept at a time, and move sequentially. This student does not naturally show their work, and as a result is prone to simple mistakes (like missing a negative sign). Often this particular student will not need much review once they have learned the concept well. Long term retention is common with quiet learners.

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