Understanding Different Learning Styles

Here's how to teach in the ways people learn best.
Understanding Different Learning Styles

So much has been said in educational circles about people's different ways of perceiving reality. We're inundated with "right brain, left brain" jargon. We hear that some people think with their feelings, senses, and emotions; others with facts and figures. Clearly, we don't all think—or learn—alike.

Educators have found at least four separate learning styles, each with its own optimum teaching methods. Individual educational theorists label their quadrants differently, but I prefer the schema Bernice McCarthy outlined in the 4MAT System. She distinguishes four kinds of students: innovative learners, analytic learners, common-sense learners, and dynamic learners. The following descriptions lean heavily on her work.

Innovative Learners

Innovative learners seek meaning. They learn as they listen and share ideas. For them, being personally involved in the learning process is important. McCarthy writes, "They are divergent thinkers who believe in their own experience, excel in viewing concrete situations from many perspectives, and model themselves on those they respect."

As you might have guessed, I'm an innovative learner. We innovative ones like to participate in small-group discussions. We're idea people; our favorite questions are "Why?" and "Why not?" Often we're found in careers in the humanities, in personnel work, counseling, or organizational development.

But I hate art projects. Don't invite me to carve a bar of Ivory soap into a dove to represent the Holy Spirit. I'm not interested. It won't look good. I'd think the whole idea is silly—unless we could sit around and talk about the process. Then I could get excited.

So put me into a small group at some point in the learning experience. Let me discuss with other learners the application of biblical truths. I want to talk about it and hear others' opinions. I go crazy when a teacher just talks on and on. I want my turn to work with the idea or to get to know the teacher as a real person. Discussions, skits, small groups, drama, and interaction with others are the learning strategies from which I learn best.

Since I prosper in this kind of learning atmosphere, it's hard for me to believe that not every student longs for that moment in class when he's invited to move his folding chair into a circle. I have to remember there are three other learning styles.

Analytic Learners

An analytic learner says, "Just give me the facts." Analytic learners like to know the mind of the experts. For them, learning comes through thinking through ideas to form reality. They tend to have less interest in people than in ideas and concepts. They like to critique information and collect good data.

These are the people who love the traditional classroom. Straight lecture suits them well, as long as the lecturer is qualified. They are willing to do the memory work and lap up all the facts. As a teacher, it's easy to like these students because they are happy to sit still and listen. Learners like these excel at creating concepts and models. They cluster in careers like math, research, the basic sciences, and planning departments.

A man in my group named Bob is an analytical learner. When I suggest making big, colorful collages that depict the pressures society puts on 20th-century Christians, he wants to hear what scientists say about current trends, what facts I've dug out of the most recent journals, and what predictions specialists make for the future. Forget the collage for Bob, unless it is adapted to appeal to his learning style.

To best teach the analytic learners, I've found I need to give them details, lists, technical information, and quotes from "the experts." And if I keep it well organized, it makes it easier for them to transfer the data intact into their notebooks.

They tend to frown when drama, art, or group discussions are the order of the day. These techniques seem a waste of time to them—fluff when they are looking for information. One way around this problem is to supply them the data about learning styles. Once these folks know why the other teaching methods are necessary, they are more amenable to them.

Common-Sense Learners

These people don't want to talk about something; they want to do it. Nothing is more important for common-sense learners than practical, hands-on approaches. Learning is filtered through the screen of usability. A "fuzzy idea" that they can't take apart to see how it works makes them uneasy. You'll often hear from them, "How does this work?" But they may actually resent being given answers. They would prefer to solve the problems themselves.

The common sense crew learns by testing theories in ways that seem sensible. As McCarthy says, "They edit reality." Grown-up common-sense learners can be found on Monday morning working as engineers, nurses, technicians, and physical scientists.

Eric, a common-sense learner, doesn't hesitate to help me understand how his type can learn best. He tells me, "Forget all that fancy jargon; just get down to what really works in life."

Actually, he's not that fond of being in a classroom at all. He'd rather "get on with it"—whatever it is. He wants to know what works, what you can do with it, and how it all fits together. With Eric, I can't be nebulous. I have to be specific, and then let him try it out.

With people like this, I'm most effective when I give them something to design with their hands. I provide some factual data to massage and a problem to solve, then set them free on a project. And the best projects have some tie to "real life."

If the Bible lesson is on stewardship, for example, the common-sense learners would enjoy working on a project to pay the church bills. Give them a copy of the church budget, the income, and the possible ministry expenses. Then set them loose to plan, to experiment, and to solve the problem using their practicality.

Dynamic Learners

Dynamic learners want to discover truth themselves. Hidden possibilities excite them. Their favorite question: "What can this become?"

The world comes to people like these in rather concrete principles, but they process it actively and with flair. They don't so much absorb reality as enrich it. People like this often seek careers in sales, action-oriented managerial positions, and marketing.

This group functions best by acting and then testing their experience. To best reach them, I need to make things happen in the group, to inject action into mere concepts. Dynamic learners need variety and flexibility, which makes them greatly adaptable to change.

For a lesson on evangelism, I may charge the dynamic learners to design a strategy to reach a local apartment complex with the gospel. And I'd challenge them with the task of not only designing the plan, but finding ways to bring it to reality. They don't necessarily want the hands-on experience of printing the brochures or mapping the neighborhood (as the common-sense learners would), but they would sure like to brainstorm the program design. This is a real task, one they would consider worthy of their enthusiasm and creativity.

At the time this article was written, Penny Zettler was minister of Christian education at Central Baptist Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

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