Journal #2 - Accommodation

What it means to be an effective teacher.

One of the most important things that I've learned over my five years at the University of Victoria is that everyone learns differently; not every student will take in the information and learn from it in the same way.  I’ve discovered, both through personal experiences as a student as well as through my education courses, that being able to adapt and accommodate to individual learning styles is an essential and critical part of being an effective teacher.

Throughout my years at UVic I’ve discovered that as a student there are different ways even within different subject areas and disciplines that I learn best.  Sometimes I find that hands-on experience is the most effective way that I learn, while other times it’s through very traditional styles such as visual and auditory; even within a single student there can be a wide variety of learning styles that all need to be catered too.  Because of my experience within my own learning styles I can understand how there can be such a wide variety of learning styles within a class, as well as within individual students.

Woolfolk, Winnie and Perry (2011) have defined three different traditions of learning styles which incorporate the wide variety of learning styles (i.e., cognitive styles, problem-solving styles, decision-making styles, thinking styles, etc.) that individuals may have: cognitive-centered styles, personality-centered styles, and activity-centered styles.  Throughout my educational courses I’ve be exposed to a number of different teaching styles which help cater to the these different traditions of learning.  Bloom’s Taxonomy of Teaching Styles is one way that I’ve been exposed to different ways to teaching a class; the spectrum of teaching styles incorporates styles such as command and practice which are more teacher lead styles, and divergent discovery and reciprocal styles which give the students’ more decision-making power and control of their learning.

Using these different teaching styles effectively is essential in helping students to learn to the best of their ability.  I believe that many students who may struggle in different classes don’t understand the content simply because it’s not presented to them in a way which they understand.  Although it’s difficult to cater to all individual needs all the time, I believe that as a teacher it is my responsibility to adapt and accommodate my lesson plan to help those students who may be struggling with traditional visual or auditory learning.

I think that because my background is in Physical Education, I really understand the importance of having students becoming actively involved in their learning; the process of learning is continuous and reciprocal, so it’s crucial that students take part in how they learn and how the learning may be structured.  I believe that having students being actively involved in their own learning and giving them a choice in how they learn the material, you can effectively help all students see success. 

I believe that being an effective teacher means being able to accommodate a variety of different learning styles within your classes.  Being able to help every student in your class understand the material by the way that they learn best is going to help increase the success of the students and make for a very positive learning experience for everyone.  Effective teachers can cater to the needs to all of the students by offering a variety of different teaching methods, styles and assessment options to students.



References:
Woolfolk, A.N., Winne, P.H., & Perry, N.E. (2011). Educational psychology (5th ed.). Toronto, ON: Pearson Canada