Learning Styles
Learning styles refer to preferred individual’s way of processing information and remembering learning concepts (Atwa, Abozeid, & Fouad, 2016). Visual, kinesthetic and auditory are the primary forms of learning styles. According to Atwa, Abozeid, and Fouad (2016), knowing the learning styles of students is paramount since the styles help educators identify and solve learning problems, which are the initial step in improving their academic performance. These leadership strategies course would help accommodate kinesthetic learners, determined visual learners, and auditory learners.
Objectives
- After this design, the students who are determined visual learners would be able to understand leadership strategies by watching videos for various presentations.
- After this design, the students who are auditory learners would be able to learn leadership strategies by hearing and discussing the information from speakers.
- After this design, the students who are kinesthetic learners would be able to understand leadership strategies by being involved in physical activities related to the topic.
Outline
This approach provides a guideline for classification of students into their various learning styles. The audience is newly graduated nurses who will also be part of the leadership training. The design of the leadership strategies is done to enhance learning by accommodating all students. Various learning styles are used in this design to improve memory among the nursing students. Visual learning, auditory learning, and kinesthetic learning are used because of the diversity present among the students. Incorporating the various learning styles suitable for students would ensure that the message of discussion is clear to everyone.
Description of the Learning Activities and Rationale
Leadership dream activity would be used in kinesthetic learning style. The newly graduated nursing students would organize themselves into a group and participate in a short drama demonstrating the role of leaders in the society (Atwa, Abozeid, & Fouad, 2016). This would entail sharing of responsibilities among them with each student taking up a leadership role. The ability of the leader to properly manage his duties in the drama reflects real leadership where a nurse manager is required to manage a specific group of patients or be in charge of a given department in the health care facility.
According to Mobley and Fisher (2014), kinesthetic learning style is used in the design to enhance learning process among the students by getting involved in physical activities rather than watching demonstrations and listening to lectures. It allows students to move out of classroom and interacts with objects within an appropriate environment. Various activities are designed depending on the patient’s emotions and ability to relate to others well. This creates a permanent impact on the learners since they physically get involved in the study.
The design would require the use of videos, flowcharts, pictures, and underline with different colors, diagrams, graphs, and tables projected to the newly graduate nurses in the presentation of information. The graphics used are designed in attractive colors. A projector would be used to project various pictures related to the topic and diagrams describing various leadership entities would be drawn using different colors.
According to Cuadrado-gallego et al. (2011), visual techniques are applied in the learning environment to promote individual work and to enable students to develop characteristics that be used to improve cognitive capacity. The students view what is being presented and then evaluate and interpret them. Visual learning employed in the design involves the use of pictures, charts, maps, graphs, and diagrams (Atwa, Abozeid, & Fouad, 2016). This learning style is associated with maximum attention among the learners since the graphics used are attractive to the audience, especially when using a video in explanation. It helps students think critically, organize information in their thoughts, and integrate new knowledge much easier as compared to other styles of learning (Atwa, Abozeid, & Fouad, 2016). Visual styles can enable a large quantity of information to be delivered at once.
Auditory learning would be achieved by discussions, reading specific paragraphs aloud, and asking questions which are answered a loud by the students. By giving an oral presentation of the leadership, it would be possible to engage the students in frequent discussions. The discussion would be in the form of a student to student or student to the speaker. Based on what has been presented, the students are given a platform to explain their understanding of the topic. Questions raised to the students are answered on the volunteer basis in a loud voice in class.
Auditory learning involves learning by listening to the speakers. For auditory learning to be active, the learner must have excellent listening skills and must be able to understand the language of the speaker (Zhang, et al.,2016). This is the most widely used learning style used in delivering information. It might not be effective in situations where barriers to listening are present. Auditory learners have shown to have an excellent memory of past conservations, which amused them or got their full interest especially jokes (Zhang, et al.,2016). The learners are often into discussions and arguments during learning.
Strategies to Assess Learning
Short Questions can be used for learning style assessment. The students are asked little questions after the presentation and given time to respond. Learning styles are unique and different methods used by students or learners as they prepare to recall while learning information (Ranganath & Josephine, 2015). Various responses would be provided by the students; thus, this shows the variations in memory and understanding of the students. Students can also be grouped according to their learning styles before questions are generated by them. The grouping would provide a direct identification of the learning style, which is most effective for learning among the students.
A summative assessment can be used to evaluate the learning process. According to Vlachou (2015), summative assessment is done to enhance both teaching and learning. It defines a successful measure of outcomes of a unit and qualification at the end of the education program. A brief summary of the presentation can be given by each student can be used to evaluate the understanding of the topic by each student. Perspective overview of the performance would act as a better evaluation of the learning style. This might include the key points discussed by the speaker.
Conclusion
Learning styles are relevant to the nursing profession and have been implemented by various nursing schools to improve the learning process. There are three primary healing techniques used which include visual, auditory, and kinesthetic styles. Visual style involves viewing and interpreting the information; the auditory form can be facilitated by discussions; while kinesthetic style requires the physical interaction of the student to enhance memory. Their integration would help improve the learning experience for learners in this program.
References
Atwa, H., Abozeid, E., & Fouad, S. (2016). How Do Medical Students Learn at Ibn Sina National College for Medical Studies in Jeddah, KSA? Assessment of Student’s Learning Styles. Education In Medicine Journal, 8(1), 25. doi:10.5959/eimj.v8i1.408
Cuadrado-gallego, J, J., Herrera, b. m., Pastor, o., & Marín, b. (2011). Applying visual learning in the teaching of software measurement concepts. International Journal of Software Engineering & Knowledge Engineering, 21(3), 431-446. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/S021819401100530X
Mobley, K., & Fisher, S. (2014). Ditching the Desks: Kinesthetic Learning in College Classrooms. Social Studies, 105(6), 301-309. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2014.951471
Ranganath, T. S., & Josephine, P. K. (2015). Assessment of learning style preferences of medical undergraduate students: A cross-sectional study. International Journal Of Medicine & Public Health, 5(2), 196. doi:10.4103/2230-8598.153837
Vlachou, M. A. (2015). Does Assessment for Learning Work to Promote Student Learning? The England Paradigm. Clearing House, 88(3), 101-107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00098655.2015.1032194
Zhang, Y., Moore, D. R., Guiraud, J., Molloy, K., Yan, T., & Amitay, S. (2016). Auditory Discrimination Learning: Role of Working Memory. Plos ONE, 11(1), 1. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147320
