Volume 1 number 1 Summer 2003
Special issue for the abstracts of the 7th Pan Arab Conference on Diabetes
PACD7 , 25 – 28 March 2003 Cairo

Abstract Number : 81 
Learning Styles and The Art of Teaching: 

Hoda Al-Mutawah, USA

The value of understanding one's learning style is first to develop one's natural approaches to learning and then to develop the capacity to learn in ways that may require more attention and effort. Learning how to learn in different ways will assist students to be life long learners who are capable of learning in various settings and situations. If students can be successful by learning in ways that are most natural to them they are more likely to take on the challenge to move toward Jung's concept of completion. The following characteristics of the learning styles is based upon the research of Hanson and Silver (1996) as reported in course materials produced by Canter Educational Associates for Marygrove College's Master in the Art of Teaching Program (1996). ST / Sensing-Thinking Learning Style In the sensing-thinking learning style (ST), students want concrete, specific information and need to know what is right and wrong. They need a structured environment and lose interest if things move too slow or don't seem practical. They learn best from repetition, drill, memorization and actual experience. They need immediate feedback. NT / Intuitive- Thinking Learning Style In the intuitive-thinking learning style (NT), students are skeptical, analytical and logical. They trust hard evidence and reason. They prefer to work independently; they understand things and ideas by breaking them down into their component parts. They want to be challenged and allowed to be creative, and are concerned with relevance and meaning. They have great patience and persistence if their attention is captured. SF / Sensing-Feeling Learning Style In the sensing-feeling learning style (SF), students process information based on their personal experience. They respond to collegiality, trust, respect and learning cooperatively. They view content mastery as secondary to harmonious relationships. They are very sensitive to approval or disapproval. They learn best by talking and like group activities. NF/Intuitive-Feeling Learning Style - In the intuitive-feeling learning style (NF), students are looking for possibilities and patterns, and connections with prior learning. They look for uniqueness, originality and aestheticism. They learn best in a flexible and innovative atmosphere. They have difficulty planning and organizing their time. They need to see the big picture. They are bored by routine and rote assignments. Some studies have indicated that academically successful students have fewer strong learning style preferences than do low achievers. The challenge is to assist students in perfecting their natural learning style while providing the incentive to develop less dominant styles they will need in the workforce and other areas of their lives. Engaging in the process of learning how to learn must include awareness of how one perceives and processes material to be learned. Instructors can enhance students' awareness by calling their attention to the ways and means by which they are approaching their subject. Varying teaching methods in each component of the instructional cycle on a regular basis and then discussing what each student finds most compelling and most challenging pro vides opportunities to raise awareness. Hanson and Silver offer the following suggestions for what they call teaching around the wheel. Each aspect of instruction offers opportunities to reach the variety of styles by changing teaching methods on a regular basis. Anticipatory Sets (Introductions that prepare for the lesson or a unit) ST Give facts, details NT Raise issues & potential problems SF Relate to students' experiences, feelings & prior knowledge NF Suggest new and original possibilities Questions ST Who, what, where, when NT Explain, compare, identify cause and effect SF Ask: What has been your experience? What do you know about? NF Ask: What might happen if or ask for an application 
Tasks ST Organize factual information, practice for recall NT Create a problem solving mode where students must sort out data, analyze and draw conclusions SF Provide for group work or a task that involves the affect NF Provide choices for completing assignments and projects or assign tasks that involve imagination, innovation Setting ST Traditional rows or pairs; teacher at focus NT Teams that will create a debating atmosphere; teacher moves from team to team. SF Groups or pairs for collaboration; teacher meets students at eye level NF Learning centers, student arranged for interest; teacher is a resource Feedback ST Frequent, quick, short/need to know if they are right NT Infrequent but with explanation of why they received the grade they did SF Frequent, quick with an emphasis on the amount of effort that is evidenced NF Infrequent but with emphasis on its value' its uniqueness and creativity Homework ST Provide a model of what a complete and accurate assignment will look like, practice and drill NT Problem solving, analyzing work, it too must be modeled SF Opportunities for articulating ideas, learning from others, develop skills of collaboration designed to convince students they have knowledge NF Projects or opportunities to create new or different ways of looking at material, important to set criteria Assessment ST True and false, fill in the blanks, any measure that allows students to recall factual material NT Critical essays, debates, research projects which mea sure the ability to see relationships SF Interviews in and out of class. Let the students question you NF Anything that can show what the student can do with what they have learned Helping students learn how to learn may be the most important lesson faculty can teach students. Life-long learners, capable oflearning and working in diverse settings, are vital to the 21century society. Assisting students in achievement of this goal puts a demand on faculty to take the time to teach around the learning style wheel. The reward for this effort will be more students who are engaged in at least some aspect of the learning process. Going a step further and talking with students about how they experience learning when instruction or tasks call on styles that are not natural for them, raises awareness of their own approach to learning. Students may believe that what comes natural to them is all that they can do well and they are doomed to failure in all other areas. Unless we sup port students to develop under developed aspects of their styles they are unlikely to have lifelong success. An important task of learning how to learn is to develop an awareness of oneself as a learner. Students need to reflect on their experience of learning in order to take charge of the full development of their abilities. The ultimate goal of higher education can not be content learning alone. Content may become obsolete. The U. S. Department of Labor has identified the ability of knowing how to learn as the most fundamental skill for the next century (Camevale, 1988). Self-awareness and then self-monitoring are essentials for learning how to learn. Faculty and support staffs who nurture this type of learning are helping develop tomorrow's workers. The kind of workers who are needed for the learning organizations that will fuel our global economy. 

Reference: 
A Strategy For Helping Students Learn How to Learn. Subject(s): LEARNING, Psychology of; LEARNING Strategies -- Study & teaching; MARYGROVE College (Detroit, Mich.); MYERS-Briggs Type Indicator; PERSONALITY & academic achievement Source: Education, Spring2000, Vol. 120 Issue 3, p479, 8p, 4 charts Author(s): McClanaghan, Mary Ellen

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