Student Learning Preferences in F2F and b-Learning Environments

Student Learning Preferences in F2F and b-Learning Environments

After understanding the importance of learning preferences humans favor to learn better and faster, one gets to comprehend the extensive use these preferences can have in lesson planning and in teaching.

Thinking of my language students, all sorts of metal processes prompt the use of the learner’s learning preferences. In a single classroom, it is quite possible to see several different learning orientations taking place: Visual, auditory, kinesthetic, verbal linguistic, global, reflective, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, sequential, inductive, deductive, etc. It all depends on what kind of taxonomy the teacher employs; names will vary. But this variation is just the living proof that all students learn differently.

Learning Preferences Taxonomy	Types of Learners
VAK	Ø Visual Ø Auditory Ø Kinesthetic
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator	Ø Extroversion vs. Introversion Ø Sensing vs. Intuition Ø Thinking vs. Feeling Ø Judging vs. Perceiving
Felder & Silverman’s Learning Styles	Ø Sensory to Intuitive Ø Visual to Verbal Ø Inductive to Deductive Ø Active to Reflective Ø Sequential to Global
Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences	Ø Verbal Linguistic Ø Logical-mathematical Ø Musical Ø Spatial Ø Bodily kinesthetic Ø Interpersonal Ø Intrapersonal

When reflecting on one’s F2F teaching, one gets to see several strategies one uses to try to get to as many students as possible. In language learning, one of the preferred theories for learning is VAK. As a EL professional, I tend to use activities that aim at being visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. For instance, when dealing with vocabulary, I like to use realia, flash cards, or some sort of presentation (prezi, PPT, to show students the new vocabulary). However, when dealing with new grammar structures, I tend to favor Myers-Briggs Type Indicator for learning preferences. In other words, after the language presentation in class, students are motivated to reflect on, sense, think, feel, judge, perceive the new grammatical content with partners (extroversion) or by themselves (introversion). This teaching F2F preference I have does not rule out Felder & Silverman’s Learning Styles or Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. When I teach English pronunciation (phonetics and phonology), it is convenient that learners cover the scope from verbal to visual, and vice versa. At the same time, it is important that their musical intelligence helps them get the rhythm and intonation of the target language.

Based on my personal blended teaching experience at Universidad Latina (in Costa Rica), and with the help of PBL (Project-Based Learning), I devised learning tasks that involved several learning preferences and/or strategies, which included different types of explanations on how to use technology to accomplish a learning outcome. For the tasks to be developed by my students, tutorials, teacher explanations, and hands-on activities were used. Discussion among partners and research was something else that was encouraged. Intrapersonal and interpersonal learners with deductive or deductive ways of thinking benefitted as much as VAK students with sensing and judging learning orientations.

To sum up, whether one is teaching F2F or in a blended learning environment, the very same learning strategies can be perfectly adapted and used. It is the way the instructor conceives his/her learning task that will trigger different learning preferences on the student’s side and learning can be achieved. For most of the digital natives one tends to find in our classrooms, this learning achievement can be attained; for the digital migrants is not impossible to be in the spotlight of learning.