Theoretical Foundations - Session #2

Question 1

Welcome back…

Answer 1

…to our tutor certification training on Theoretical Foundations of tutoring.

Did anyone do anything exciting since our last meeting? [allow responses] Fantastic!

Question 2

So today, we’ll be working our way through the second of our two training sessions for the course. Just like with…

Answer 2

…the 1st session of 2 weeks ago, we have plenty to cover, so we should probably get going here…

Question 3

Slide: Theoretical Foundations, Session #2 Overview

Answer 3

Here is just a quick rundown of our agenda items today…

Question 4

We’ll begin with a brief overview of…

Answer 4

…last session’s training material, recapping the highlights of andragogy, constructivism, the ZPD, and the Socratic method of questioning

Question 5

As far as the presentations are concerned…

Answer 5

…I want to remind you all that I have randomly chosen the order in which everyone will present.

[if necessary]…We may not get to everyone with time for all presentations, but again, the presentation order has been chosen completely at random…

Hopefully, you have all come prepared with your presentations notes and materials…I’m very excited to see the results of all that hard work!

Question 6

Slide: Session #1 Review

Let’s begin with…

Answer 6

…a bit of review from training session #1. Hopefully you remember the topics listed here. Let’s begin with…

Question 7

Slide: Andragogy Review

Answer 7

So first off, can anyone remind us of the definition of andragogy we used during last session? Perhaps you could define it in light of what it is expressly is NOT? [allow responses]

Right: We went with this fairly simple definition here: Andragogy is the theory and approach of teaching adult learners.” It is expressly not “Pedagogy” the best practice for teaching child learners, as we covered in detailed contrast last time.

Question 8

And for some quick bonus points, who can remember the name of the individual who gave the world of educational philosophy it’s first systematic theory of andragogy?

Answer 8

“That’s right! It WAS Malcolm Knowles. Knowles was famous for identifying six key traits of adult learners, which he believe could reasonably be assumed of most of them.

Let’s try to name and call out as many of those as possible from before, WITHOUT looking at your notes…

Question 9

Fantastic! We remember our “Knowles-in-a-nutshell” discussion of last session. Good memories, all! To restate the full list of assumptions, we have…

Answer 9

…The need to know - whereby adult learners have a natural desire to understand why what they are learning is important, not just how concepts are related to/build on one-another, but how they are relevant to their life goals.

Question 10

Additionally, we have the self-concept -

Answer 10

…which states that adults have an independent perception of themselves as learners, and that they benefit most when educators make the promotions of their independent learning a high priority.

Question 11

Next was the learner’s prior experience -

Answer 11

…as adult learners have much more life experience to draw from, they are not only better equipped for mutual, peer-to-peer collaborative learning,

but they are more “heterogeneous” than child learners and so benefit from highly personalized instruction.

Question 12

After that came the readiness to learn -

Answer 12

• The readiness/eagerness of adult learners to advance their understanding is based more on their engagement than on their biological and psychological development.

That engagement is best facilitated when we show how what they are learning is relevant to their life goals.

Question 13

Next was the orientation to learning -

Answer 13

Adult learners are task-oriented more than subject-oriented, so they benefit from practical exercises and those applications can actually help cement both interest in the material and understanding of it.

Question 14

Finally, there was the motivation to learning -

Answer 14

Adults are far more internally driven to take on new challenges in education than children. Their drive to learn comes from within, from desires, goals, dreams and passions.

It helps us engage them when we determine which specific internal motivations a given tutoring student has.

Excellent work everyone! Let’s turn now to the second of our three major topics from Session #1:

Question 15

Slide: Constructivism Review

Answer 15

Who can remember the basic idea behind the theory of constructivism in the philosophy and science of education? [allow for responses]

Great job! One definition that covers all the general principles of the theory would be something like this:

[read definition] - in short, learning is an active building process, with experiences, both old and new, serving as the building blocks.

Again, definitions are better when contrasted against what the term does NOT mean…constructivism is emphatically NOT traditionalistic teaching, which emphasizes the mere transfer or exchange of info from those in-the-know to those who aren’t.

Question 16

Slide: ZPD Review

Answer 16

Awesome. What about the Zone of Proximal Development?

What does that model show about how humans acquire knowledge? Bonus points if you can identify the originator of that theory, as well? [allow for responses]

Question 17

Spot on! Just as we discussed last time…

Answer 17

… the ZPD is the intellectual region between what learners can do on their own, with no assistance, and what they cannot yet complete, even with assistance.

Question 18

We also talked in that module about the importance of scaffolding. What is scaffolding as we defined it last time?

Answer 18

Right! Scaffolding is the practice of breaking content into manageable chunks, letting the students handle the chunks on their own that are in their ability to do by themselves with no assistance, and providing guidance for those chunks in their ZPD.

Question 19

We also mentioned how it is in the ZPD that the student is most likely to feel what…?

Answer 19

…Exactly! Cognitive disequilibrium, that sense of unease when confronted with new experiences that don’t easily fit into establish “schema” or ways of understanding the world.

Question 20

Finally, can anyone recall why we it was that we argued that constructivism and the ZPD can help us understand how to become more effective tutors?

Answer 20

Right. Adult learners are likely to favor constructivist approaches to learning, and tutoring is somewhat inherently constructivist (more-so than classroom teaching).

We also regularly encounter students who are occupying their ZPD. So helping them navigating that gulf between what students can do themselves and what they can do with appropriate guidance is a role that tutors can play.

Question 21

Slide: Socratic Method of Questioning Review

Answer 21

“Alright! Finally, let’s think back on last session and consider: What was Socratic questioning again?”

Question 22

Perfect! Key components of the definition included the concept of “open-endedness” in questioning, “guidance from the side”, and the idea that there are many types of socratic questions, all motivated by different goals in getting the student to do metacognitive thinking. What were those different types of Socratic Questions?

Answer 22

Right! We had…

[read list of types on the slide]

Indeed, these are all different flavors of socratic question, that we, like socrates, can invoke in order to keep the student actively engaged and actively analyzing their own thought-processes.

Question 23

Slide: Presentations, Group 1

Answer 23

Great work with that review. Hopefully, the juices are flowing!

Let’s go ahead and move into our first round of presentations together…

Question 24

Post-first round presentations

Answer 24

Okay, terrific work, folks! That was a really insightful slew of first presentations, and I hope that everyone got as much out of them as I know did.

Alright. I think we’ve earned our first break!

Question 25

Welcome back from the break, everyone! I want to start…

Answer 25

…by thanking the first group of presenters for all the insight and effort that they poured into their work, sharing all that valuable information with us.

Question 26

We are going to switch gears away from presentations for moment…

Answer 26

…and get into the first of two modules for this session - this one covers “Tutoring as an Interpersonal Communication Process”

Question 27

One theme I’m sure everyone noticed…

Answer 27

…in the original orientation training was that of how we as tutors can become better communicators, both in terms of communicating academic concepts and in terms of supporting students on a more holistic, human level.

Question 28

This module aims to…

Answer 28

…get into both in far more detail than in the orientation training class.

Purpose: And while much of what this lesson contains is fairly common sensical from the standpoint of effective communication in general, we cover this topic to encourage you to think about how to make communication principles actionable in the tutoring environment.

Question 29

So without any more ado, let’s crack in. As we are all aware…

Answer 29

… the recipe for effective communication requires two ingredients. It requires an active listener, and an effective speaker, with each participant playing each role in turn.

Let’s start by looking at some strategies for playing the first role, that of an active listener in tutoring sessions.

Question 30

We start with this clever quote here from…

Answer 30

…ancient Roman stoic philosopher Epictetus, who argues that “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

His figurative point is well taken: effective and active listening is the primary foundation of fruitful communication: we can communicate without speech; there can be none without listening

Question 31

Now I read this and think “Okay, Epictetus. That’s clever and largely true. But…

Answer 31

…what are some specific active listening strategies that I can employ?” Epictetus said very little about that, but fortunately, we have some guidance from interpersonal communication research/literature. So what are actionable tips to listen actively and effectively?

Question 32

Well first off, before any listening is attempted…

(Minimizing Distractions)

Answer 32

…we must establish the proper conditions for good listening in the first place. This means…

Minimizing distractions in the learning space. Does anyone have tempting distractions that they personally struggle with in their life of study?

Question 33

All good examples!

Answer 33

Of course, we have the elephant in any 21st century room: our mobile devices.

Research shows that many people in the modern world consider themselves to be excellent “media multitaskers” but neuroscience has shown that humans are actually quite poor at it.

Ultimately, we want to do what we as humans are natural with, that is monotasking, with our students. This means giving them and their concerns priority focus, not only as a matter of learning but as one of basic human respect.

Question 34

One solid piece of non-verbal communication to indicate interest/focus/respect, is…

Answer 34

Eye contact.

We’ve surely all heard this at some point in our lives; it’s almost cliche, and of course we don’t want to overdo it.

There’s a very big difference between periodically making eye contact to show interest and overt staring, wherein too much prolonged eye contact becomes unsettling to the subject of that eye contact.

So as with most things, this is a question of balance; too much and it’s disturbing; too little and it communicates a lack of interest/engagement or attention

Another important note is that if students are not making eye contact with us, it doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t actively listening…many individuals with neuro-diversities will avoid eye contact even while listening…but our making periodic eye contact is a good cue to others that we are engaged with what they are saying.

Question 35

Another piece of non-verbal activity that may communicate that we are not giving students the fullness of our attention is…

Answer 35

excessive note taking.

Naturally, the key word here is excessive. Of course, writing notes/making drawings is often necessary to aid the tutor’s or student’s understanding.

But the act of note-taking is VERY neurologically complex, with greatly increased use of the hippocampus (memory structure)

Unconsciously, we realize this fact, and often respond by assuming that those who take notes while communicating, are sacrificing their ability to listen fully.

As with the last point, this is about balance. We should take notes when necessary to clarify, refrain when it’s not, and work to recognize the difference…

Question 36

Effective communication is typically efficient communication. Taking some time to…

Answer 36

…recognize key words that have significance in interacting with a student is vital if we don’t want to get bogged down in details that fail to address the student’s needs.

Can any of you think of examples of when you’ve worked with a student and a key word has jumped out of their mouth that signaled a specific need of the student to you?

Examples: If a student is using phrases like “rushing”, “hurrying”, “falling behind”, “short on time” a lot, it may indicate that they struggle with time management techniques; we as tutors can share some strategies for that very concern…

Question 37

Oh look! It’s our old friend…

Answer 37

…Socrates! We’ve already discussed how helpful it can be to ask open ended questions in order to facilitate student insights and metacognition in the learning process.

But we also shouldn’t overlook the power of that practice to communicate respect to students, as it signals interest in getting their input as educational peers. Hence, this habit has a positive emotional effect, beyond a simply andragogical, teaching benefit.

Question 38

One habit that offers very little benefit for communication, however, is…

Answer 38

…over-use of “throw-away phrases”.

These would include things like “Uh huh” and “I see” and “Mm-hm”.

Of course, I stress that we should avoid “overuse” because we all say filler words from time-to-time, to buy ourselves time to process/think. However, doing this ceaselessly indicates much the same thing as absorption in our phones: That we are not really paying attention.

We should try to become aware of how much we use filler, to avoid coming across as disinterested, much like condescending Wonka here.

Ah, classic meme…great meme, poor tutoring practice…

Question 39

One great way of indicating that we have in fact been paying attention is…

Answer 39

…to paraphrase what students have said back to them occasionally.

Why do this? What would make this practice effective or helpful?

1) It communicates absorption of the content of student speech

2) It allows students insight into how their efforts to communicate are being perceived

3) It exposes gaps in our own understanding of the student’s message, which gives a chance for clarification

This practice is often used very effectively in tandem with socractic questioning:
Example: “Before, you said you that you didn’t recognize the quadratic formula from class. So what are some other methods you have covered with your instructor that might apply for factoring a trinomial like this one?” (Notice the one-two punch of paraphrase into socratic question…)

Question 40

Now, anyone whose ever been to a holiday gathering with extended family is aware that…

Answer 40

…once personal judgement calls enter conversations, communication begins spiraling into an inevitable breakdown.

When we pass character judgements, we apply labels; almost no one likes being labeled in this way, and so they begin shutting out further messages from the labeler.

Importantly, we can appear to be applying these labels even when we don’t mean to. Example: When we ask students “Why haven’t you read the textbook?” I’m not directly calling the student lazy, but the implication is there.

Of course, I really have no idea what the life circumstances of the student in this example are. So it is not only fair but honest with myself, to refrain from attributing students’ struggles to their personal qualities.

Question 41

And one way to avoid making those judgments internally is by practicing empathy. Being empathetic is one of…

Answer 41

…the most valuable traits of successful tutors. And being empathetic is a matter of consistently asking ourselves, as we listen, “what must this situation be like from the students’ perspective?”

We’ll cover speech in more detail a bit later on, but we should also strive to speak empathetically: “That must be difficult, yes…”, “I’m sorry that has been your experience of this class”, or “I can see how this new concept can be confusing.”

One of the least empathetic things I’ve heard from tutors is the statement which effectively says “This concept or problem is simple.” By failing to see how challenging new concepts are to the uninitiated, we come across as egotistical and demeaning, which is corrosive to our student-tutor relationship and to the power to communicate productively.

Question 42

A final way to ensure powerful listening is to use…

Answer 42

…our full toolbox of non-verbal communication tools. Generally speaking, the most effective non-verbal communication practices for listening fall under the heading of “open body language”.

Open body language has its origins in our evolution; when mammals want to appear non-threatening/non-threatened, they expose areas that are biologically vulnerable (stomach area, front of neck…)

when they feel threatened, they do the opposite, covering and closing off vulnerable areas in “closed body language.”

What might be some good examples of open body language we can use to signal ease and comfort in the tutoring setting?

Question 43

All great examples! Others might include…

Answer 43

1) crossed arms (protection of organs) vs. spatially open to interacting

2) pinching nose or rubbing temples (protection of brain) vs. hands off of face (openness to ideas)

3) leaning back (aversion to encounter) vs. leaning forward (acceptance of and interest in the encounter)

Question 44

Alright. Now again, all of that may seem common sensical, but…

Answer 44

….hopefully the discussion provided you with some actionable strategies for listening actively while tutoring.

Question 45

We are now going to listen to what I think is a particularly novel and interesting take…

Answer 45

…on ways to listen actively in conversation, from Celeste Headlee, a renowned journalist from PBS

Question 46

As the video plays, please feel free to fill in the first half of the video worksheet assignment.

Answer 46

For each tip that Headlee offers, write down a quick sentence or two describing her main point.

Question 47

[after video] Alright folks. We are now going to partner up, as we did last week…

Answer 47

…and answer the follow-up questions for the video. We’ll come back together to discuss our responses in about 10 minutes.

Question 48

[after partner activity] Alright, everyone! Lets regroup now…

Answer 48

…and share out some responses to these questions.

[cover each question; affirm responses]

Question 49

Great work! I do agree that Celeste Headlee offers some advice that would seem to pertain to our role as effective communicators and some that wouldn’t be useful for tutoring…

Answer 49

For example, asking open-ended questions is only possible when we give up the urge to pontificate. Likewise, making sure that we are in the present moment, and not multitasking while working with students is a valuable practice…as we discussed before.

But on the other hand, we sometimes do need to “get into the weeds” with academic material, making sure to provide adequate detail for the problems and topics at hand. Additionally, we may find it useful to repeat a point - amphipole is a classic rhetorical tool for effective educators who want to re-inforce memory and retention of lessons.

Question 50

Alright, great discussion all! I am glad to hear that you all got something out of Headlee’s talk and that…

Answer 50

…it could serve as such an effective springboard for discussion.

Question 51

Since we have given the art of listening its due diligence as the foundational skill in communication…

Answer 51

…let’s take a look at the flip side of the effective communication coin: strategies for speaking well in the tutoring context.

Question 52

So often, we feel in our culture that if we don’t have something to interject, verbally…

Answer 52

… then we are not justifying our presence in that situation. But here we see Plato echoing Celeste Headlee from the video: that talk should always be necessary and substantive, never cheap and/or purposeless.

Question 53

Let’s look at some key ways that we can make sure our speech…

Answer 53

…contributes something valuable to the tutoring session:

Question 54

We can start by being patient with ourselves, allowing our minds…

Answer 54

…time to generate thoughts that contribute meaningfully to the conversation, without feeling the pressure to simply “fill dead air”.

Rushing into speech can cause us to miss critical details in assignment prompts and problems

Example: I almost always take time to read an entire draft of a student paper and digest it before providing any verbal feedback

Students will always have more patience if you take a little time to ground your thinking than to take up a whole lot of their time using fillers, or feeling anxiety over not knowing what to say to give proper guidance

Question 55

Along the same lines is the concept of rechecking our understanding of the message of students before responding.

Answer 55

This is where many of our good listening practices come in, because doing this helps us to confirm the fruits of our active listening.

In the tutoring context, we might misunderstand a student’s concern if we aren’t rechecking our own comprehension.

Example: A student is confused about when it is appropriate to solve triangles using the law of sines. But I’m not sure if I heard law of sines or law of cosines. Taking time to recheck my understanding of what I heard or to check with student for clarification would keep us from wasting time covering the wrong method.

Question 56

A good rule of thumb is to be asking ourselves the question: What is the most efficient way of explaining a concept, given this student’s prior knowledge? Sometimes, less is more, meaning that we should…

Answer 56

use as few words as possible while being as detailed as necessary.

It can be the difference between “Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell…” and
“The mitochondria is a double-membrane bound organelle that governs the functions of cellular respiration and energy production.”

We can see that the main difference here is in the length of the verbiage used, which, of course, can be confusing if explanations are too lengthy or complicated.

Question 57

Another strategy for effective speaking that falls along the same lines is to…

Answer 57

…use only vocabulary appropriate to the understanding level of the student.

The vocabulary we use often threatens to be either too basic, too high-level, or too removed from the definition/application.

For example: it doesn’t help a calculus student to use the expression “Constant multiple rule” or “Trig substitution integration” in a vacuum, if they haven’t covered those rules/methods yet, or without direct examples in the context of their work.

Question 58

Effective speech not only avoids confusion but also vagueness…

Answer 58

We do this by trying to give specific guidance wherever we can.

Good examples:

1) student asks how to improve time management. We give specific goals for them to shoot for: creating master schedule to eliminating time leaks/time sinks

2) If a student asks how they can reduce anxiety on their next presentation or next high-stakes exam, we wouldn’t just say “Well don’t be nervous.” We could instead recommend mindfulness or breathing techniques, appropriate to the type of anxiety they are experiencing

Question 59

Again, sometimes less is more. We can make strategic use of pauses/silence between sentences/phrases, to…

Answer 59

…emphasize points, to allow the student adequate time to think/process, or to feel comfortable interjecting with questions.

I once had a military history instructor who was very knowledgeable but who spoke incessantly, without pausing even to breathe.
I think he did this to keep his train of thought from derailing. It ultimately didn’t matter if he kept the focus of his message; we students had tuned out because we couldn’t keep up with his frenzied pace.

This problem can be avoided if we consider silence and speech not to be diametric opposites, but as tools that complement each other. Thinking back to orientation class, it can be a great practice to regularly give 15 seconds of silence whenever we get the sense that the student is processing the content of our speech.

Question 60

We want to avoid interruptions in the tutoring space, whenever possible. We all know that interrupting can…

Answer 60

…seem disruptive and like dictation (rather than collaboration), two impressions that oppose the comfort level we want to maintain in the tutoring environment.

Additionally, interruptions are one way that our implicit biases come out; people from marginalized groups tend to be interrupted more often, as we mentioned in orientation.

There are, of course, exceptions to the no interrupting guideline:

1) if the student is getting too far off topic or eating up too much tutoring time with detailed/repetitive speech

2) Bonus points for anyone who remembers the other major exception to this rule from orientation training…
BINGO! - If we hear bigoted or offensive speech in the tutoring center. In each case, interruption, though conducted professionally, is appropriate and necessary

Question 61

The next guideline for effective speaking is fairly straight-forward; we want to avoid sending mixed signals between our body language and speech.

Answer 61

What are some common examples of this body language/speech disconnect?

Examples: “that will be a very interesting topic for your presentation” (while yawning)

“No problem, take your time…” (while tapping pen or foot impatiently)

“It’s wonderful to see you in the lab again!” (while frowning/scowling)

Ultimately, we want to be aware of the consistency of our actions: in clear communication, body language reinforces speech; it doesn’t contradict it…

Question 62

Finally, we have the importance of effective paraverbal communication. Who remembers what paraverbal means from orientation class?

Answer 62

Paraverbal cues are messages we send through speech, but which don’t come as part of the content of that speech.

Key examples include:

Tone of voice
Volume of speech
Rate/pacing of speech
Word Emphasis

Verbally these three sample sentences say the same thing, but paraverbally, their messages are totally different, due to huge divergences in word emphasis.

With the wrong tone of voice, “You’ve made so much progress! (genuine)” becomes “You’ve made SOOOOO much progress!” (dripping with sarcasm) That’s obviously an extreme example but the import of regulating our paraverbal messaging is clear.

Question 63

Okay, fantastic! Thank you all for being great listeners as we covered that module together…

Answer 63

(you see what I did there, haha)

Are there any questions about tutoring as an interpersonal communication process before we break and then move into our next round of presentations?

Terrific! But first…another quick break!

Question 64

Alright, all. Now that we’re back…

Answer 64

I’m sure that we are ready to dive into the rest of our presentations for today. Next up is…

Question 65

Once all presentations are finished…

Answer 65

Well that was tremendous! Thank you all so much for all of your hard work on those presentations. It goes a long way toward making these long training sessions more interactive and engaging, and it provides us will each other’s insights and expertise along the way! Well done!

Question 66

Slide: Learning Styles - Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic

Answer 66

“Okay, everyone! Let’s finish up with the final module of this training course: a survey of the theory of learning styles and preferences…”

Question 67

I always want to preface this module with a recognition that the content in it is increasingly controversial among educational theorists; in this section…

Answer 67

…we’ll both cover the basics of the theory and some critiques of it. We’ll also use the debate as a springboard for our own discussion.

So that’s just some food for thought as we crack in…

Question 68

So to begin with, what are learning styles/preferences?

Answer 68

Chances are that you already have some awareness of this topic, as it has been well-known in theories of education for decades now…

Question 69

Any volunteers to help us get a basic definition of learning styles?

Answer 69

Right! The basic idea behind this theory is three-fold:

1) Learners differ in how they prefer to receive instruction
2) Learners can be categorized into broad types by their preferred learning styles
3) the “Meshing hypothesis”- that learners will perform with better outcomes if they receive information in the “type” or “style” of learning that they prefer.

Question 70

Slide: Learning Styles Awareness - Why does it matter?

Answer 70

So why does it matter, first for students, and second for us, to build an awareness of these differing learning preferences in the theory?

All great ideas - There is potential benefit from both sides of the tutoring session encounter:

1) some research suggests that students enhance their ability to move information from short-term to long-term memory if they are aware of their learning styles and if they structure their learning accordingly

2) As tutors, we become better at adapting our methods to individual student needs, if those needs include a particular learning style that is very pronounced in the student. Also, it can help us to bring learning styles into the awareness of students, and contribute to their ability to do metacognition…

Question 71

Slide: Learning Styles

Alright, let’s go ahead and move into our discussion of the three broad types of learning styles that almost every version of this theory embraces… they are what?

Answer 71

Right! Visual, auditory and kinesthetic styles. Now that we have those 3 styles as the ones we’ll explore today, let’s look at the Learning Styles and Characteristics handout in the packet.

Question 72

I want you all to take a couple minutes to read through each of the three sections and the examples listed for maximizing learning for each style.

Answer 72

[allow time for reading exercise]

Question 73

Alright, let’s come back together to discuss! What is the visual learning style and what might be some methods students can use to engage this style?

Answer 73

Right!

Students have visual learning styles if they prefer to work with visual or graphical descriptions of information in their study process.

Examples of how we might engage this style could include:

1) Drawing decision trees to model if/else statements in programming tutoring

2) Graphing geometrical solutions to equations along with algebra in math tutoring

3) Encouraging students to draw icons and symbols representing the major and minor supporting details of an essay in English tutoring

Question 74

What about the auditory learning style? What might be some methods we can use to cater to that style in tutoring?

Answer 74

Indeed. Encouraging and allowing students to record sessions with us for future playback can be immensely helpful for those with this learning style.

I am, in fact, one of them. I am far more likely to remember something if it is spoken/said to me than if I see it written - I used to read everything aloud to myself in elementary school, which got me in trouble sometimes, but definitely helped maximize my learning comprehension.

Musical mnemonics can be excellent tools for those with this learning style as well - as with pop goes the weasel quadratic formula mnemonic.

Question 75

And finally, what do learning styles theorists define as the “kinesthetic” style and what would be an example of catering to in your own discipline?

Answer 75

Terrific, yes! Kinesthesis is the process by which humans receive information through movement/touch.

Good examples in tutoring might be encouraging students in math tutoring to use manipulatives - physical representations of mathematical concepts, as with the radian to pi measure of a circle with string or fragments of larger objects to describe fractions.

For programming tutoring, we could encourage the student to obtain a physical object, like a stress ball, to manipulate while contemplating how to design algorithms or code a solution in a programming project. Standing while coding can also make the process more kinesthetic for these learners.

Question 76

Great ideas, everyone! Now, we are going to get the opportunity to identify our own learning styles/preferences, at least according to a few reputable learning styles inventories.

Answer 76

Please follow the links on the Learning Styles inventories links document attached to the reminder email for this session.

Take at least two of those inventories in the next 10 minutes or so. Then, we’ll come back and share out what we discovered about our own learning preferences and do some follow-up discussion.

Question 77

Alright, all! Let’s come back together now, share out, and interpret the results. Did anyone learn anything about themselves? Volunteers to share? Were you surprised by the results?

Answer 77

Fascinating! Now how does having this knowledge inform how you all plan to approach learning for yourselves in the future? [allow responses/affirm]

Great! Now how about our approach to tutoring? Has this exercise inspired you to modify how you aid students in future tutoring sessions? If so, how? [allow responses/affirm]

We can certainly start by asking adult learners if they know their preferred style, and work to tailor our methods in light of their response.

Question 78

Wonderful insights! Finally, it is important to address something that you may or may not have been aware of, but as I mentioned at the start of the module, learning styles theories are increasingly questioned and critiqued, especially by neuroscientific researchers…

Answer 78

Studies done in recent years by such researchers have cast doubt on one or two of the conclusions central to the theory: they all do show that learners have preferred ways of receiving information, but many suggest that the “meshing hypothesis” may be incorrect, at least for studying all disciplines at all times.

In other words, they suggest that math and science are more universally best-learned if presented visually, whereas music education is best learned in an auditory format, and so forth…

Question 79

What do you all think about these challenges to the theory? Does your intuition/experience confirm or make you skeptical of the meshing hypothesis?

Answer 79

Intriguing! Well, as a final reflection question, could there be value for us in covering learning styles even if the evidence for the benefit of universally tailoring tutoring based on them is so mixed? What is the value of educators like us engaging in this debate?

Excellent thinking! I tend to agree that even if evidence for improved student performance by catering to learning styles across the board is inconclusive, we still benefit from an awareness of these topics.

After all, much anecdotal life experience as students would suggest that we have certain preferences for a certain style because that style of info delivery has worked for us in the past, to enhance our memory and academic performance.

So if there is even a chance that students can benefit from our adapting our approaches to tutoring based on learning styles, we need to be aware of them and account for them in our methods…

Question 80

Alright, all! Great thoughts and commentary all around. We are now going to take about 10 minutes to go through the Learning Styles: Focused Strategies handout individually. For each of the three major styles listed on the table, jot down some approaches or methods you might use to tutor a student with that style in the specific subject that you tutor…

Answer 80

Does anyone want to share out what they wrote for visual learners? Auditory? Kinesthetic?