As an aspiring professional teacher taking the Licensure Exam for Teachers (LET) you will be expected to know the various learning styles and understand how to apply these learning styles in a classroom setting.
For you to be better equipped with questions like this popping out in the board exam, we have prepared a list of 8 learning styles that you need to know for the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET).
Contents
What is Learning?
Before we get into the heart of the matter and listing all 8 learning styles, we first need to understand what is learning?
We must establish that learning happens everywhere – it is not solely confined in a classroom setting. So if a child attends school or not, they will still learn regardless; since learning is defined as the never-ending process of acquiring new knowledge or skills.
However, schools come into play to provide a structural way of learning that allows the norms of society to influence children and guide their observations and experiences.
A child or an individual can learn in many ways which include:
- Observation
- Experience
- Reading about the experiences of other people
- Influenced by society
- Practice
What is Forgetting?
Now that we understand what learning is, it is also important to understand what forgetting is – and most of us can identify that it is the opposite of learning. While learning is all about acquiring new knowledge and skills, forgetting happens when such skills and information are not processed adequately by the individual.
This also commonly happens when the information has decayed over years due to the lack of recollection. There’s also a concept called Learning Interference which usually happens when a learner forgets information when there’s another set of information that is preventing them from learning.
There are two types of Learning Interference:
1. Proactive Inhibition
This type focuses on the learner having a difficult time acquiring new ideas because the new information is contradicting their existing knowledge.
2. Retroactive Inhibition
This type of learning interference occurs when the new information replaces the old concepts that were learned previously, making it hard to recall old information.
It’s important to understand why individuals can have difficulties in learning since questions like this can show up in the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET); and also to further hone your knowledge and skills so that in your career as a professional teacher, you are able to help your future students learn better.
8 Individual learning styles
Now that we’ve got a better understanding of what learning is, we can now move to the 8 different learning styles that will show up during the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET).
Mastering these learning styles will also help you enhance the academic experiences of your future students.
All these concepts heavily rely on the idea that each individual learns differently – and each learner will have their own preference on how they absorb new information quickly and productively.
1. Visual learners
People who identify themselves as visual learners process information best visually. This means they usually need images, graphs, visual aids, and diagrams to guide the learning process.
In the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET), it is important to note if the students you’ll be teaching to are visual learners, including photos and infographics throughout your teaching style so that it can cater to the visual learners in your class. Avoid blocks of words as much as possible as they are not appealing to visual learners.
These visual learners heavily rely on printed visual materials to acquire knowledge. In retaining the brand new information, these learners will tend to create their own graphs and reviewers. These are also the learners who tend to have a “photographic memory”. When recalling a piece of information they’ve read in a book, visual learners will remember where that information is positioned on the page.
Take note that you will still need this information after the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) so you can be an effective professional in your field.
2. Auditory learners
People with this preferred learning style process information best through sound, rhythm, and music to learn and retain information.
This doesn’t only apply to musicians though. For this type of learner, they are more productive reviewing if they have background music playing – unlike others who can find it a distraction.
These learners are productive when the information presented to them is accompanied by sound. They are also advanced listeners. Auditory learners may also read things aloud to retain the information better.
So if there is any way for you to incorporate audiobooks or music in your teaching style, it can be very helpful to the auditory learners in your class once you pass the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET).
3. Kinesthetic learners
People and students who identify themselves as kinesthetic learners process information best through physical movement.
This is a very typical style since most of us learn by practicing and through physical movement.
Most of us need to move around while studying. A great example of this is pacing back and forth when reading or reciting new information. This includes practicing to learn an instrument or playing a sport, doing arts and crafts, and so much more.
You can help kinesthetic learners by incorporating a step-by-step process to do something, assist learning through demonstrations, and even including games into your teaching style.
Key Takeaway
When studying for the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET), it is important to master all the learning styles out there and can easily differentiate one from the other.
It will also be your task as a teacher, to which you will be tested during the board exam, is to apply these concepts in an actual classroom setting. The Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) is meant to measure your knowledge and expertise in teaching every type of learner efficiently so that you are able to aid them in their learning experiences.