Learning/Teaching Styles

Last Friday at our inservice we took an assessment that charter our teaching and learning styles. I had done this in the past at RA training. But I never really thought about it since.

I found the results very interesting. There were four areas where one could fall - Mastery, Interpersonal, Self-Expressive, and Understanding. In terms of being a learner, my dominant styles was Interpersonal (here is the overview from the assessment - "Interpersonal learners are sensitive to people's feelings -- their own and others'. They prefer to learn about things that directly affect people's lives rather than impersonal facts or theories."). I guess that sounds like me. I know, without a doubt, that I'm random-abstract all the way. I like to meander my way through my courses, rather than strategically mastering skills and completing activities. My favorite classes were always my writing courses where we had a paper due and we just were given time to complete it. There was never much in the way of requirements or objectives. That allowed me to feel my own way through my experiences and ideas. And I loved it.

My lowest score came in the Mastery area ("Mastery learners are efficient and result oriented, preferring action to words and involvement in theory. They have a high energy level for doing things that are pragmatic, detailed, and useful."). Well, that's not me.

My teaching style, though, is a bit different. I had a tie for my dominant teaching styles - Understanding and Self-Expressive. My learning style, Interpersonal, was a close third. Of course, Mastery was on the bottom. Again according to the assessment, Understanding teachers combine intuition and thinking. "They place primary importance on students' intellectual development." and Self-Expressive teachers combine intuition and feeling. "They encourage students to explore their creative abilities. Insights and imagination are highly valued." I guess there are worse styles to have.

Again my lowest score came in the Mastery area. This was no surprise.

Today in our common prep meetings we discussed this. I wasn't shocked by the Mastery style teachers and the Self-Expressive teachers. You could tell a mile away.

What I find interesting is what happens when we teach differently than we learn. I haven't wrapped my mind around this quite yet. But initially I don't think that's a bad thing.

To be honest, I never thought about it until this assessment. I just always began the day thinking "If I were a student, what would I want to do today in class?" and I went from there. I might have to rethink that some.

I also think it's good to have a variety of teaching styles in a department and school. In our English department I know we have a few Mastery style teachers. Our kids need their regiment and order. I also know we have several Self-Expressive style teachers. Our kids need their creativity and clutter.