GVSU Learning Network
Understanding and Leveraging
Learning Styles
October 28 & 29, 2014
Today’s Objectives
• To determine the implications of the
faculty learning styles inventory results.
– What does this mean for professional
learning?
– What does this mean for how educators
interact with students?
• Create a plan for debriefing faculty with
the results of their learning styles inventory
• Create a plan of action for surveying
students for their learning styles
Agenda
I. Objectives, Agenda, Norms
II. Quick Discussion: What have we learned
since August?
III. Framing Learning Styles: Reflections from
Howard Gardner (Video and Discussion)
IV. Clarifying Our Theory of Action for Learning
Styles
V. Learning Inventory Results: Data Protocol
Discussion
VI. Developing a Plan: How to Share with Our
Faculty
Learning Network -Norms
• Silence mobile phones
and other devices
• Be present and engaged
• Listen actively
• Make this relevant to your
work and your school
• Call the baby ugly (call it
like you see it)—try to not
be defensive; take care
with people, also.
• Reduce side
conversations
• Come prepared
• Speak honestly
• Vegas rule—share ideas,
but protect people,
schools, sensitive issues
• Share speaking
opportunities—watch talk
time
• Avoid negativity and
complaining
• Arrive on time, start on
time, end on time
Ron Heifetz on Balconies and
Dance Floors
Let’s say you are dancing in a big ballroom. . . . Most of your attention
focuses on your dance partner, and you reserve whatever is left to make
sure you don’t collide with dancers close by. . . . When someone asks you
later about the dance, you exclaim, “The band played great, and the place
surged with dancers.”
But, if you had gone up to the balcony and looked down on the dance floor,
you might have seen a very different picture. You would have noticed all
sorts of patterns. . . you might have noticed that when slow music played,
only some people danced; when the tempo increased, others stepped onto
the floor; and some people never seemed to dance at all. . . . the dancers
all clustered at one end of the floor, as far away from the band as possible.
. . .The only way you can gain both a clearer view of reality and some
perspective on the bigger picture is by distancing yourself from the fray. . . .
If you want to affect what is happening, you must return to the dance floor.
“Experience is not what happens to a man:
it is what a man does with what happens to him.”
Aldous Huxley
What have we (the team; the school) done
since August?
What have we learned about what you have
done? What patterns have we seen?
A Primer: Gardner on Multiple
Intelligences and Education
What is your most
meaningful takeaway from
Gardner’s reflections on
education? Why?
What do you take away from
Gardner regarding multiple
intelligences/learning
theory?
Learning Styles:
A Starting Theory of Action
• If identify the learning styles of students,
then raise student awareness and teacher
awareness.
• If we make students more aware of their
learning style, then they can self-regulate
their learning.
• If we make teachers more aware of
learning styles, then they can tailor
instructional methods and differentiate for
the needs of students.
What additions, subtractions,
and modifications do you want
to make so that it represents
YOUR theory of action?
Mark up the preceding slide
accordingly.
Team Discussion: What Do
Inventory Results Tell Us?
I.
What parts of this data catch your eye? Just the facts.
2 minutes individual thinking; 8 minutes discussion
II. What does this data tell us? What does this not tell
us? Make inferences, but support with data.
2 minutes individual thinking; 8 minutes discussion
III. What conclusions can we draw?
10 minutes
Modified from NSR Faculty Protocol:
http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/cms/lib/NC01001395/Centricity/ModuleInstance/17572/Protocol_for_Examining_Data.pdf
How Will You Share This
Information With Your Faculty?
Some Resources
• http://www.slideshare.net/bking/edu-5701-7-dunn-dunn-learning-stylesmodel1-presentation
• http://www.ilsa-learningstyles.com/Learning+Styles/The+Dunn+and+Dunn+Learning+Styles+Model.
html
• http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/863/884633/Volume_medialib/du
nn.pdf
• http://americantesol.com/DunnLearningStyles.pdf
• http://www.seechangeconsulting.com.au/_literature_134767/Dunn_and_Dun
n_Learning_Styles_Model