RUNNING HEAD: Know Thy Learner: How do your students best

learn?

Know Thy Learner: How do your students best learn?

Jacki Brown
Technology and Innovation: WINTER14-D-8-OTL545-1
Dr. Jaqueline Derby
February 15, 2015

Know Thy Learner

In the interest of better serving my already differentiated specialneeds learners, I have distributed a survey to best categorize their
overall learning style in the effort to better teach them individually and
as a whole. This process was eye opening for me; more so than I
thought possible for such a differentiated group of learners. With
intellectual disabilities ranging from (low and high functioning) Autism
to Oppositional Defiance Disorder to Other Health Impairment, there is
no doubt that my students learn at different paces, and with different
styles. As best as I try to differentiate their learning, this survey
showed the over all average percentage of learning styles, and will
dictate future lessons. Most, if not all, of my learners averaged similar
learning styles, with few variances among them. Below is the data I
have collected, as well as a chart dictating the learning styles that my
students identify most with.

Data Collected
Learn Lingui
ers
stic
D.M.
J.B.
J.R.
J.H.
C.J.
J.D.
V.T.

25%
67%
42%
58%
17%
0%
75%

LogicalVisu
Mathema altical
Spat
ial
6%
0%
81%
58%
75%
75%
63%
83%
44%
25%
0%
0%
81%
83%

R.N.

17%

44%

17%

Intrapers
onalInterpers
onal
25%-38%
75%-88%
88%-75%
50%-69%
19%-19%
0%-19%
56%100%
25%-44%

Musi
cal

BodilyKinesth
etic

Naturali
stic

0%
38%
13%
69%
69%
63%
0%

17%
42%
33%
83%
75%
50%
67%

33%
17%
8%
42%
67%
58%
58%

56%

75%

50%

Know Thy Learner

T.G.

33%

38%

17%

31%-69%

0%

42%

75%

Graphed Data

Data Indicates Interpersonal Learning

At the start of the year I handed out a similar survey to better
understand my students learning styles. As I was new to most of
them, this was an eye opener and drastically influenced my teaching
style. Based on the data I have collected, then and now, my students
all seem to learn similarly with the majority of learners learning best
interpersonally (no surprise here!). So, what does this mean for my
teaching style? While I will still incorporate the various learning style

Know Thy Learner

methodologies into my teaching, I will focus a grand portion on

interpersonal learning and teaching. According to Pesce (2015),
interpersonal learners have no trouble making friends; do well in
collaborative/cooperative activities; are able to read people;
understand what motivates them and what intentions they have, as
well as moods and temperament; good at empathizing with others; are
very skilled at interpreting faces, gestures, and tone of voice. While
this is certainly not true of all of my students, working in an
environment specifically dedicated to special needs students has its
advantages. There is no judgment from peer to peer, and each
individual is eager and willing to help each other out.
Effect Interpersonal Learning Style Has On My Teaching Style
As I have gotten to know each of my students on an individual
and group basis throughout this year, I have learned about my
teaching style and the learning styles of each of my students. As the
graph above demonstrates, my students are social butterflies that
thrive on conversation and peer interactions (for the most part). As
such, I have been able to adjust my lessons and teaching style in order
to incorporate peer instruction, group work, and collaborative learning
through the use of interactive notebooks, class discussions, and hands
on activities. Traditionally taught courses do little to improve students
understanding of the central concepts students develop complex
reasoning skills most effectively when actively engaged with the

Know Thy Learner

material they are studying, and cooperative activities are an

excellent way to engage students effectively, (Crouch & Mazur, 2001).
The unit I am currently working on is Statistical Reasoning (6th
grade competency). This particular competency requires the students
to determine the differences between a statistical and non-statistical
question, identify central tendency (mean, median, mode, and range)
when provided graphs and sets of data, identify the first through fourth
quartiles in a box plot, and collect and graph data in a box plot. This is
a complex unit for neuro-typical learners, so it has been somewhat of a
challenge with many of my special needs learners. Based on the data I
collected above, I have tweaked this unit slightly to incorporate more
interpersonal learning opportunities. Initially, my students were given
cloze-style notes to paste into their interactive notebooks, then as a
class we discussed the various terms, and how to identify statistical
and non-statistical questions (we spent a week on this). Then, my
students completed activities such as sorting statistical and nonstatistical data in partnered pairs. As a summative assessment (which
they completed independently) for this learning task, my students
were asked to write a question they may ask a peer or parent, followed
by the definition of a statistical question, and lastly a statistical
question.
Since I began teaching, I have always incorporated a majority of
interpersonal learning and teaching because that is how I learn and,

Know Thy Learner

consequently teach, best. My students have seemed to respond well to

this, and as the data shows, they seem to learn best this way as well.
Of course, there are students in my classes that learn better
independently or 1:1 and I am able to accommodate their learning
accordingly.

References:
Crouch, C., & Mazur, E. (2001). Peer instruction: Ten years of
experience and results. American Association of Physics
Teachers, 1. Retrieved from
http://www.sswm.info/sites/default/files/reference_attachments/C
ROUCH%20and%20MAZUR%202001%20Pee%20Instruction
%20Ten%20Years%20of%20Experience%20and%20Results.pdf
National Center For Education Statistics. (n.d., ). Create a graph.
Retrieved from Institution of Educational Sciences website:
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/graphing/classic/bar.asp

Know Thy Learner

Pesce, C. (2015, ). Esl learning styles: 9 ways to teach interpersonal
learners. Retrieved from Busy Teacher website:
http://busyteacher.org/15527-how-to-teach-interpersonallearners-9-ways.html