Untitled Document

Learning how you learn

What are learning styles?

Each of us has a preferred way of learning. These may be based on how our senses take in information (auditory, Kinesthetic or visual), how we organize this information (abstract, random, Concrete, Sequential), or which of our many intelligences dominate our personalities (there are eight of these intelligences).

Why the website?

"... the relationship between [students'] active involvement and effective learning is so strong that 'the effectiveness of any educational policy or practice is directly related to the capacity of that policy to increase involvement in learning.'

Active involvement includes frequent student-faculty interaction, both in and outside of class."

About the site

I will be updating features regularly. If you miss a class, you should check to see what information is posted here.

Sensory based

You know you have fine senses; some of you may even feel that you have a sixth sense. Regardless, school focuses primarily on three modalities:

Auditory: What you here

Visual: What you see

Kinesthetic: what you feel/do

To find out where your strength lies: Check out the VARK

Organizationally based

We all have to make sense of the multitude of information we receive; There are two primary ways we can organize information:

Random: Do you find yourself jumping around magazine articles? Taking notes on any handy paper?

Sequential: Do you take notes linearly, one after another> Do people describe you as neat?

And there are two distinct types of information:

Concrete: This is the nuts and bolts of the world, the facts, the descriptions.

Abstract: this is the big picture stuff, the concepts, the theory.

Check out the index of learning styles. A four page discussion of results is here.

Multiple Intelligences

We sued to think that a person's intelligences was dictated by his IQ score. But Howard Gardiner has shown, quite convincingly, that intelligence has many different dimensions. In fact he states we have eight different ones that comprise our Multiple Intelligences:

Personality Based

The Keirsey Temperament and Character tests resemble the Meyers-Briggs test. They can be taken on line and scored immediately. The temperament and character types are explained. There is also a short list of careers aligned with the character types. Architect, for example, is aligned with rational, teacher is aligned with idealist, etc.

This site is intended to be a learning aid for students of IB psychology SL at ECA. This site has no official connection nor endorsement to the International Baccalaureate program. Material copyright©2004 by Shaun McElroy

IB Psychology