INTRODUCTION TO

DIDACTICS

1
The Learner
Learning Styles
Motivation
2
Think Pair - Share

Which classification of
learning styles are you familiar
with?

3
Learning Styles

http://www.creativelearningcentre.com 4
Learning Style Analysis

49 individual elements in six areas

(layers of the pyramid)

First four biologically/ genetically

determined

Last two conditioned or learned

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Learning Style Analysis

1. LEFT/RIGHT BRAIN DOMINANCE:

sequential or simultaneous
brain processing strategies,
reflective or impulsive thinking styles,
overall analytic or holistic/global learning
styles
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Learning Style Analysis

2. SENSORY MODALITIES:
auditory (hearing, talking, inner
dialogue)
visual (reading, seeing, visualizing)
tactile (manipulating, touching)
kinesthetic (doing, feeling)
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Learning Style Analysis

3. PHYSICAL NEEDS:
mobility (preferences for moving or being
stationary)
intake (eating, nibbling, drinking, chewing,
etc)
time of day preferences
(personal bio-rhythm)
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 Learning Style Analysis

4. ENVIRONMENT:
sound (needing music/sound or wanting it
quiet)
light (needing bright or dim lighting)
temperature (needing cool or warm)
work area (wanting formal or
informal/comfortable design)
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Learning Style Analysis

5. SOCIAL GROUPING:
working alone
in a pair / with peers / in a
team
authority (wanting to learn with a teacher
or a parent)
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Learning Style Analysis

6. ATTITUDES:
motivation (internally or externally motivated for
learning)
persistence (high, fluctuating, or low)
conformity (conforming or non-conforming/rebellious)
structure (being self-directed or needing directions,
guidance from others)
variety (needing routine or changes/variety)
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Learning Style Analysis

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Follow-up activity
1. Go to CREATIVE LEARNING web
page at:
www.creativelearningcentre.com/LSA_roll.asp

2. Roll your mouse over the graphic,

read the different descriptions, and
think of an answer to the following
questions:
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Learning Style Analysis
informs about students
14

Information Processing
Sensory Modalities
Physical Needs
Environmental Preferences
Social Aspects
Attitudes
Learning
15 Style Analysis

reveals ... each student's unique combination

of style features.

shows ... how to rearrange the learning

environment to get better results.

provides ... guidelines for helping students

concentrate better and learn most
successfully.
Homework
What are the characteristics of right brain
dominance?

What are the characteristics of left brain

dominance?

What activities/tasks best cater for

kinesthetic and/or tactile learners?

Think of a lesson in which several learning

styles are catered for
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Attributive Styles
Why should we consider them?
a person's own perceptions or
attributions determine the
amount of effort the person
will engage in activities in the
future
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 Attributive Styles
The theory divides the way people
attribute causes to events into two
types, according to the locus of
control:

"External" or "situational" attribution

"Internal" or "dispositional" attribution

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Attributive Styles

"External" or "situational"
attribution assigns causality to an
outside factor, such as the weather
or the fact that the teacher doesnt
like him/her
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Attributive Styles
"Internal" or "dispositional"
attribution assigns causality to
factors within the person, such as
their own level of intelligence or
other variables that make the
individual responsible for the event.
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 Attributive Styles
Attributions can also be classified as

stable no matter what the situation is

unstable not always in similar situations

controllable
uncontrollable
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Understandings
The Educated Mind : How Cognitive Tools
Shape Our Understanding (K. Egan, 1997)

Egan's proposed solution to the

education problem is to let learning
follow the natural way the human mind
develops and understands.
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Understandings

According to Egan, Somatic

individuals Mythic
proceed through Romantic
five kinds of Philosophic
understanding: Ironic

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Understandings
Somatic
before language acquisition
discovery of physical abilities of one's own body
somatic understanding includes the
communicating activity that precedes the
development of language
this kind of understanding survives in the way
children "model their overall social structure in
play". 24
Understandings

Mythic
concepts are introduced in terms of simple
opposite (e.g. Tall/Short or Hot/Cold).

mythic understanding also includes

comprehending the world in stories.

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 Understandings
Romantic
practical, realistic limits of the mythic concepts
are discovered
includes "associations with the transcendent
qualities of heroes, fascination with the
extremes of experience and the limits of reality,
and pervasive wonder".

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Understandings

Philosophic
discovery of principles which underlie
patterns and limits found in romantic data
knowledge ordered into coherent general
schemes.

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 Understandings

Ironic
involves the "mental flexibility to recognize how
inadequately flexible our minds are, and the
languages we use, to the world we try to
represent in them"
includes the ability to consider alternative
philosophic explanations
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Discuss
What does being a
teacher involve?
What needs to be taken
into account?
Good language learners
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What does teaching involve?

DIDACTICS PLANNING

EVALUATION
 PLANNING
TEACHER
CONTENTS

CLASSROOM
RESEARCH &
TEACHING &
ASSESSMENT LEARNING
PROCESSES
PROCESS
Reflective Log
33

Based on the readings and

your own experience
What factors need to be considered when
planning and delivering a lesson?

How important is to know your students?

Why?

How do motivation and learning styles

affect learning?