ETON’s Learning Styles: Making Every Child A Success Story

Most parents find themselves asking these questions: Why am I frustrated with my child’s learning pace? How many of my child’s grades did not meet my expectation? Why do I feel impatient to teach my own kid? How many times do I have to go to school because of problems with the teachers and my child? How do I raise successful kids?

There’s no harm in asking serious and honest questions like these. In fact, the good thing is, once the right questions are there, answers and other feedback that can help analyze the problem or the situation are also there. This is where ETON International School lends a helping hand to parents who want to know their children better, and in the process, they, too, learn much about themselves.

The ETON curriculum is all about challenging and stimulating learning programs that incorporate these important elements: critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration across networks and leading influence, agility and adaptability, initiative and entrepreneurialism, effective oral and written communication, accessing and analyzing information, and curiosity and imagination. This multifaceted curriculum includes lessons and activities based on the Dunn and Dunn Learning Styles System to help every person to discover and reach his or her highest potential.

Each student has different learning strengths and preferences and the abilities to focus and learn. Students differ in processing style and preferred modalities. There are two general processing styles: the analytical and the global. Global learners, for example, absorb new knowledge faster in an environment with soft lighting and non-traditional seating. They also need to take breaks, eat snacks, go around, and listen to music. On the other hand, analytic learners learn best in an environment with bright light and traditional seating positions. They want a quiet room, with no interruptions or disruptions.

Aside from the processing style, the ETON curriculum uses the Learning Styles to provide guides for effective teaching strategies, through assessment of the students’ preferred modalities of perception: visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic. ETON assesses each student’s dominant modality of perception in connection to sensory data. By doing so, teachers can determine the most effective instructional plan for a particular student.

At ETON, students discover their own learning styles by taking a Learning Styles assessment test. In a few minutes, results are known. In turn, teachers adapt the needs and learning preferences of their students based on this test. ETON takes it further by encouraging parents to take the definitive assessment test, too, so they can also understand the similarities and differences of learning styles between themselves and their children. By drawing these factors together, in essence, the ETON way of learning becomes more cohesive, collaborative, and comprehensive.

The Dunn and Dunn model is based on five strands of 21 elements of learning: environmental, emotional, sociological, physiological, and psychological.

1. Environmental

Environmental elements—such as lighting, sound, temperature, and seating arrangement and furniture design—have a huge effect on one’s learning style. Learning may be caused or heightened by some physical condition that makes it easy or difficult for students to concentrate and learning.

Take for an example Valerie, a 7th grade student and a consistent topnotcher of the International Benchmark Test (IBT) since 2007. She has difficulty focusing on her lessons when it is too quiet inside the classroom so listening to music helps her concentrate and focus. ETON played a big part in achieving her academic goals when she was placed in an innovatively designed classroom that incorporate temperature and lighting control, ergonomic furniture, and study areas for quiet or musically-inclined students.

2. Emotional

Motivation, persistence, responsibility, and structure are emotional factors that have direct impact in encouraging students to learn, as well as influence their feelings about learning. At ETON, teachers can facilitate the learning process by heeding to these emotional needs and differences when planning and implementing lessons.

One example how emotional support helped a student achieve his potential is the story of Lemuel, another 7th grade student. In his six years as an ETON student, he has become more responsible, persistent, and motivated in studying. Lemuel is a consistent gold medalist and topped the IBT in the field of Science and Math.

3. Sociological

Sociological factors are related to how students learn and concentrate in connection with other people. Students learn differently in various social groupings: some work alone, with peers (like their close friends), with a team, or with an adult.

One example of this is Sophia, now on her 6th year at ETON. She used to feel uncomfortable in socializing with her classmates and she was hesitant to express her feeling and thoughts. Through the help of the ETON style of learning that provides different kinds of interaction activities, Sophia has become more confident in dealing with other people, and not easily intimidated.

4. Physiological

Students learn better when they are immersed in multisensory learning. Physiological elements included in this learning style are perceptual (auditory, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic), time-of-day energy levels, intake (eating or drinking while studying), and mobility (sitting still or moving around).

In the case of Kristine Faith, she was a 4th Grade transferee student who came in last July. She had difficulty understanding concepts in her former school because of its traditional way of delivering lessons. Since she is a visually inclined learner, ETON gave her the chance to experience multisensory learning by exposing her to real-life activities, such as role playing activities, local and international field trips, and theater projects.

5. Psychological

The elements in this aspect relate to the subsequent varieties of psychological processing: hemispheric, impulsive or reflective, and global versus analytic. This learning style element involves the techniques on how students deal with learning problems. The ETON curriculum provides programs that tackle the perception, process, and response to information and ideas.

Gracielle Reyes, a 6th Grade student, was not confident in responding to concepts and information being taught when she came to ETON last year. She came from a traditional classroom setting before she transferred. ETON changed the way she deals with learning barriers because its curriculum implements individualized learning programs which are student-centered and process-oriented.

Indeed, ETON International School renders multiple and varied opportunities that equip the students, and even their parents, to achieve their potential through their own learning styles, skills, and interests. Its curriculum helps the students see how the things they are learning today prepare them for life in the real world.

Additional Source:http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/styles-and-diversity.html