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Showing posts with the label Eclectic Teaching Approach

100 Powerful Learning Specialist and Educational Therapy Materials

This week I wanted to tell you about my online store, Good Sensory Learning. I’m Dr. Erica Warren, and I established this site so I could share all the materials that I have created over the last 20+ years as a learning specialist and educational therapist. When I first began my private practice, Learning to Learn, I had great difficulty finding fun and multisensory materials for my students that were effective and engaging. So back in 2005, I made it my mission to design and distribute high-end, remedial products as well as memorable, motivating lessons that bring delight to learning. If you would like to try a free sampling of my activities , CLICK HERE . How Are the Products Organized at Good Sensory Learning? You can download my Free Printable Catalog or you can browse the site using the grey “search all products” bar in the top right of any page with keywords such as dyslexia, working memory, and executive functioning. What’s more, drop down menus in the red banner allow you t...
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10 Successful Strategies for Tactile Learners

Can you imagine what it would be like to navigate our surroundings without a sense of touch? It would probably be challenging to simply get from place to place, let alone learn anything! For many learners, a hands-on approach greatly enhances the learning process, and we as teachers need to know how to accommodate these students. Virtually everyone learns through the sense of touch, but there is a vast continuum with some learners reporting the tactile modality to be somewhat distracting while others find that it serves a vital role. In fact, over the past 20 years as a learning specialist and educational therapist, I have found that there are three distinct types of tactile learning that should be considered. Feeling objects in the environment: Some students learn best when touching or manipulating objects. Using an abacus for math calculations, interacting with a historical diorama, or even sorting sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks, for example, can assist with t...
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Do Learning Styles Exist?

I think everyone will agree that no two people have the same strengths and weaknesses. But because we cannot observe each student’s brain behavior, it’s easy to blindly assume that what helps us learn, will help others. In fact, you will often see teachers insist that their students study a certain way, because the teacher knows how much that methods helps themselves. So should teachers step out of their preferred ways of learning and accommodate the unique needs of their students? What are Learning Styles? Learning styles are an individual's unique approach to learning based on strengths, weaknesses, and preferences. Over the past decade there has been a debate about whether teachers should accommodate learning styles in the classroom. Some even purport that learning styles don’t exist altogether. I have been working with children and adults as an educational therapist for over twenty years, and I can assure you that everyone has their own unique ways of processing informati...
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Exposing Teachers to the 12 Ways of Learning

Many teachers are aware of the four basic learning styles: visual , auditory, tactile and kinesthetic. But did you know that there are eight more common ways that the brain processes information? Accommodating these 12 ways of processing is a must these days and offering instruction as well as assignments that honor all these modalities helps to prepare our students for a future of life-long learning success.  Let’s Review the Four Basic Learning Styles: Visual Learning: incorporates pictures, drawings and even personal visualizations into lessons. This helps students learn through visual observation. Auditory Learning: involves learning through listening. This helps students to learn how to focus on and determine the salient information from what they are hearing. Tactile Learning: consists of touching or feeling objects or artifacts. It also involves the encoding of information when taking notes or drawing things out. Kinesthetic Learning: encompasses learning whi...
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Multisensory Teaching Accommodates the 12 Ways of Learning

Teachers are always trying to reach more learners and improve retention. One of the best ways to do this is to employ a variety of teaching methods. This involves integrating the 12 ways of learning into instruction. Here is an infographic that reviews the 12 ways of learning and provides some statistics on how learning improves when teachers implement multisensory instruction. How Can I Learn Multisensory Teaching? The Eclectic Teaching Approach unites the theories of information processing, cognitive styles, multiple intelligences, and multisensory learning to reveal 12 diverse and unique ways of processing or encoding information. All of these learning modalities lie on a continuum and individuals have preferences based on their cognitive strengths as well as their exposure to each methodology. Eclectic learning helps teachers, therapists, parents and even employers to be more mindful of their instruction and work expectations. Then, by evaluating preferences with the contai...
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Should ADHD Students Sit Still? New Research on Movement and Learning

Can you imagine trying to learn in a classroom all day while being bound in a strait jacket? For many kinesthetic learners as well as kids with ADHD, requiring them to sit still during instruction is quite similar to binding them in their chairs. Although some learners do benefit from sitting motionless, for others it is almost impossible to learn while their bodies remain idle. Why Do Most Middle school and High school Teachers Require Their Students to “Sit Still?” It makes sense that one would teach in a way that they, themselves, learn. As a result, most teachers reflect upon their own ways of processing information when they create their lesson plans. I have found in my many years of conducting workshops with teachers, that very few teachers personally find movement helpful with the learning process. In fact, I have my own theory that teacher education does not attract many kinesthetic learners, as the process to become a teacher requires little to no movement. This hypothes...
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Multisensory Teaching Accommodates the 12 Ways of Learning

To be a true multisensory teacher, it is important to be aware of all 12 Ways of Learning. The Eclectic Teaching Approach merges the theories of cognitive styles, multiple intelligences, information processing, and multisensory learning to reveal 12 diverse and distinctive ways of processing and encoding information. Each of these learning modalities lie on a continuum and individuals have their own profiles that are based on cognitive strengths, preferences as well as exposure to each methodology. By learning about the Eclectic Teaching Approach, teachers, therapists, parents and even employers can be more mindful of their expectations as well as their lesson or training approach. Then, by evaluating preferences, instruction and assignments can be tailored for groups or individuals resulting in optimal learning. What are the 12 Ways of Learning? If you would like to view a FREE Prezi on the 12 Ways of Learning, Click here . As you interested in an assessment that ca...
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