Teen Essay: Teaching for all learning styles to ensure all students succeed

Teaching is a truly beautiful trade, a trade of knowledge that is unique and very important in society today. In fact, U.S. society places such an importance on education that it is a law: Children are required to attend school. But many students find the experience of school difficult. Some people would say that this is because the work is too hard, but I would argue it is not the difficulty of the lesson, but how the lesson is taught.

If teachers taught for all learning styles, such as auditory, visual and kinesthetic, class would be much more engaging for all students. Most classes severely lack the kinesthetic method of teaching, and I believe that more of this type of teaching would hugely benefit all students.

Highly energetic students could direct that energy toward learning and not toward interrupting the class. These teaching methods could make students feel better about education and help them reach a higher academic achievement.

It is important to create a learning environment where all student skills are represented and all students are able to succeed. When kids are respected, they feel more confident and equally educated. Unfortunately, this is not how a class setting is organized. Most of the teaching style in class is either visual or auditory, with notes and writing in between. Many teachers think that notes are a form of tactile learning, however, it engages only the hand rather than engaging the entire body, which is essential for complete tactile learners.

Most teachers dismiss rambunctious children when they’re misbehaving, rather than accommodating students who need to move around. This happens quite a bit, in fact. In 2013, the California Department of Education reported a whopping 366,629 kids suspended. It’s possible many of these children received too many detentions because of the difference in the way they learn.

Everyone is constantly learning new ways to do new things or learning new things in different ways, and schools are no exception. But there is always room for improvement. Students need to learn the ability to communicate and socialize in the kinesthetic form of learning, as well as to be silent and visually or auditorily engaged. There needs to be a balance. This all could be achieved by a little change in method. But what would this kind of classroom look like?

A class with a balanced tactile method of teaching would need space for activities, and maybe group seating so the students could discuss the curriculum with one another. Maybe curriculum that includes exercise games for memorizing and learning new material. Studies show that people learn more while their body is active. Also, the room needs to be engaging with more visual stimulation that pertains to the subjects in discussion. The classrooms we have today are not set up for proper multifunctional learning, and this should be changed.

Learning methods are universal, and when I discovered the wide range of learning techniques and methods I was surprised that they are not being used in everyday class. I would have understood so much more in my classes if the whole class was involved in teaching or if we could have discussed our own feelings on the topic to the class.

This type of class would benefit the students in a life-changing way because it’s not the lesson but how the lesson is taught. Please consider sending teachers to conferences to enhance their grasp surrounding kinesthetic learners.