To think that schools should be more accomodating to visual spacial learners

[kissmyassdotcom]

Both Ds 9 and Dd 5 are VSL. No matter how much their school make them copy out the same bloody spellings over and over, they still don't seem to get that it doesn't work for them.....and never will. They constantly point out how they "know what they are capable of by the way they speak" but continue to expect them to do the impossible by teaching them in ways that will never help them reach their potential.

They expect them to sit still, listen and learn with the occasional drawing on the whiteboard. I have now come to the conclusion that my DC will NEVER learn ANYTHING in a school environment which involves more of the learning styles which have absolutely no impact on them what-so-ever other than completely killing their self esteem and motivation to do well.

After 4 years of hunting (and many failed attempts with other strategies) I have finally found a way to teach both of my DC to spell and they only had to write the word once and why? because I have used their preferred learning style rather than expecting them to fit in the one size fits all category. So far this same technique has also helped my DS to learn some of his multiplication facts too, after he has spent the past 2 years trying to learn them!

AIBU to expect schools in this day and age to recognise the stronger VSL and supply them with an alternative curriculum to help them to succeed???

Learning spelling by copying was a waste of time for me, but seems to work just fine for my son...

Totally agree that a varied teaching style should be used but as it stands my Dc are only picking up a fraction of what is being taught

TBH - that probably applies to most children, students and anyone else who is learning

Howard Gardner did not intend his research to be about learning styles, he has no time for them.

How I always wanted to "cater" to learning styles:

Visual? Read this book. Auditory? Listen to me. Kinaesthetic? Write this down. :o

Ps the best spellers in my class are the ones who read the most.

Yabu homeschool if you think teachers now need to dedicate time to cover each and every issue every child has.

What a load of nonsense. Homeschool if the education system is failing your special little snowflakes and you are so much more effective.

Ah yes!

"Learning Styles".

I'm off to google the recent research where they tested this nonsense stuff - and showed that people's stated "learning style" was a load of old bollocks.
They showed that supposed "visual/kinaesthetic/auditory" learners did not learn better when tested with their preferred style versus other styles.

Panzee - it was only when I came into teaching that I learned about this crap.

On another note, Howard Gardner didn't really promote the idea of "learning styles" - he was more focused on the different types of skills, abilities and "intelligence"

Wow many somewhat mixed responses! Can't help but chuckle at the ones who jump on you for knowing your own DC.

Firstly my Dd, 6 in 2 weeks, is as visual as you can get....trust me. Re-occurring ear infections since a baby helped with that. She can tell you she has been somewhere before even if it was 12 months ago and just the once. We call her our chatnav....she has been doing it since she was 3. That's not mentioning the puzzles etc.

Iam I have thought about home ed in the past but to be truthful other family members were totally against.

museumum The Dc copy a sentence put on a board and add the missing (spelling) word, but it is still classed as a spelling test apparently. I have also checked to see if my Dc can do this and they now can. Before my DS would learn his spellings but they were forgotten by the 2nd day he has never gotten over a 5/10 for his tests...ever. Dd just couldn't take them in at all.

I too am a visual learner and I really do relate a word to a picture and all that ermmm rubbish as some keep telling me. Didn't learn much at school yet I worked my butt off and scrapped in average. I have an awful habit of creating more questions from a question which really trips me up.

I did a primary PGCE in which the close -to -retirement tutor finished his segment on VAK learning styles with instructions on how to support each learning style in case of a fire. He kept a brilliantly straight face.

kiss as it says in my link:

"What cognitive science has taught us is that children do differ in their abilities with different modalities, but teaching the child in his best modality doesn't affect his educational achievement. What does matter is whether the child is taught in the content's best modality."

It doesn't matter how strong a visual learner your DD is, she will not learn how to ride a bicycle more effectively by just watching a video.

Nobody is saying your DCs aren't better at some things than others kiss ! Just that this is proven to have no effect on their actual learning - tests show that 'visual' people don't learn more. When taught and tested in a visual style than, say, an auditory one. Also, writing the spelling out, ie looking at it, would be a visual learning technique anyway, surely?

Yes I know I am an awful parent....ya know the kind who thinks that their Dc being years behind everyone with their written work warrants some kind of help

GCC your right. Writing the word backwards would be a ridiculous way of learning to spell, that's why they don't. Sorry it does read that way though.

The intelligence post makes sense, Ds's cognitive assessment showed he had superior visual perception while everything else was hovering around the below average mark, but still why use someones strengths when one can simply focus on their weaknesses....drill, drill and drill some more because that ought to work.

Dom, a little back info for those who don't believe... My ds is autistic. He was diagnosed at 3. He has been rejected from every private school (selective and non selective) because he doesn't fit in.

He wasn't awarded a statement in the state school because he not deemed to need support (and won't until he's seen to be failing)

During his four weeks at school, he was physically restrained daily. The one day he wasn't, he walked out of school. He was 4.

I'm sorry, but until you have a child with SEN, don't judge.

Wi have to admit, I was against home ed, and my family were equally against it. It chose us rather than we chose it.

It became obvious that school - in any capacity - was not going to work.

Home ed has been amazing :-)

Yes cardi I would of thought that too, about the looking being visual, but it just wasn't working. We did keep with it for a long while because the teachers told me it was the best way to learn...funnily enough mentioning VAK (which I had nooo idea about at the time). Now I have introduced the colour/broke it up in sections they are getting it straight away.

Just wished I had done it this way to begin with DS is so far behind and it upset him so much when he couldn't do it.

kissmyass

It sounds like the school needs to use a range of different teaching styles in the classroom. Relying on one technique is not a good way to teach.

Spellings can be taught and learnt in a range of ways. A good teacher uses a range of approaches in their classroom.

A school can have a range of children who may have different strengths and preferred ways of working. Not learning - but working. It can't rely on one method - but at the same time, I don't think it's possible in one lesson to cover all the possible speaking, listening, kinaesthetic, writing and auditory ways. That would be one hell of an hour lesson.

DS1 is 9 and although I'm not a fan of the whole 'learning styles' thing, he's rather more of a do-er than a sitter when it comes to stuff like spellings and times tables. So I thought of new things to do; he listens to times tables cds in the car on journeys (I know my times tables better now than I ever did as a child, and my 4 year old marches about at his nursery chanting 4, 8, 12, 16 and has them all believing he's Rain Man). He also does his spellings while he's bouncing on the trampoline; I open the kitchen window, shout the word and he has to spell out each letter with each bounce. Sounds mad, but he does incredibly well at school despite having additional needs.

I don't expect school to cater to him; I work in a school and am aware that catering to individual pupils is nigh-on impossible in each area. So at school he has learned to sit, to listen, to write plenty. And at home we cater to him to ensure he doesn't tire of trying hard at school.

We all learn in the same way

Things certainly change so quickly in education.

I completed my Post compulsory PgCE in 2010 and VAK was supposed to be covered during each lesson to cater for all students learning styles.
I know that once qualified teachers don't walk into every lesson with a plan, but it was made very clear that a good rationale had to be made for why a particular resource was used. Our plan had to clearly state how VAK was being utilised.

They TAUGHT us VAK as a thing on PGCE (2004). Then, a few years later at my job before last, we went on a (no doubt expensive, because the scheme was) course about Activate... which we had to do twice a day, and that was monitored. I wished at the time some SLT would read "Bad Science". Thankfully, my current school don't seem to have bought into this crap.

I do sympathise, though, OP. My DS1 has struggled at school since day one, he's now in year 10 and I pray for him to get a couple of GCSEs! It took me a really, really long time to accept that he wasn't "academic" but marvellous in other ways, and I wish my mum would catch up and appreciate him for who he is. Which is marvellous. But not "high ability in a school context.