Claire McAllister

Learning Styles Assignment

Educ 359

26 February 2019

My five learning styles are visual, conceptual, verbal, social, and pragmatic. Therefore, I

prefer visuals, such as diagrams, readings, and images, over hearing information. I also learn

better with language and ideas over real life ideas. As a verbal learner, I like language and verbal

skills and have difficulty with visualizing how things function. I prefer working with other

people as a social learner. Lastly, I am a pragmatic learner because I am practical and logical

instead of innovative and imaginative.

Awareness of a student’s learning styles, especially an ELL student’s, can be very

beneficial for the student, and for the teacher to be effective. If an ELL student has difficulty

communicating and understanding the class, at the very least, the teacher can provide images if

he is a visual learner, or cater to his systematic way of learning instead of conceptual. The

student will already have difficulty as an ELL student, so being aware and working with his or

her learning style will set up the student to succeed better while transitioning to a new school.

To engage in the student’s visual learning style, I could use graphs and diagrams within

the math class to demonstrate concepts, such as the concept of slope or linear equations. In

addition, to satisfy the student’s conceptual learning style, I will discuss the overarching ideas

and equations separate from real life application. Therefore, real life application is

supplementary, but it does not interfere with the understanding of the ideas and the mathematical

language needed. This will also help an ELL student because it keeps the content organized. To
engage a verbal learner, I will emphasize the meaning of words. I will explain content using

language, such as tongue twisters, instead of trying to get the student to imagine a concept in his

or her head. For a social learner, I will make sure to have students interact and work in groups.

This way, they can figure out concepts with their peers. Finally, for a pragmatic learner, instead

of having innovative applications to concepts, I will lay out the systematic ways of solving

problems. This can be done by having examples that are explicitly explained. I can number the

steps and create a procedure for solving the problem.

Overall, understanding a student’s learning style can be very beneficial to that student’s

success within the classroom. ELL students already have a lot to adapt to within this new

environment, so having a lesson that incorporates their style of learning can benefit them

immensely.