Learning Styles Theories in Teaching

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015 Last Modified: 03 May 2017

Learning Styles Theories Teaching

Identify Learning Styles and Theories

During Dr. Lindsay’s three decades of teaching, she taught in many settings from public health, staff education to nursing education in the academia. Early on she did recognize the importance of education, although she was not completely sure how to go about it. This brief discussion will at identifying learning styles and theories and analyzes Dr. Lindsay’s teaching philosophy.

One important part of Dr. Lindsay’s career was occupational health nursing. While working at a major international corn processor, she had to educate employees about chemical hazards and blood-borne pathogens. The employees varied from one end of the spectrum to the other, from factory workers to PhD chemists.

This is when Dr. Lindsay recognized different learning styles, and that people have individual needs. She also recognized the difficulty the staff had with her terminology. Dr. Lindsay prepared the content and pamphlets, but still did not understand the employee’s diverse learning needs.

After reading the employee’s evaluation of the in-service, finally, Dr. Lindsay found she had to do things differently. She had to assess the employee’s readiness to learn and understand the different learning styles. Dr. Lindsay could have used to different learning styles by directing the thought process of the employee’s in accordance to her own experience and explaining the importance of the information (Learning theories and learning styles, 2008, 2).

In the role of behaviorism, Dr. Lindsay should have a source of knowledge that shapes, supervises and directs the thought processes of the employee in accordance to her own experiences (Learning theories, 2008, 2). When dealing with constructivism, Dr. Lindsay is the facilitator who could have helped the employee’s acquire knowledge and showed the need for the in-service. The educator teaches in sequences of events that are relevant to the knowledge (Learning theories and learning styles, 2008, 2).

Both one of these theories can be used in the teaching-learning process and individual learning styles are a reflection of the individual preferred way of learning. However, it’s unclear in the case study how much knowledge Dr. Lindsay had of chemical hazards and blood-borne pathogens. My experience in past hospital orientations and in-services, is that it is quite clear when someone is not familiar with the information they are presenting, which can lead people to not engage in the presentation.

If I were in Dr. Lindsay’s place, I probably would not have chosen a career move to a corn processor; this would be a complete 180 for me. My approach to educating the employee’s would be providing several small group in-services, having quick and precise information packets, showing a short video on blood-borne pathogens and chemical hazards, in addition, I would show necessary equipment such as a spill kit. All of us learn in different ways either by seeing, hearing, and/or doing. I would also have an evaluation form for feedback so that I could learn from the employee’s as well and make the proper adjustments to the in-service.

Dr. Lindsay made many career choices, although I don’t see her philosophy so clearly, it is easy to see that she love teaching and throughout the case study you can see that she was creative and liked using new methodologies. She also showed integrity and academic honesty, which shows she respects nursing and feels a sense of responsibility to the community, which is admirable.

In conclusion, Dr. Lindsay continued to learn throughout her career and strived to improve in her teaching skills. She recognized the importance of nursing education and was committed to a lifelong journey. She learned important lessons such as learning different learning styles and theories.

References

South University (2008). Learning theories and learning styles. Retrieved July 14, 2008,

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