The Many Faces of Learning

Ruffa Aquino

Professor Stevenson

English 2A

August 27, 2011

The Many Faces of Learning

If a student constantly raises her hand and talks a lot in class, her classmates could well conclude that she is better prepared or even smarter than they are. Meanwhile, the student in the back of the room who never says a word in class could be seen as unprepared or not very smart, but both these conclusions could be wrong; the differences in classroom behavior between these two students may have less to do with intelligence or preparation than with learning style. A student’s learning style is not so much a function of how intelligent she is than of how she is intelligent. 

Not all students are created equal, and therefore not all learning styles are equally effective for all students. Because different students have different strengths and weaknesses that they bring to the learning process, their performance likely will depend on the extent to which their learning style plays to their particular strengths. Sometimes, of course, differences in academic performance can be explained by a student’s relative aptitude for the subject matter. For example, students who are weak in mathematics may find it much easier to learn languages, history, or psychology, and vice-versa. But even in those situations, student s can overcome many of those weaknesses by applying a learning style that works for them.

In mathematics courses, for example, some students are much more outspoken in class than others. At first, I thought that these students were just vying for the professor’s attention, but I have come to realize that for at least some of these students, the give-and-take with the professor is the most effective way for them to absorb the material. This became clear to me when, one day after math class, one of the most outspoken students confided in me that she was concerned about how she would do on the exam. I told her I was surprised because she always seems to be on top of the material in class, constantly, firing questions at the professor. My classmate explained, however, that once she is outside the classroom, she has an extraordinarily difficult time studying on her own because her mind wanders constantly and she cannot focus for very long on the material. It’s almost as if her mind requires the structure of a question-and-answer format to achieve its potential. For her, the opportunity to ask questions of the professor and hear the professor’s explanations is the most important part of the learning process. If she loses her way while trying to solve a problem, the professor is right there to help her get back on track and follow the reasoning process until the solution is at hand. After class is over, however, the student is on her own again, unable to regain her momentum until the next time she is in class. 

My learning style in math class is quite different. I find that I do most of my learning outside the classroom, when I am by myself either at home or in the library, immersed in my books preparing for class. For me, the classroom discussion serves a narrower, although no less important, function than it does for my classmate. The class helps to crystallize the concepts that I have already absorbed through the readings and to further refine my understanding of those concepts, but unlike my classmate, I have done most of my learning by the time I show up for class. If I encounter issues or concepts for the first time in a classroom discussion, I often become distracted because I cannot follow the discussion as closely as I would like. It is not until I return to my quiet refuge at home or in the library that I can bore down and understand in retrospect what transpired in class. In other words, class discussions help me to build on what I have learned, but cannot supplant the learning process that works best for me.

Sometimes, different learning styles can collide with one another. For example, I once had an extremely talkative classmate in one of my Psychology classes. She rarely missed an opportunity to jump in and commandeer the class discussion. Some of us felt she was just showing off because she never really asked any questions; she just prattled on about what she knew.  I resented it because she was robbing me (and the others) of valuable class time that we could have used to improve our understanding of the readings. Unfortunately, this same girl ended up being part of my small discussion group. Just as she had in the larger class setting, she dominated our discussions and made it much more difficult for us to get our work done. It was clear to me that this girl relished learning in the group setting, but what was not so clear was how much she was actually learning. My guess is that an important part of her learning style was to have an audience to whom she could regurgitate the things she knew, and that this somehow helped to cement her knowledge. For the rest of us, however, it was a disaster because our learning process effectively ceased while she talked incessantly. 

Some learning styles are not a matter of preference, but of necessity. I am reminded of a fifth-grade classmate of mine who never missed a day of school and always seemed to have done his homework. Yet his grades were always among the lowest in the class. It took a few years before his parents decided to have him undergo special tests using various instructional materials to determine what was wrong. It was discovered that Kikoy’s performance soared when taught by a tutor in a one-on-one setting. From that day forward, Kikoy attended a special school where he received much more personal attention than he ever did in our school, and he thrived in his new surroundings. He went on to attend college and today works as a teacher. 

How to learn effectively is one of the most important things students can learn about themselves. It will give them confidence as they continue to pursue their educations and careers.  It will make learning something to be embraced rather than merely tolerated or even detested, as is the case with some students. Most of all, it will enable students to do their very best in school and improve their outlook for the future.