Learning Styles in a College Environment

Student Learning Styles Writing to Learn -- Real World Issues A university instructor that seeks to interest and motivate students through a lecture is sometimes on thin ice as far as keeping students' attention. Hence, it is incumbent on the alert contemporary instructor to present highly relevant material (in a way that engages students) while at the same time realizing there are vastly different learning styles.

Still, the job of the instructor is to present information that helps the student develop skills in critical thinking -- and helps the student learn to solve problems. There are many aspects to the vitally important environmental issue of climate change, and all aspects of this issue cry out for clarity. An instructor can create a worthy activity -- that informs while it stimulates -- from the various approaches to climate change.

In this paper the emphasis on writing to learn assignments are relevant to Kolb's Learning Styles, Fleming and Mills's Sensory-Based Learning Style, and also Felder and Silverman's Index of Learning Styles. The Lecture -- Climate Change The most respected and thoroughly scientific data surrounding the issue of climate change is researched and reported empirically by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

It its Fifth Assessment Report the panel explains that, in addition to the vast volumes of evidence gathered and presented over the past sixty years, there is new evidence of climate change. This new evidence allows the Working Group (hundreds of scientists that research and report) to say without equivocation that the climate is warming, and the since the 1950s, the recorded changes in global temperatures are unprecedented.

The atmosphere and the ocean are warming, the snow and ice and the glaciers are being diminished; the level of the sea is rising and all this is happening concurrent with the rise in concentrations of greenhouse gases (IPCC, 2013). And while many people agree that the climate is warming, a significant number of those polled by Gallup and other polling organizations do not believe that humans are responsible for climate change.

The Lecture -- Polling the Public on Climate Change A Gallup poll report in April, 2014 showed that one person in four is skeptical that climate change is taking place (Saad, 2014). That poll indicates that about 39% of participants are those who believe that global warming is real and is caused by humans -- and are worried about it (Saad, 2014). Another 36% of those polled by Gallup believe that media reports on global warming are exaggerated and they are not worried about the threats from rising temperatures.

About 25% of participants in the poll simply doubt that climate change is anything to worry about; these individuals don't believe it is caused by humans (Saad, 2014). Research in the journal Public Opinion Quarterly reflects the fact that 33% of Americans are not aware of any evidence that the climate is actually warming (Schuldt, 2011). Schuldt found that data in a Pew poll from 2009, and he goes on to report that conservatives tend to use global warming as terminology while liberals like to use climate change.

The reason for the differences in identifying the phenomena is that climate change has caused wildly fluctuating weather conditions, and not all of those changes result in warmer air in any given region of the planet. For example, a conservative talk show host noting that New York City (in January, 2013) had its coldest day on record rips apart the idea that global warming is real.

Hence, it is important to note that climate change is not about weather per se; it is about the climate and its changing influence and impact on the planet and its people. The Assignment -- A Free-write (only pencil and paper are needed) Following the lecture students are given seven minutes to write down, in bullet points, the most important information they can recall from the lecture. They were not asked to take notes, so they are using recollection skills.

In the second timed eight-minute window of time they are to create an essay explaining their own previously held position and/or offering a summation as to why people believe in climate change and why others do not. They may also offer a solution in order to convince the one in four doubters that climate change is real.

Why the Assignment is Compatible with Kolb's Learning Styles Students are allowed to express their feelings in a concrete experience (the lecture and the challenge) in a personal way without being right or wrong. This is Kolb's learning style because it allows open-minded and intuitive responses to the material presented in the lecture (Nilson, 2010).

This assignment also fits with Kolb's Learning Styles because it challenges students to observe a dilemma reflectively; in addition, differing points-of-view need to be critiqued and objectivity is important in this exercise, which follows Kolb's style Why the Assignment is Compatible with Fleming and Mill's Style In particular, students with auditory skills learn well when given information they can hear, and in this exercise there are no visuals, no videos, just the voice of the instructor reviewing the material.

Also, this style of learning emphasizes logical and deductive relationships, and the subjects in the lecture cry out for logic and understanding. Why the Assignment is Compatible with Felder and Silverman Most learners can process material when it is either visual or verbal, and most students excel in one of the two formats. For those not as skilled with verbally presented material, this is an.