DIFFERENT LEARNING APPROACHES AS MOTIVATORS
Nowadays, learning does not just happen within school premises, let alone within the four corners of the classroom. Students are faced with challenges brought about by the advent of technology.
With this, it is the concern of teachers has shifted to teaching students how to be independent and be self-directed so they can be equipped with the skills needed to deal with an ever-changing environment.
Different students have different approaches to learning. Some have a deep approach, to the extent of understanding the meaning of, let’s say an article assigned to them, by questioning the author’s arguments, and relating this to previous knowledge and personal experiences.
Other students, meanwhile, rely on a surface approach, where their intent is only to memorize and copy parts of the article they considers to be important. Their focus of attention is limited to specific facts or pieces of disconnected information learned by rote.
According to Mc Carthy (1981), some people learn by doing, others by sensing and feeling, some by watching, and some by thinking. He said a person does not only rely on one of these ways all the time but shows a preference for one over the others.
He also found two basic variables in the learning preferences of people: perception and process. People perceive in a continuum between concrete and abstract. Those at the concrete end of the spectrum sense and feel their way, and they are called sensers or feelers. Others at the abstract end would rather think than feel, and they are called thinkers.
Mc Carthy also mentioned four learning styles: innovative learners, analytic learners, common sense learners and dynamic learners.
The innovative learner is briefly described as: social interactor, learns by listening, divergent thinker, feeling person, perceives ideas concretely and processes reflectively, and innovative.
The analytic learner is briefly described as: idea oriented, perceive ideas abstractly, and processes reflectively, considers what the experts think, idea oriented, and seeks sequential information.
The common sense learner is described as: practical, reality-oriented, problem solver, interested in applying and making things work, and perceives ideas abstractly but processes it actively.
The dynamic learner is intuitive, unstructured, changeable, risk taker, experimental, and perceives ideas concretely but processes it actively.
The students who had that deep approach to learning may either be classified to learning may either be classified as analytic, innovative, dynamic learner while the student with a surface approach to learning maybe classified as a common sense learner.
If students can be trained to be effective and independent learners, they need not be filled with all the information they can contain before going into a new job. They will have the capacity to learn whatever they need to learn (Knowles, 1986).