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Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology

Teaching & Learning Styles

Teaching Styles Learning Styles Other Resources

Individual teaching and learning styles are one of the things that make teaching so complicated. Teachers who have taught for any length of time begin to realize how hard it is to be all teachers to all students. Below are several links for teachers to figure out their "teaching styles" (how they view authority, knowledge, power, etc.), as well as the sort of "learning styles" their students come to classes with. McKinney, for example, explains how important it is for teachers to engage various learning styles in classes, which doesn't always require a massive overhaul of the teaching style with which the teacher is most comfortable.

Teaching Styles

Instructional Design and Teaching Style (Indiana State)
Based on the instructional theories of Anthony Grasha, this site offers hints on how to design courses based on the level of authority and control you need to have over a class and its workings.
Teaching Styles Inventory
Forty-question inventory of classroom-related questions for teachers to answer based on specific courses they teach.

Learning Styles

Learning Styles (Charles Claxton & Patricia Murrell, NTLF)
Claxton & Murrell encourage teachers to engage in classroom inquiry into learning styles by paying attention to "(1) personality, (2) information processing, (3) social interaction, and (4) instructional methods."
Learning Styles (Richard Felder, NCSU)
This site is a clearinghouse of articles and information on learning styles, most of which is written as well by Felder.
Multiple Intelligences: An Overview (Pearson)
On Learning Styles (Harvey Brightman, Georgia State)
Brightman discusses the impact that Personality Type can have on learning and teaching.
Supporting Individual Learners in Classrooms with Diversity (Kathleen McKinney, Sociology)
McKinney offers several options for engaging different sorts of students, involving modifying personal behaviors, class design, etc.

Other Resources

Learning Styles v. Teaching Styles (Southeastern Oklahoma State)
Matching Teaching Styles with Learning Styles in East Asian Contexts (R. Zhenhui, China)
Teaching and Learning Styles in Foreign and Second Language Education (R. Felder)
Teaching Styles and Instructional Uses of the World Wide Web (Indiana State)