Fitting the Pieces Together

In my career as an educator, and now an Instructional Designer, I consistently try to focus on the different learning styles and develop my training material/curriculum in a way that incorporates a variety of learning styles. Prior to learning the different theories and styles I have always thought of the learning styles as simply: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic and organized my training material to address these learning styles.  When reflecting on my personal learning style I have always thought of myself as a combination of both visual and kinesthetic. While learning new material I tend to visualize the concept and connect them to things I have learned in the past.  In that manner I am representative of the constructivist theory of learning. With the constructivists belief of understanding concepts through interpretation of our own past experiences, my visual connection of new material to past learning would fall in the constructivist range.


Throughout this course I have learned a great deal about a number of learning styles that can further explain my own personal preferences.  For example, I have always learned best by “doing”, or by applying the new concept to actual experience.  This type of learning I would connect with behaviorism. Behaviorism is tied to observable performance, and a kinesthetic way of learning is hands on, and therefore extends itself to a performance that is observable. Again, as an instructional designer I attempt to incorporate activities that allow the learners to apply what they are being taught in order to address the needs of the kinesthetic learners.  Another learning theory that has enlightened my understanding of my own style is the Cognitivist.  Cognitivism introduced a number of tools to instructional design such as graphic organizers, “chunking” information, and organization of information from simple to complex so learners can build upon prior knowledge.  All of these are things I utilize in my role as an Instructional Designer, but also utilize as a learner since these tools are a great way to organize your thoughts and map the concept in a way that is easily visualized. 

As for technology, it has become an integral part of both my learning and my instructional design role.  Technology has enabled me to earn a masters degree in an online program that fit perfectly into my lifestyle when a traditional classroom did not.  Technology has again offered me the opportunity to participate in another online degree program that will benefit me greatly in my career.  Technology is at the core of my daily routine as an ID as I develop all of my course material through various computer programs, I deliver training via Adobe Connect sessions, I attend Webinars and video conference meetings on a daily basis, and I use technology as my means of communication with my co-workers all over the world.  Online learning is definitely not something for everyone, but for me the ability to attend classes online, deliver training classes online, and receive various training content online has enriched my personal learning and my performance in my career. 

As I reflect on my life as a learner, and my adult life as an educator, I believe my learning style has changed many times over the years and I believe most people are similar to me and their learning styles evolve over time and become somewhat of a combination of many styles.  I also believe; however, as educators and instructional designers we have a responsibility to our learners to evolve our teaching methods to the best of our ability in order to reach the maximum number of learners and learning styles.