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Principals, Heads of Departments (HODs) and lecturers from National Institute of Education (NIE) recently took part in a dialogue session on 30 Aug 2006 with Professors Kenneth and Rita Dunn about learning styles and strategies. More than 30 distinguished educators from all over Singapore were present at the dialogue session hosted jointly by Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and Active Intelligence Consultancy, a learning styles consultancy firm, at Kheng Cheng School.
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Profesors Kenneth Dunn (left) and Rita Dunn elaborating on how the Learning Styles Model improves learning. |
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Both Prof Rita and Kenneth Dunn have served the education service and research academia for more than 40 years. Prof Rita Dunn is the Director, Center for Study of Learning and Teaching Styles, St. John’s University. She is the founding member of the Learning and Teaching Styles Network, which has more than 30 International Learning Centres around the world.
Increased Awareness
After the session, Mdm Ow Suek Yin, Principal of Kheng Cheng School and her HODs found themselves more aware of the different learning styles of students. “As teachers we need to be mindful of this,” Mdm Ow reflected. “When teachers are aware of their own learning styles as well as of their students, they can customise their lessons to suit their students, thereby motivating them to learn. In addition, if teachers implement what they know about learning styles, their students become more engaged in learning.”
However, the group from Kheng Cheng School observe that it would be challenging to implement the Dunn and Dunn model in a class of forty students. As such, they have decided to first get their teachers to think about what kind of learning styles they and their students have, and then explore how best they can make use of this knowledge to achieve the best results.
Mrs Wai Yin Pryke from St Andrews Junior School was another attendee at the eye-opening dialogue. She found the speakers’ presentations of their Learning Styles model (See Related Story) to be compelling. “The challenge is in finding the optimal class size to put this into practice. Children, being highly flexible and adaptable, can also learn from different teaching styles and expand their repertoire of learning styles,” she shared.
(With input from Michael Choy, Director, Active Intelligence Consultancy Pte Ltd)
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