Matching teaching to learning

ABSTRACT

The debate about appropriate teaching strategies for effective learning to take place is by no means a new one. It now has an added poignancy with recent energetic government initiatives to pursue student performance targets. Recent research suggests that extending teachers’ pedagogic repertoires is an important element in maximizing academic outcomes, and that students’ views of their own education provide important insights for improving teaching and learning in schools. This article looks at a technique, derived from the work of Kolb and used in a range of secondary schools, to audit the range of teaching styles used and to compare these with the learning preferences of students. Results suggest that students favour a greater element of ‘social learning’ than they are currently receiving.

KEY WORDS:

• Kolb
• school improvement
• students’ views
• teaching strategies
• learning styles