In my monthly, five-minute STEM Skill Step Up Letter, I give hints like the following on improving critical cognitive and technical skills for young adults. I will also respond to questions that you submit. To do so, subscribe to my newsletter by emailing me. I will respond to questions on the Play-Ed Corporation Facebook page when appropriate.
Author Profile
Dr. Gabriella is an accomplished scholar and businessman. Ivy-league educated, he has served as a lecturer or professor at universities in the U.S., Japan, and China. Currently, he resides in Japan, where he is a senior manager and active consultant. A former high-school math teacher, Joseph is passionate about teaching critical STEM skills to future generations through his company, Play-Ed Corporation.
Power-Charging STEM Learning
Studying is one of my favorite hobbies. Now that my smart phone allows me to study wherever I go, I have become addicted to this pastime. If only I could fully learn everything I studied. In many cases, my understanding of the topic increases, but I rarely learn the material deeply, and I am unlikely to recall what I have studied a few days later. For many students, whose primary goal is to pass an upcoming test, this approach may work, but is suboptimal. The deep learning process required to fully understand and apply STEM concepts to real-word problems is arduous. Learning can still be enjoyable, but is by no means effortless.
To expedite and ease the process, I urge parents to help their students utilize their preferred learning styles and develop strategies for combining them. While many styles paradigms have appeared in the education literature, I focus on the VARK, developed by Neil D. Fleming, not because it is the best, but simply because it is easily understood. VARK is an acronym formed from visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic, each a different way to learn. According to learning styles theories, individuals learn best if they adopt their dominant style. While statistical studies of styles theories have yielded mixed results, I recommend that you teach children about them because I have personally experienced the power of utilizing a style with which I am comfortable. In addition, I have achieved results with others using different styles.
I am a learning-style mongrel with a particular penchant for visual approaches. Often asking others to draw a picture for me when they are explaining an idea or concept, I draw pictures myself to visualize written explanations. At the same time, I also exhibit read/write tendencies. When I study Japanese or Chinese, I write out the logographs (characters) for new vocabulary. Perhaps because the characters are essentially pictures, they appeal to my proclivity to learn visually. However, to practice using new vocabulary, expressions, and grammar, I will speak aloud, making up sentences. I also use Skype to talk with a Chinese conversation partner, invoking aural and kinesthetic styles.
When I tackle STEM subjects like programming or mathematics, I write programs, solve problems and interact with hardware and other components. Similarly, I enjoy testing ideas and principles that I read in books, garnering a sense of gratification that I can verify or apply my knowledge. I also enjoy models and design my own versions, further applying the information.
Think about how your children study, how they strive to learn. Observe them as they do their homework. If they are struggling to understand the written explanation in their text, suggest online video explanations like those offered by Khan Academy. If they have difficulty understanding aural instructions like my nephew, draw a picture or set of pictures to explain. On more than a few occasions, I have observed his wide-eyed eureka moments analyzing my drawings. Once you have a sense of your children’s learning styles, you can suggest strategies for applying them to different learning tasks. Your children might benefit from applying visual approaches to memorizing spelling words through flash cards. In biology, students might grasp new concepts more easily by drawing pictures and writing explanations.
To better understand your children’s learning styles, you should request feedback from your children's teachers. You could also have you children complete a learning styles survey. In addition to the previously mentioned VARK, Gregorc’s Style delineator, the VAK, and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences are popular.
Joseph Gabriella, Ph.D., MBA
Founder and CEO, Play-Ed Corporation
To expedite and ease the process, I urge parents to help their students utilize their preferred learning styles and develop strategies for combining them. While many styles paradigms have appeared in the education literature, I focus on the VARK, developed by Neil D. Fleming, not because it is the best, but simply because it is easily understood. VARK is an acronym formed from visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic, each a different way to learn. According to learning styles theories, individuals learn best if they adopt their dominant style. While statistical studies of styles theories have yielded mixed results, I recommend that you teach children about them because I have personally experienced the power of utilizing a style with which I am comfortable. In addition, I have achieved results with others using different styles.
I am a learning-style mongrel with a particular penchant for visual approaches. Often asking others to draw a picture for me when they are explaining an idea or concept, I draw pictures myself to visualize written explanations. At the same time, I also exhibit read/write tendencies. When I study Japanese or Chinese, I write out the logographs (characters) for new vocabulary. Perhaps because the characters are essentially pictures, they appeal to my proclivity to learn visually. However, to practice using new vocabulary, expressions, and grammar, I will speak aloud, making up sentences. I also use Skype to talk with a Chinese conversation partner, invoking aural and kinesthetic styles.
When I tackle STEM subjects like programming or mathematics, I write programs, solve problems and interact with hardware and other components. Similarly, I enjoy testing ideas and principles that I read in books, garnering a sense of gratification that I can verify or apply my knowledge. I also enjoy models and design my own versions, further applying the information.
Think about how your children study, how they strive to learn. Observe them as they do their homework. If they are struggling to understand the written explanation in their text, suggest online video explanations like those offered by Khan Academy. If they have difficulty understanding aural instructions like my nephew, draw a picture or set of pictures to explain. On more than a few occasions, I have observed his wide-eyed eureka moments analyzing my drawings. Once you have a sense of your children’s learning styles, you can suggest strategies for applying them to different learning tasks. Your children might benefit from applying visual approaches to memorizing spelling words through flash cards. In biology, students might grasp new concepts more easily by drawing pictures and writing explanations.
To better understand your children’s learning styles, you should request feedback from your children's teachers. You could also have you children complete a learning styles survey. In addition to the previously mentioned VARK, Gregorc’s Style delineator, the VAK, and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences are popular.
Joseph Gabriella, Ph.D., MBA
Founder and CEO, Play-Ed Corporation
Dr. Gabriella is an accomplished scholar and businessman. Ivy-league educated, he has served as a lecturer or professor at universities in the U.S., Japan, and China. Currently, he resides in Japan, where he is a senior manager and active consultant. A former high-school math teacher, Joseph is passionate about teaching critical STEM skills to future generations through his company, Play-Ed Corporation.
