The mission of PrepMasters and these podcasts is to create effective instructors. Are you an effective instructor? Does your expertise translate into student learning?
The art of effective instruction produces great instructors. A great instructor is someone who can turn their expertise into learning that makes a difference in their students’ lives. Below is an article with more information on Teaching to Individual Learning Styles.
Teaching to Individual Learning Styles (a 5-part series)
Part 3: Kinesthetic Learners
Welcome to Part 3 of a five-part series of podcasts on Teaching to Individual Learning Styles. In Part 3, I’ll teach you how to cater to the kinesthetic learners in your class. This article discusses what kinesthetic learners are and gives you some tips on adapting your teaching style to make it easy for them to learn.
First, I’d like to explain what kinesthetic learners are, and then I’ll give you some tips and strategies to use to teach kinesthetic learners in a way that makes it very easy for them to learn.What is a kinesthetic learner?
Kinesthetic learners are also called “kinesthetic/tactile” learners. The word “kinesthetic” describes their preference for movement. And the word “tactile” describes their preference for touching and feeling things. Therefore, kinesthetic learners are students who learn best by doing, feeling, and moving.
Just like visual learners learn best through their sense of sight and auditory learners learn best through their sense of hearing, kinesthetic learners learn best through their sense of touch. In other words, talking about a concept or letting them read about it might not be enough to allow them to understand it. But let them walk, move, touch, or hold things, and they’ll excel.
On the other hand, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all kinesthetic learners are completely incapable of reading comprehension or listening comprehension. Some kinesthetic learners adapt remarkably well by using visual and auditory learning strategies. But many of them will experience difficulty learning if you forget to include a hands-on activity or something involving movement in your lesson. And most of them will be very uncomfortable if their instructor makes them sit still at their chair without touching anything.
You may have to go out of your way to include activities that involve movement and touch in order to be fair to the kinesthetic/tactile learners in your classroom. Now, that really shouldn’t interfere with the ability of the other students in the classroom to learn. In fact, it may make things more fun and easier for them to learn by adding a little variety to their lessons. Most of the students in your classroom may not be kinesthetic/tactile learners. Some will be auditory learners, and others will be visual learners. But even they are likely to understand you better if you cover a lesson in a way that engages as many of their senses as possible. So don’t think that it’s a waste of time to teach to kinesthetic learners just because there may not be many of them in your class. A teaching approach that presents a lesson in a visual, auditory, AND kinesthetic way is fun, fair and enhances learning for everybody in the class.
How do you know if a student is a kinesthetic learner? Watch them a little.
- Do they fidget?
- Do they wiggle in their seat a lot, especially when they have to sit still for a while?
- Do they like to touch things or handle things?
Kinesthetic learners are often good at sports, dance, yoga, and performing. They may hug their friends a lot. They often talk with their hands. And they may be gifted at working with their hands- by creating art, making woodcrafts, giving massages, fixing cars, working on computers or doing other similar activities.
Between 5% and 30% of students are kinesthetic/tactile learners. That means that there’s probably at least one person in your class who’s a kinesthetic/tactile learner. You can make lessons easy on them by including activities that include movement and activities that stimulate their sense of touch.
Here are some ways to cater to kinesthetic learners:
- Have an example what you are discussing; pass it around for the students to hold. Better yet, let them get up and walk around and look at things.
- Let students walk and move about the classroom freely during lessons. I promise you that it won’t create as much pandemonium as you might think. After a couple of trials, students get used to this freedom and learn to avoid doing things that interrupt lessons.
- Allow students to review concepts you have just covered “in their own words” through the use of teachbacks or bounceback. You will be looking for assimilation of the materials, not perfection.
- When students absolutely HAVE to sit still for long periods, give them a chance to stand and stretch every few minutes.
- When possible, allow them to learn about something by DOING it rather than just hearing about it or seeing someone else do it.
- Let students hold and play with squishy toys (also known as “stress reducers”) during lessons.
- Finally, kinesthetic learners usually have a hard time taking pen-and-paper tests, even when they understand the topic matter very well. So you could give them the option of testing them by allowing them to do a demonstration of a skill, do a project, or put on a performance that shows they understand the lesson.
Remember, kinesthetic learners are neglected in most classrooms. Just following these few tips can make you a hero in the eyes of the kinesthetic learners in your own classroom.
Please join us for our next article in the Teaching to Individual Learning Styles series: Part 4: How to use learning styles in your classroom.
