Summary – Customized learning theory
Teaching pedagogy and style goes hand in hand with the variety of learning styles. A teacher has to formulate teaching strategies which will best cater to the learning needs of the children, which is why its highly important particularly for high school teachers to adapt the effective use of educational psychology (Slavin, 2012).
Effective teaching strategies and direct instruction for ADHD students is one of the key factors for promoting learning (Slavin, 2012). Direct instruction should be clear, to the point and consistent in order to facilitate effective learning. Ability grouping methods such as social learning groups and the zone of proximal development learning groups influence the constructivist learning theory (Slavin, 2012). The zone of proximal development learning groups and the constructivist learning theory both relate to each other in that they both believe in the pattern-like learning of things.
Technology is a highly effective and crucial medium of learning in this age, therefore teachers must use this tool as much as possible to teach and help students organize their documents using various Microsoft Word applications, and use search engines for research work (Slavin, 2012).
It is very important for teachers to formulate disciplinary actions to remove distractions and hindrances in the learning environment. To achieve this its required that teachers build a good healthy rapport with the students so they feel comfortable talking to the teachers regarding any matter.
Customized theory addresses multimodalities by not forcing the students to learn more than what they are capable of nor forcing them to cope up with social and emotional issues beyond their assumed age level development (Dunham, 2013). In ability grouping in the zone of proximal development ADHD high school students are classified according to the progress made in their emotional, social and academic growth. People feel more comfortable interacting with those of a similar interest and learn better when there are more similarities than differences. Grouping social learners should be based on the ability to interact socially. Intelligence and psychological testing help in determining the student’s ability in academic work.
Learning style profile definitely helps in making changes to the instructional progress made by teachers (Keefe, 1988). In creating a customized learning theory based on the zone of proximal development and relations of student’ learning in thinking and speech, a teacher is able to think from the student’s perspective and design a teaching strategy based on the student’s learning style and capacity.
References
Dunham, G. (2013). Social, Moral And Emotional Development. Retrieved from Liberty
Keefe, J.W. (1988). Profiling And Utilizing Learning Style. Reston, VA: NASSP.
Smagorinsky, P. (2007). Vygotsky And The Social Dynamics Of Classrooms. The English
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/30046790?uid=3738824&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21101841144997
