Cynthia Tobias believes every child can succeed in school, if we understand the way they learn. Tobias is an educator, researcher, best-selling author and frequent speaker on the topics of learning styles, strong willed children, motivation and persuasion. We review education in America, and find hope and practical strategies for helping both parents and educators teach our children well.
Early in her career, Cynthia was excited to start teaching high school students because she thought they would be excited to learn. She found out quickly that, rather than wanting to learn, teens were fighting boredom and apathy. She decided to do some research and find out how God wired each of us to retain information.
Cynthia shares several insights here:
The bottom-line question – “What do they need to know?”
How our learning style is built into our DNA
The three main categories of learners – auditory, visual, and kinesthetic
The distinction between a learning style and a learning disability
How Cynthia as a teacher was able to use different teaching techniques in her classroom, and the mistakes she made along the way
Steps parents can take to advocate for their children in the classroom while empowering them to learn
Cynthia shares that we as adults often marry someone with an opposite learning style. She is a visual learner – if you can describe a picture of what you’re talking about, she can immediately relate to the topic. However, she married a man who is highly analytical. Often, we can learn to work together in a way that complements every learning style. But as Cynthia points out, “awareness is half the battle.” Once you can pinpoint a person’s learning style, you can start to tailor the learning process to their strengths and personality.
Cynthia says, don’t get discouraged. It can be a long and frustrating process, but with a little patience, we can learn to better understand each other and equip our children to learn on their own.
Image: Flickr
