The process of creating a learning-teaching style assessment: a checklist for documenting observations and teaching strategies1

Abstract

Summary.—This paper describes the process of creating an observational assessment designed to identify learning styles of individual children, help teachers, therapists, and parents select optimal strategies for teaching new skills in schools, clinics, and home environments, and evaluate results of the selected intervention strategies to either maintain or modify them. The checklist is organized into sections of learner styles (Visual, Auditory, and Tactile/Kinesthetic), each with two subsections (Behavior Characteristics Observed in School, Clinic, and/or Home Contexts, and Teaching Strategies Recommended). The final section, Interpretation and Recommendations, includes the analyses of results, based on calculation of percentages to indicate strongest learning styles, or to detect Multi-Sensory learners. Planning of a field-test study is described.