Harvest Times had the wonderful opportunity to interview the two pioneers of the internationally-acclaimed learning style model and find out more about how it affects each one of us.

For parents and future parents in Singapore, how could we use learning styles to connect better with our children?

Rita Dunn: I believe that parents should definitely use learning styles to help their children. Parents need to be aware of their child's learning style and the methods that should be used with the child, so that the youngster does not fail or feel bad. Because when they go to school, it's quite unlikely that they would get a teacher who can teach them the way they learn. And if they get a teacher who doesn't teach that way, then they begin to fail.

A friend was telling me that school had been terrible for her as the teacher would make everyone stand and they could not sit until they could answer a question. And she was always the one who was last. So when she came to America this year and heard about learning styles, she became so devoted and is now working in a learning style center because she wanted to prevent other children from going through what she did.

In addition, mothers and fathers also have different learning styles. The firstborn child may reflect one parent's style. The second-born child may reflect the other parent's style. Additionally, the third child may be different from the first two. When parents know what their child's style is, then teaching them and helping them with homework is possible. That's probably the most important thing for parents to know about.

Kenneth Dunn: Many parents assume that all children should learn the way they were taught: bright lights, no music, no food, sit up straight at the desk and concentrate. This is good for some children but terrible for others. There are children who read with their chin on their hands, lying on the floor, and they read better that way. If you force them into a different mode, they don't learn as well.

What about the area of communication with our children? Could learning style be adapted for that too?

RD: Yes, definitely, because if you understand the child's processing style, whether he or she is global or analytic, you'll know how to reach the child, you'll know how to work with them. Many parents don't and they don't understand why their children seem "disobedient" when actually they are just responding differently.

What advice do you have for parents whose children may attend schools that are not familiar yet with learning style? What advice would you give parents at the moment?

RD: Parents must learn about learning style and become an advocate for their own child. They need to have the courage to go to school and share what they know and try to win teachers over. Teachers are usually taught to teach in a very traditional way and usually don't respond at all to global, tactual, kinesthetic children. So parents must understand their own children, and must fortify the child so that he understands that he's not stupid, not dumb. He just learns differently. We wrote a book for parents that tells them how to work with the teachers and how to become an advocate for their own children. One of the most important things a parent can do for the child is to make him aware of his strengths (every child has strengths) and teach them to use their strengths.

KD: One of the most important things we tell parents is: There is no such thing as learning disabled; it is learning different, not learning disabled.

RD: We are now working on observational skills for preschool children and we think parents should become aware of their child's style as fast as possible. We have already reversed "under-achievement" for children in 35 different schools or school districts, children that were called special education, or learning disabled, poverty, or minority children.

You can reverse "under-achievement" in one year. These children were not learning disabled; they were not special-ed. They were just teaching disabled. But parents don't know that.

Even before marriage, taking a learning style and enjoying it is vital because the things that people argue about are the differences in their learning styles. So if they knew what to anticipate, they cope better with problems.

What would help the learning style development to grow around the world?

RD: Currently, we have 31 different learning style centers: Two in Norway, two in Denmark, one in Finland, one in Sweden, two right here in Singapore, two in Philippines, one in Brunei, one in New Zealand, one in Bermuda, and 18 in the United States.

I've been teaching in St. John's University for 37 years and I teach through learning style. You could walk in anytime, and I am using (learning style) materials, and my students know their styles. Two of the presidents of the ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) here in Singapore were my doctoral students, Mary Ellen Freely and Marsha Knoll. And in their capacity as ASCD officers, they go all over the world talking about it as did many of my other students.

I strongly believe that there's no excuse for teaching children incorrectly, because the children feel terrible and they don't understand that it's the teaching style that's wrong, not their learning style. Many are behind the times, and many nations remain traditional in their teaching.

Did you know that it took 50 years for the kindergarten concept to be adopted by schools? People said, "Oh, they're too young to cope." Change occurs slowly. Today, there are learning style schools in 31 different nations. I can also show you books in those languages about learning style. People are relying on it more and more.

KD: Ironically, the accountability movement will help the learning style development because people want to see results with students. It used to be that the teacher would say, especially at high school, "I'm here to teach, they're here to learn. Period! And if they're not learning, that's their problem. Not my problem. I teach them, they're supposed to learn."

I was superintendent of schools and we had the teachers in our school district to agree to accountability. And the supervisors did their job. So, accountability is going to enforce this because people expect things to do better.



Would learning style be helpful for working adults in their companies?

RD: Yes. We have a book which is a synthesis of all the research that has been done with learning styles. And we chose every single element that we've talked about and its application to young children, middle school, high school, college, adults, and people in business. In fact, we have four corporate centers that actually use learning styles to retrain their personnel. So it's happening. It just takes time. And people are slow to change.

We have legislation in the United States that requires the use of learning style. For now, things may be slow, but when parents see that their children will perform statistically better with learning style, they will insist on it.

KD: On your question on adults, there are many instances and practices where people are different in their working habits. For example, there was a manager in a large office building who decided to adopt the "open space" concept. But there were about half a dozen people who could not function with all the noise and people around them.

When the manager realized that, he wisely put their cubicles back up with walls for those six people and everybody was happy. Those six could now work in semi-private while the others liked the open space idea.

RD: We have an instrument that we use with adults. It's called "Building Excellence." Once parents see a difference between their spouses and themselves, and children and themselves, they would want to be more effective in their interpersonal relationships.

Could you share some experiences you had with learning styles in teaching your children, and perhaps your extended family? Could you just share a story that will encourage the parents in Singapore?

RD: Well, we had a first grandchild—Ryan—and I would always tell my children how bright and smart he is. One day my daughter called me long-distance to say that Ryan's teacher had indicated that he was not ready to read but my daughter thought otherwise.

So in the next vacation we had, I taught him how to read a children's book, using the style that suited him; by way of stories, anecdotes and visual stimuli, with a good load of fun and humor. Children are not so inclined to learn when the teachers stand up and insist in a particular way of doing things. But more often than not, if you teach them visually, they start to relate to it.

By the end of the trip, my grandson was all happy and he went back to school and told his teacher that he could read. At first the teacher did not believe him and even suggested that he had memorized it all—which was exactly what I told Ryan she would say! In the end, he went on to become a wonderful student and he sure trusted his grandma more than his teachers ever since.

But the more important issue is: What if I had not taught him and the teacher told him he was not ready to read? He could have been classified as learning disabled. Parents, if you can see through your own child and teach them, you can save their lives.

One more thing about that eventful trip with Ryan, on the way home on the plane, he was going up and down the aisle and he stopped everybody who was reading a book and he said, "I can read too." It was just amazing to see a new sense of confidence come out of him.

KD: When we had our kids, we did what most parents did. We bought a study desk for our children and expected them to sit down each time to do their homework and study. But we realized that one of our sons, who had been an "A" student, started to do badly. So we talked to him and he told us that he was struggling with his work because of the restriction he felt sitting at the desk. He felt that he could work better by spreading out on the bed and having music in the background. We agreed and sure enough, he started getting A's again.

Once I observed him as he worked on a history report. His books were open, the bed was strewn with papers, there was music in the background, and it looked so disorganized. But he sat there and wrote his report and even had an A or A- in that project. Later on, I happened to ask him what music he was listening to and he told me he could not remember. Then I understood that he needed to have a background sound in order to block out everything else and concentrate on his task.

So I believe that every child is different and parents need to find out what the best environment is for each child. For me and Rita, we had to change our mindsets, and only after that did our son have the freedom to study in his own strength and ultimately excel in school. HT