Global Youth Ministry Network - Asia

This post is written by Chris Davis, GYMN Executive Director, as part of the YC which we hope will be of use in your ministry to the youth.

Now that you know the target, you need to now take a close look at the students. You have to know your students in order to be able to move them to the target. One key way of knowing them is to understand that in any group there are different learning styles spread across the group. If the students have different learning styles, what does that mean for you as a teacher? What that means is that you have to offer the content and experience in all the styles that can connect the students to the truth. Let us take a look at the basic learning styles and even list some methods to engage those styles in your teaching.

Most would agree that there are three basic learning styles, we will work with those.

1. Visual – learning through seeing. These students/youth learn through sight. Visual cues help them learn. Anything from facial expressions, pictures, videos and handout sheets helps these learners.
2. Auditory – learn through sound. Verbal lectures, group discussions, tone and other audio devices help these learners     (written material does not help these learners as much as hearing material read).
3. Tactile/Kinesthetic – learn through moving, doing and touching. Hands on work, projects, object lessons and movement helps these learners.

This shows you who your students are in regards to how they learn.

We talked about first setting your teaching aim/target, then we said you need to understand the learning styles of students. Now you have to figure out how to connect the two. How do you lead the students with different learning styles to the one target? The bridge that must be crossed is called offering different learning activities and methods that are all aimed toward your target.

For example let us list the learning styles and add in some specific methods or actions you can use to capture a student of each style.

• Visual: Usage of graphs, pictures, charts, hand-outs, drawings, videos, dramas or anything that can be experienced more with the eyes is best for these learners. They are better at grasping the reading of materials than the auditory learner.

• Auditory: Anything dealing with sound. Music, voice, small groups (where they hear from others), audio recordings of teachings and other methods will be very helpful for these learning types.

• Tactile/Kinesthetic: Hands on projects, using objects that can not just be seen but passed around and touched as well as active learning using games, activities, drawing, etc… will greatly enhance the outcome of great learning for this style of learner.