Learning Styles

As an educator in the classroom, I am well aware of the varied learning styles of my students, but sometimes we assume that somehow our children will be just like us in the way they study or prepare for an exam. We think of them as mini versions of ourselves with identical habits and traits, and forget the fact that they are individuals in their own right, with their unique personalities and varied habits and approaches to studies and to everything else in life. Some of us have very conventional ideas of how one ought to prepare for an exam, and when the child exhibits a different approach, we tend to panic and worry that the kid is being overconfident or is going to flunk the exam.

Looking back, I was a very good student who excelled academically right from Kindergarten to my Pre-doctoral degree. I had very "clean" study habits - doing my homework on time, reviewing my daily lessons, and being "anal" about my preparation for my exams during the study holidays. While at university, I would have a timetable drawn out for each subject, down to the hour and the minute, and would stick to it like an army sergeant, with all the precision of a military drill. I would focus so intensely on what I was learning that the whole page was imprinted on my brain - I knew exactly the page and the paragraph of a particular point, like a photograph opening up and revealing itself in my brain. Not only did I remember everything from top to bottom, but I could go back from bottom to top, and visualize the whole page unfolding in my mind. My concentration was so great that even while I was in the shower, I would recall the points of an essay or an article that I'd reviewed earlier. I would go to bed early, around 10 PM, the night before the exam, but wake up around 5 AM the next day in order to revise all that I had studied. Till the last minute before I entered the exam hall, I would be flipping the pages of my books and giving them a last glance over. I remember in particular my final M.Phil. exam for which I was so thoroughly prepared that I had nothing to study the evening before. Three University First Ranks and gold medals, and 28 years later, it all sounds scary to me now! I seem to have been an exam freak, that's why I've used the word "anal" earlier!

Now the kid's an entirely different piece of work altogether. Not just him, but most modern teenagers are that way, from what I gather from my friends with teenaged children at home. Unlike their parents, multi-tasking seems to be very common among children these days. A typical teenager is listening to his iPod, typing out an assignment, chatting with a friend online, and checking Facebook updates, all at the same time. Sometimes the kid has the cell phone in one ear, and the iPod earphone in the other, and is also eating, in addition to all of the above. He has multiple windows open on his computer and can focus on so many diverse things all at once. How can he concentrate, focus, or learn anything, I wonder?!? Also, procrastination with school work seems to be the order of the day, with assignments being worked on at the last minute, just because the kid had other things to do all along.

Come exam time, and I see no cramming of any sort. He's still listening to music and studying at the same time, and by studying, I mean not with the textbook in hand, but with the computer in front and multiple screens open before him. There is no extra effort during the study holidays. He stays up till 11.30 or 12 each night and wakes up around 10 the next morning. The only additional step is sitting with his tutor once for an hour and a half to clarify last minute doubts before the exam. The exam day is just like any other school day. No waking up early in the morning to revise, no worrying or panicking or exhibiting any anxiety or nervousness of any sort. He seems to be absolutely cool, calm, and collected, as if it were just an ordinary class test that awaits, and not a Provincial Exam. There seems to be a supreme confidence, or overconfidence, that unnnerves me as a mother. This is the first public exam he's taking, so I give him my tips - keep an eye on the clock, time your answers, don't waste time on a difficult question, but move on to the others and come back to the difficult ones later, finish 10 minutes early and use the time to revise and check all your answers, don't be in a rush to get out of the exam hall, but check your answers thoroughly before handing in your paper, etc., etc. "Ma, relax," the kid goes, "I'll be fine!" So I leave him and head to work, insisting he take a taxi to school! It's a walk uphill to school, so Dad calls a taxi from his workplace and sends it home to pick the kid up. As I teach in my own classroom, I keep an eye on the clock myself and send a silent prayer heavenward!

He's done well, he says, though three questions were a little difficult, but he's satisfied with his overall performance in the Science exam. He's back to his teenage ways, as I await the results with bated breath, ruminating all the while about how different our learning styles and approaches to the exam are. It's English and Math next term, and am sure the same pattern will continue then as well. I have learned a lot from the kid, and realize you don't have to be a nervous wreck or neurotic exam freak to deliver good results. Shall keep you folks posted for sure!