Understanding Different Learning Styles

The Duke Endowment invested $3 million from 2002–2004 to help teachers and students discover new ways to improve academic performance.

Insights

For a student with emotional or developmental challenges — like many of those in group homes — understanding how he or she learns and addressing his or her unique learning style can make a world of difference in both academic performance and attitude toward school. But measuring the effectiveness of such an approach can be quite challenging, due to the short-term nature of many group home placements.

Four key insights grew from this project. We invite others to use these findings as a starting place for their own efforts.

1. Mental health issues play a large role in any student's educational success. This impact is amplified for children living in children's homes, who are likely to have more social, emotional and/or developmental challenges.  A broader approach that incorporates factors outside of the classroom might deliver more significant results. By the same token, indicators such as improved self perception, improved behavior and better teacher perceptions of the students should be included with academic performance in measuring the overall success of efforts like this one.
2. Collecting academic performance data, such as test scores or grades, for students in group home settings can be challenging — especially as students leave the group homes for outside placements or transition into off-campus schools. However, there is the hope that those students who received individual assessments from All Kinds of Minds will use that information to improve their future learning experiences and that their adoptive parents might do so as well.
3. Caregivers are a vital part of the mix in educating residents of group homes. While the Learning Initiative included training for caregivers, the training was delivered later than that of classroom teachers. In retrospect, this training may have been more beneficial if delivered closer to the project's beginning.
4. A broader approach is required. Because students typically do not remain in group homes for extended periods, efforts to improve learning on group home campuses should incorporate a post-discharge follow-up with individual students to gauge longer-term success, or else should focus more on the environment of the children's home and its ability to encourage learning  (see Wellness in Children's Homes).

Impact

To measure the success of the Learning Initiative, the Duke Endowment and All Kinds of Minds explored three different questions for evaluation.

1. Did academic performance, interest in school and self-perception improve for students involved?
2. Did children's behavior improve?
3. In what ways did teachers and caregivers improve their own abilities to help struggling students?

Success for Students

While almost all students, teachers and caregivers reported that the Learning Initiative had positively impacted academics, long term actual improvements in grades were difficult to quantify due to unexpected difficulty in collecting grade and test score data as students moved into permanent placements elsewhere. However, measurements of interest in school and self-perception did improve. In fact, one finding was particularly encouraging: students with the lowest self-concept and the most significant behavior problems showed the greatest positive response to the All Kinds of Minds approach.

Success for Teachers

Almost all teachers who received All Kinds of Minds' "Schools Attuned" training reported changes in the ways they identified challenges for their students and adapted their teaching to accommodate student needs. For example, teachers:

• protected students from humiliation
• modified classwork or instruction when appropriate to capitalize on student strengths
• helped students identify strengths and use specific strategies
• encouraged students with All Kinds of Minds learning plans to leverage their own strengths and use appropriate strategies for learning.

Teachers overall expressed a new appreciation for differences in the way students learn and their newfound abilities and skills to help individual students succeed.

Success for Caregivers

Residential caregivers said that the training helped them appreciate differences among children in their care. Although caregivers must deal with a host of problems and challenges outside the classroom, the basic tenet that it's okay to be different appears to have taken hold at participating children's homes.

While student academic performance and behavior improved during the Learning Initiative, several other factors make it difficult to determine the exact extent to which the Learning Initiative can take the credit. However, this initiative did demonstrate that positive outcomes may be increased in group home settings when individual student learning styles are properly addressed.

Contact Us

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Associate Director of Child Care
704.969.2117