What Makes a School a Good Fit for Your Child’s Learning Style

Key Takeaways

• Understanding a child’s learning styles can help parents identify the learning environments and teaching approaches that may best support their development.
• Children may prefer different ways of engaging with information, including visual, auditory, hands-on, reading and writing-based approaches.
• Personalised learning recognises that children have different levels of proficiency, interests and motivations, and may benefit from flexible teaching approaches.
• Parents can observe how their children revise, explain ideas, engage with activities and concentrate to better understand their learning preferences.
• A supportive school should use a variety of teaching, assessment and feedback methods to accommodate different ways of learning.
• Inquiry-based and project-based curricula can provide greater flexibility for students to explore and demonstrate their understanding in different ways.
• When choosing a school, parents should look beyond rankings and consider whether the school can adapt to their child’s individual learning needs.

Every child has unique learning styles, but what are the best options when it comes to choosing a school? The answer is to look well beyond a chart of rankings, and to know what learning styles your child exhibits. This article aims to highlight exactly that.

What Are Learning Styles And Why Are They Important?

Learning styles are the various ways in which kids learn and absorb information.

Visual learners can understand and remember things best when they see it, auditory learners prefer to hear information, and kinaesthetic learners like to engage in activities to gain proficiency. Read and write learners prefer to read and write notes to understand new concepts.

While every child is different, parents should identify their child’s learning style(s) to know what sort of learning environment is best for them.

Why Is Personalised Learning In India Important?

It’s good to know your child’s learning style, but why does it matter? It might surprise you to know that India’s national education policy supports parental efforts to find a school that fits their child’s needs.

According to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which was formulated by the Union Ministry of Education, education systems must be more flexible and offer students a more personalised experience, as children differ in levels of proficiency,and motivation.

NEP 2020 promotes holistic and multidisciplinary education that is not restricted to rigid pedagogical practices.

What this essentially means is that the government of India realises that children are not the same, and schools need to take this into account when educating them.

How Can Parents Recognise Their Child’s Learning Style?

Observing children at home can provide insight into their learning style.

How do they explain things they are interested in? How do they revise? How attentive are they in various scenarios?

Parents should take note of these things, because they often indicate a child’s learning style. This does not mean every child fits into one specific category, but a combination of various factors often indicates a common learning style.

How Is Personalised Learning Demonstrated In a Classroom?

A personalised learning style does not require any special equipment, but rather a few simple changes in the classroom environment. Teachers can offer multiple ways of completing tasks:

• Group children according to their needs
• Give more individualised feedback to students,
• Let them ask for help in different formats.

These strategies do not reduce educational standards, but rather allow children to understand concepts better, regardless of their learning style.

What Role Does Curriculum Play In Learning Styles?

Curriculum design has a great impact on what goes on in the classroom, and therefore also has an effect on learning styles.

Inquiry-based curriculums allow for more flexibility when it comes to learning, as students can explore topics in different ways.

Similarly, project-based assessments let children demonstrate their proficiency in various ways, and a strong IB syllabus incorporates all these factors to offer a balanced approach to education.

Schools with exam-based curriculums tend to lean toward reading and writing learners at the expense of other learners, despite these children often being just as capable.

What Questions Should Parents Ask When Visiting A School?

It is advisable for parents to spend some time looking at several schools before deciding where to send their children. The way a school deals with its students can be established by asking a few relevant questions, such as: 

Is the school able to meet different learning styles? 

• What other methods do teachers apply apart from the textbook and lectures? How is the child evaluated? 
• Do students have access to any support if the teaching approaches are ineffective for them? 
• To what extent are the teacher’s methods flexible?

Such questions will help parents learn more about the school than any website could.

How Can Parents Encourage Different Learning Styles At Home?

The two concepts of home education and education at school are closely connected and interrelated as both types of education contribute in two instances to one child’s development and learning process. 

Parents can promote personalised learning for their children by allowing them to explain things in their own way, engaging them in different types of activities, and avoiding the imposition of a particular learning style. 

How Can Parents Tell If A School Is A Good Fit?

A truly good match is typically evident in a child’s day-to-day habits, not only in academic grades.

• The child is fearless in asking questions and makes a point of interacting with others.
• Homework seems to be a manageable task, and does not take a lot of time and energy.
• Curiosity about subjects is more important than mere completion of tasks.
• Teachers can articulate how they meet a child’s learning needs.

If the majority of the above applies to the child’s situation, there are grounds to assume that the school is acting in accordance with the child’s learning style.

Conclusion

Choosing a school can be a challenging task. However, with a better understanding of your own child, you can greatly simplify the process. Reputable educational institutions such as OWIS, among others, which are known as the best international schools in Bangalore India , strive to ensure that the students enrolled receive the best form of education that suits them, not the other way around. 

Being one of the best schools in Bangalore, OWIS India provides excellent education and personalised support so that your child can learn in the best way possible for them. At OWIS, we believe every child is unique, which is why our student-centred approach goes beyond one-size-fits-all learning.

As a leading international school in Bangalore, we combine academic excellence with a nurturing environment that prepares students to thrive in a changing world. Explore the OWIS approach and select the institution that best fits your needs.

Frequently Asked Questions