Identifying learners' interactive learning patterns : the development of the learning combination inventory of children between the ages of three and seven years

Abstract

The main aim of our study was to devise a mechanism through which early childhood teachers could identify their pupil's learning patterns. This study was based on the Let Me Learn Programme which divides learners into 4 categories, the sequential learners, the technical learners, the confluent learners and the precise learners. By using this instrument, in the form of nine activities and a set of corresponding observation schedules, teachers can identify their pupil's learning patterns and therefore identify the way in which the children learn best. One of every child's basic difficulties throughout his or her own academic life is identifying the way in which s/he learns best. Therefore this process can make learning easer for the student through the identification of his or her learning pattern. It also helps to facilitate the teacher's teaching by knowing in what way s/he can reach every child better and makes him/her able to recognize which learning experiences are significant to the child. Our work is intended to help children achieve a significant learning experience throughout his/her academic life. To complete this instrument we chose nine manipulative activities for the children to use under observation. We examined the different ways in which these activities could be used, and what these procedures would indicate about the child's interactive learning patterns.