My peers that read these pages tend (if I grossly generalise here) to either be a) academics working with students in primary or secondary school, vocational education or university or b) are staff development officers that work with academics to improve their understanding of available technologies to deliver quality education. In my previous job, I had both roles. In my current job, my role is to look at how we (the university) can use available technologies to deliver learning programs to our some 2500 staff, in a non-teaching and learning context, i.e. not teaching how to teach.
My students – could I have done better for them?
As I completed a post tonight on my leadership blog (university assignment for my Masters in Leadership and Management) for tomorrow nights class on learning styles it gave me pause for thought at a number of levels. When I was lecturing in Aquaculture at TAFE I consciously tried to modify my delivery to accommodate the variety of learning styles that were found amongst my students. I would frequently run classes that had auditory/aural, written, kinaesthetic approaches to them. However, not once at the beginning of semester with a new group of students, did I ever sit down with the class and assess their learning styles with tools such as the Learning Styles Questionnaire (LSQ), VARK or the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) [see my leadership blog for more information on these tools].
It would have taken perhaps 20 – 30 minutes in the first class to do the assessment and then another 30 to work with the students through the implications of this and the impacts of this on their studies, and perhaps for some students, a greater chance at succeeding not only at TAFE, but in life.
Implications for Staff Professional Development in my workplace
Before I went on leave, I was granted permission by DEST to use and modify slightly some materials that were produced by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework in about 2002 I think, called Flexways. Flexways is this amazing resource for building professional development plans for eLearning practitioners. The part that I was particularly interested in was the sections on learning styles and PD strategies. We had done some minor customisation and changed the look and feel before I went on leave (due back to work in a few days – 2.5 weeks holiday and a week sick 
). I have had an entire new section built onto our PD website for staff to be able to explore their learning styles so that they can make appropriate choices about their professional development.
Reflecting on this I don’t think it’s enough to just have a dump of information, however fantastically packaged on the website (remember, this will only cater for SOME of the learning styles in the organisation). I think, when I return to the land of the living and a revolting email inbox, I will approach the boss to design some work shops for our staff, so that they can explore the implications of this and it’s potential ramifications in their jobs.
Conclusion
I believe the more educated our staff are on this subject, the better their learning, the better their outcomes, the better the outcomes for the organisation, increasing the transition of ECU to a learning organisation whereby we are more competitively placed in the market to provide our students with a quality education.
