Read the text and do the assignments that follow. When I received a C in my introductory psychology course, I concluded (and my teacher concurred) that I did not have the ability to pursue my true interest

When I received a C in my introductory psychology course, I concluded (and my teacher concurred) that I did not have the ability to pursue my true interest and intended major – psychology. I decided to switch to mathematics. But discovering that I had even less ability in that subject, I returned to psychology; three years later I was graduated summa cum laude with exceptional distinction in that field.

As a high school student I had a similar experience. My French teacher advised me that, while I did reasonably well in the subject, I lacked the natural ability to learn foreign languages and ought to take this fact into account in my future planning. I did, and proceeded to avoid all foreign language courses in college. Years later, as an assistant professor, I received a contract to develop a program to help Venezuelan schoolchildren enhance their thinking skills. I had to learn Spanish. I did so – rapidly – and today speak Spanish fluently. When I travel to Spain and Latin America, I have no problem presenting my talks in the native language.

These are the kinds of events in my own life – which are mirrored in almost everyone else’ – that have interested me in styles of thinking and learning. In both psychology and foreign languages, the problem I faced was not a lack of ability, but a mismatch between the way a course was taught and the way I think and learn. My experiences illustrated the following:

· Teachers almost invariably teach and assess students in ways that benefit those with certain styles of thinking and learning but place many others at a marked disadvantage.

· Teachers and students alike confuse mismatches in styles of teaching and learning with lack of ability.

· Teachers can easily and comfortably expand their ways of teaching and assessing students to accommodate virtually all thinking and learning styles. If they do, they will observe immediate and powerful increases in student performance.

What’s My Style?

A style is a preferred way of using one’s abilities. It is not in itself an ability but rather a preference. Hence, various styles are not good or bad, only different.

We all have a style profile, meaning we show varying amounts of each style, but we are not locked into any one profile. We can vary our styles to suit different tasks and situations. For example, the style we need to discern the meaning of a work of literature is not the same one you need to read detailed directions. Styles further vary over the course of a lifetime, and change as a result of the role models we emulate at different points in our lives. We do very in our flexibility to shift styles, and in the strengths of our preferences. But while we have preferred styles, our styles are fluid, not fixed.

Many theories of styles have been proposed. All are attempts to describe how people think. One such theory is known as mental self–government. The basic idea is that we must organize or govern ourselves, and the ways in which we do correspond to the kinds of governments and government branches that exist worldwide – legislative, executive, judicial; monarchic, hierarchic, oligarchic (see fig.1). Note that there are 13 styles under five categories: functions, forms, levels, scope and leanings.

Figure 1 Styles of Mental Self-Government