ABSTRACT

This chapter considers the simplified concepts in education that will help teachers to understand how learners might learn and how teachers may function better as a teacher. Teachers should consider all aspects of the 'educational environment': The crucial knowledge concerns the overall atmosphere or characteristics of the classroom; the kind of things that are rewarded, encouraged, emphasised; the style of life that is valued in the classroom or school community and is most visibly expressed and felt. P. Honey and A. Mumford have done an enormous amount of work on the type of activities through which different people learn best. The outcome divides learners into four different styles, which map directly on to the stages of the experiential learning cycle. There is a possible link between convergent thinking and science students, and divergent thinking and arts students. Teachers may react better to convergent thinkers, perceiving divergent thinkers as being more difficult to deal with.