ABSTRACT
Chapters 7 and 8 describe ways in which teachers on the course chose to pursue theories about different learning styles in their work to develop differentiation in their own school contexts.
Kiran Chopra is a language support teacher. This chapter describes two linked initiatives undertaken, at one of the secondary schools where she works, with the intention of acknowledging different learning styles and providing equal opportunities for all pupils. She decided to pursue an approach to differentiation based on the three learning modalities’, which linked up with her own personal interest in, and extensive use of ‘mind mapping’ as a technique for organising ideas visually. The first section of the chapter describes how this theory was used to inform, extend and enrich a programme to support the development of study skills with pupils about to embark on GCSE courses. The second shows how the same ideas about differing learning styles were incorporated in the planning and implementation of a language awareness project which aimed to celebrate and actively use the multilingual experience of the class group as a resource for the curriculum.
