Samarkand state institute

Chapter 2
SKILLS NEEDED TO WORK WITH JUNIOR LEARNERS.
2.1. Learning skills and types of learning skills.
Learning skills are habits that can be used throughout your life to complete projects and communicate effectively. They can continuously be developed and improved to help you accomplish daily tasks or achieve your career milestones. There are a variety of learning skills that can be beneficial for you to have, whether you are a student or a seasoned professional in the workforce. It is important to note that many of the below skills could be applied to one or more skill categories, but for simplicity, the following section will separate these skills into five distinct categories:
1. Visual (Spatial)
Are you constantly doodling? If you find it easier to understand something if it is in a diagram, you are probably a visual learner. Knowledge or concept maps use visual symbols as a way to express knowledge, concepts, thoughts or ideas, and the relationships between them. These are a great tool for visual or spatial learners as you can draw connections or use colour coding to group ideas By representing information spatially and with images, students are able to focus on meaning, reorganise and group similar ideas easily, and utilise their visual memory to learn. Visual learners often pursue careers such as architecture, engineering, project management, or design.

2. 
   Aural (Auditory-Musical)
   

If you need someone to tell you something out loud to understand it, you are an auditory learner. You depend on hearing the information to fully understand it, rather than just reading it from a book. Group discussions are a great way for auditory learners to grasp new ideas.
Auditory learners have the aptitude to notice audible signals like changes in tone, or pitch to name a few. For example, when memorising a phone number, an auditory learner will say it out loud first and take note of how it sounded to remember it. Aural learners often pursue careers such as musician, recording engineer, speech pathologist, or language teacher.

3. Verbal (Linguistic)

People who find it easier to express themselves by writing or speaking can be regarded as verbal learners. You love to write and read. You like to play on the meaning or sound of words such as tongue twisters, rhymes and so on. You’re familiar with the definitions of many words and regularly make an effort to learn more meanings of new words. Techniques used by verbal learners involve mnemonics, scripting, role-playing and anything that involves both speaking and writing. Verbal learners often pursue public speaking, writing, administration, journalism or politics.

2. 
   Physical (Kinesthetic)
   
3. 
   In this style, learning happens when the learner carries out a physical activity, rather than listening to a lecture or watching a demonstration. Those who have a preference for kinesthetic learning are called ‘do-ers’ and much prefer hands-on learning. Kinesthetic learners make up about five percent of the population. Kinesthetic learners are often interested in careers such as emergency services, safety representative, physical education, or entertainment (such as acting or dance).
   

5. Logical (Mathematical)

When you like using your brain for logical and mathematical reasoning, you’re a logical learner. You easily recognise patterns and can connect seemingly meaningless concepts easily. Logical learners often lean towards classifying and grouping information to help them further understand it. You excel in numbers and are fine with doing complex calculations such as basic trigonometry off the top of your head! Logical learners could pursue careers in fields such as scientific research, accountancy, bookkeeping or computer

6. Social (Interpersonal)
Other learners prefer social or interpersonal learning. If you’re at best in socializing and communicating with people, both verbally and non-verbally, this is what you are; a social learner. People often come to you to listen and ask for advice. They do because of the apparent sensitivity you have to their feelings, moods and even motivations. You listen well and empathize with what others are thinking and going through. Social learners may pursue counselling, teaching, training and coaching, sales, politics, and human resources among others.
7. Solitary (Intrapersonal)
You have a solitary style if you are more private, independent and introspective. Your concentration is at its best when you focus on your thoughts and feelings without the distraction of others. Authors and researchers often have a strong solitary learning style. However, having a good solitary grounding is evident for many top performers in a range of fields. Being able to learn introspectively works well with some of the more dominant learning styles discussed above.
Learning skills is said to comprise 4 C’s, namely, critical thinking, communicating, collaborating and creative thinking. Development of these skills within a student not only help them to achieve success in education by increasing their learning power but also leads to a great professional life. These skills are developed by constant practice and hence, once they are developed, they become a habit! To know more, read our blog on Skill Development.
When a student pays much attention to a topic with full focus and carefully analyses every information which is made available to them, is known as critical thinking. Critical thinking has several other components. Let us discuss them one by one.

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  Analysing: The very first component of critical thinking is analysing. It is about trying to understand the topic in parts. Each part leading to the conclusion is made clear here.
  
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  Arguing: Providing counter statements that are logical, so that finally a solution or conclusion can be reached. It also helps in discovering all the possibilities of a particular statement. 
  
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  Classifying: It is about making groups of similar items and distinguishing one from another.
  
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  Comparing and Contrasting: When the differences and the similarities are pointed out.
  
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  Defining: This is about explaining a term with synonyms, antonyms and so on.
  
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  Describing: This is about explaining the characteristics of something such as its weight, colour, shape and so on.
  
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  Evaluating: When something is compared to a similar object or its standard value.
  
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  Explaining: It is about defining the characteristics to someone else.
  
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  Problem-solving: It is about finding out the root cause and effects of the problem and how it can be solved,
  
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  Tracking: Considering the cause and effects that are going behind and trying to find why the problem is occurring in the first place.
  

Communicating

Having excellent communication skills is a part of every successful person’s life. Whether you are an employee, a student or a teacher, you must know the perfect ways of communicating your thoughts without hurting the sentiments of others. Some of its key features are: 

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  Analyzing the situation 
  
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  Choosing a medium to communicate
  
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  Evaluating messages before sending
  
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  Following instructions or conventions
  
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  Listening carefully
  
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  Reading thoroughly
  
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  Speaking properly
  
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  Using technology to communicate
  
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  Writing messages
  

Collaboration

Teamwork is yet another essential to succeed in life. One must know that it is nearly impossible to survive on their own and it is mandatory to have other people around us. In professional life, the most important learning skill is working in teams, collaborating with colleagues and other team members and helping each other complete a task. This should be taught in the early stages of education so that the students know the way to success. Some of the components of collaboration are:

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  Brain-storming
  
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  Decision making
  
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  Team building
  
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  Resolving conflicts
  
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  Leadership qualities
  
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  Managing time
  

Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is about finding out unusual solutions for problems. Thinking out of the box and discovering immense possibilities is known as creative thinking. Some problems which are new to an organisation and there is no known theory to solve the same requires minds that can think out of the box, apply creative thinking and find solutions to the problems. Some of the components of creative thinking are given below:

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  Creating
  
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  Designing
  
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  Entertaining
  
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  Improvising
  
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  Imagining
  
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  Innovating
  
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  Problem Solving
  
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  Questioning
  

Other than the 4 C’s, there are a few more learning skills that must be developed by students. They are listed below.