Liberty assessing learning styles

By John w. Goodwin jr.

LIBERTY — Students and teachers throughout the Liberty School District may be taking a different approach to instruction and learning.

Earlier this year, students in grades five through 12 took a CAPSOL test that Kathie Carlile, director of curriculum and grants, as well as many others in the school administration, believe will enhance each student’s ability to learn.

CAPSOL is an instrument to enhance student understanding and learning through the identification of student strengths. Each student’s learning preferences are determined by the student’s response to 45 questions. The result is an individual profile with prescriptions for the use of both instructor and learner.

It took about 45 minutes to administer to each student.

Carlile said test results were being sent to parents and teachers. The information derived from the testing can then be used to enhance student’s learning potential, she said.

“If ‘Johnny’ is having a problem in a particular in a subject, the teacher can look and say ‘Johnny’ is this particular kind of learner and maybe the information can be put on flashcards or delivered in some other way,” Carlile said. “It is amazing some of the stuff they have been doing in the classroom.”

John Young, Liberty High School principal, said parent-teacher association members were elated to hear about the testing effort and equally happy to receive the information at home.

Carlile said school officials went to a presentation where representatives from a school district in another part of the state gave a demonstration of the program as it works in that school district.

“It impressed everyone, and we thought it would be great for our kids. We knew we had to differentiate the learning styles, so everyday, every student does learn,” Carlile added.

The CAPSOL testing measures nine important student preferences, profiling from low to high preference in each of those areas. The nine areas are auditory, visual, bodily kinesthetic, individual, group, oral expressive, written expressive, sequential and global.

Carlile said each child in the district will be assessed continually going forward. Each child will now be assessed in the third, sixth and ninth grades to make sure a student’s style of learning has not changed or evolved.

jgoodwin@vindy.com