Understanding a student's learning style, and adapting instruction accordingly, requires an understanding of each of these domains. Field refers to how experiences are processed. Tolerance describes the capacity to accept things that differ from the norm. Students are said to exhibit high or low tolerance for experiences or processes that are unusual or defy convention. Categorization is a tool used to order experiences.
Locus of control refers to what drives or motivates a learner.
Identifying a tutee's learning style, and being sensitive to one's own is an important step in forging a successful tutor-tutee relationship. The fact that learning styles vary suggests that instructional approach must also vary. For success resides in the marriage of learning style and instructional approach. John Wolfe is an advisor and instructor of Special Education at Bank Street College of Education. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory Email Webmaster Tel.