b) Susan Henderson, in her report In Support of Youth at Risk (1996), suggests the use of 4Mat, a learning-style model that identifies Collective, Reflecting, Hands-On and Independent/Creative styles. 4Mat curriculum revolves around a concept with personal meaning for learners. A "cycle of organized experiences" is developed to reflect the four learning styles. In a large classroom setting, this would mean that roughly 25% of all students' learning styles are being addressed at a given moment. Within small group or individualized learning, an activity appropriate to the individual's learning style could be selected, so that while all members of the group are exploring the same concept, each is working on an activity specific to their own style. Henderson argues that teaching to learning styles "changes … motivation levels and self awareness … [once youth] were made aware that their learning style is okay".
c) The Youth of the Diaspora curriculum emphasizes the importance of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic/tactile activities, and uses an Experiential Learning and Social Investigation model, through which small groups of students name, reflect and act on their own chosen themes and issues, and then 1) experience the activity, 2) share, process and generalize from the experience, and 3) apply the learning to other problems or issues. Experiential Learning and Social Investigation is a useful model because it helps learners become empowered through critical thinking about their own lives. The content is highly relevant, and the active, experiencing focus of the curriculum allows learners with limited literacy skills to understand and dissect abstract sociopolitical issues in a very hands on, concrete manner.
In designing the learning materials for our "youth-at-risk" target group, I incorporated a variety of learning styles into the activities, and have weighed the balance of the activities towards hands on projects, particularly as this preference was again indicated in our youth focus groups. The writing exercises included combine practical, photography based research and writing, and experiential self-reflective writing. Both are highly relevant areas for the youth participants in this program; the photography research and writing allows learners to take responsibility for their own inquiry into photography, while the self-reflective writing gives learners the chance to develop stronger self-awareness and self-management skills.