Learning

I have noticed within my classroom that students are incredibly diverse learners. No two people are the exact same. I have some students who can only learn through repetition. They need to see/hear it several times in different formats. Other learners only understand once they've talked it through themselves. These are the ones who raise their hands and ask the long, meandering questions. I know that some teachers find this annoying, but these students have a genuine need to talk through the reasoning so that they understand the answer. It is interesting to note that these two students can help one another. If a student needs something repeated, another student who needs to repeat it can do so. By doing this, both students have their learning needs met.
By observing my classroom, as well as other classes in the department, I have noticed that teachers sometimes refuse to acknowledge diversity in learners. There are some who do a wonderful job of offering multiple methods for understanding material - they watch a video and do a powerpoint/lecture and read it in the book and give homework questions about it. This allows all types of learners to understand the material. Others, though, refuse to acknowledge differences. They teach everything the same way every time, and they get frustrated with students who do not understand the material. They label these students as slow or stupid. I'm tempted to ask if it's not the teacher who is slow or stupid. If a student does not understand the material, it is the teacher's job to reteach it in an alternate method to help the student understand. If the student still does not understand, reteach it a third time with a third method and so on until the student understands. Teachers should never give up on students and label them stupid because they learn in a different way than the teacher.