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Teaching Around the 4MAT® Cycle

Designing Instruction for Diverse Learners with Diverse Learning Styles

By: Bernice McCarthy, Dennis McCarthy

Foreword by Gordon Cawelti

What we need to know about our students is not "How much?" intelligence, but "What kind?"

Bernice McCarthy's 4MAT® is a brain-based teaching method that emphasizes diverse learning styles, teaches concepts as well as facts, and improves student thinking and performance. With more than 25 years of field-testing and field use supporting its effectiveness, 4MAT® uses a four-quadrant cycle of learning that engages learners through direct experience and moves them toward:

Reflective observation
Abstract conceptualizing
Active experimentation and problem solving
Integration of new knowledge and skills

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781412925303
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2005
Page Count: 120
Publication date: December 09, 2005

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Description

"4MAT^® has transformed my teachers from adequate to outstanding."
—Robin Kvalo, Principal
Rusch Elementary School, Portage, WI

"Principals and teachers have continually requested 4MAT^® training as the 'basic core' of knowledge for teachers in our 80,000-student district. We have trained literally hundreds of teachers over the past ten years to 'teach around the 4MAT^® wheel' and meet the learning needs of all their students."
—Patricia Shelton, Director of Certification and Professional Development
Brevard County Schools, FL

What we need to know about our students is not "How much?" intelligence, but "What kind?"

Learning styles are linked to preferences in the ways people perceive and process experience. Bernice McCarthy's unique 4MAT^®cycle is a brain-based teaching method that emphasizes diverse learning styles, honors learner individuality, teaches concepts as well as facts, and improves student thinking and performance on traditional as well as high-stakes assessments.

With 25+ years of field testing and field use supporting its effectiveness, the 4MAT^® method uses a 4-quadrant cycle of learning that begins by engaging learners through direct experience, moving them toward

Reflective observation
Abstract conceptualizing
Active experimentation and problem-solving
Integration of new knowledge and skills

Learning happens as we unite our experiences and their meaning with actions that test those meanings in the world. This exciting new resource offers schools a powerful tool to enhance teaching and learning for students with all learning styles, backgrounds, and preferences.

Key features

A concise new guide to 4MAT teaching and learning by the creators of this powerful and popular teaching method.
Can be used as a freestanding guide to 4MAT or as part of pre-service or in-service teacher training.
Integrates brain-based learning theory with teaching strategies and lesson planning for the "why?", "what?", "how?", and "what if?" learning styles of students
25+ years of field testing and field use show improved student performance on traditional and high-stakes measures of learning.

Author(s)

Bernice McCarthy

Bernice McCarthy is the creator of the 4MAT® method of instruction and the founder of About Learning, a training, publishing, and consulting firm that specializes in instructional design and development. Dr. McCarthy’s 4MAT approach identifies the diversity of learners and connects them, no matter their level, to any type of material, emphasizing real-world applications as an essential component of in-depth understanding. This concept-based approach to curriculum and instructional planning promotes high-quality teaching and learning. Most educators consider Bernice McCarthy's work to be a key contribution to the development of the learning styles movement and the differentiated classroom. She has presented numerous workshops and keynote sessions on effective learning at hundreds of renowned organizations worldwide, including the U.S. Pentagon, Chicago Public Schools system, Cornell University, the Education Department of the Government of Venezuela, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Dennis McCarthy

Table of Contents

Foreword by Gordon Cawelti

Prologue

About the Authors

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Learning Styles

A Cycle of Learning

How Perceiving Defines Us as Learners

How Processing Defines Us as Learners

The Processing Dimension and John Dewey

Perceiving and Processing Style

Type One Learners: Why?

Type Two Learners: What?

Type Three Learners: How Does This Work?

Type Four Learners: What If?

Putting It All Together

Chapter 2: A Cycle of Learning

First We Experience

Then We Reflect

Then We Conceptualize

Then We Act

Finally We Integrate

The Cycle Begins and Ends with the Individual

Any Successfully Completed Cycle Will Flow to Reflection on Itself

The Cycle Is a Consummate Design for Curriculum

The Cycle Encompasses Important Assessment Benchmarks

The Cycle is a Showplace for Different Styles at Different Places

Think About Yourself

Other Ways to Look at the Quadrants

Chapter 3: Teaching Around the Cycle

Quadrant One: Answering the “Why?” Question

Quadrant Two: Answering the “What?” Question

Quadrant Three: Answering the “How?” Question

Quadrant Four: Answering the “If?” Question

Plot Your Quadrant Teaching Score

Chapter 4: The Brain-Mind Learning System

Left- and Right-Mode Processing

The Brain Research

Left and Right: The Two Hemisphere Continuum

Knowing

Language

Emotion

Memory

Student Learning Strategy Preferences

Teaching Strategies That Favor the Right Mode

A Bushel Basket of Right Mode Activities

Graphic Organizers

Chapter 5: Overlaying Right- and Left-Mode to Complete the 4MAT Cycle

Connect

Attend

Imagine

Inform

Practice

Extend

Refine

Perform

All Real Learning Leaves Us Changed

Chapter 6: Teaching From Concepts

Working With Concepts

Different Teachers, Different Concepts

Concepts and Standards

4MAT in Action

Chapter 7: The 4MAT Design Overlay (Lesson Planning)

The Information Delivery

The Skills Practice

The Intended Outcomes

The Connection

Sharing the Connection

The Learning Used

Critiquing the Work

The Image That Connects

Adding the Assessments

Your 4MAT Plan: A Final Look

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index

Reviews

"As a parent and a teacher, I would truly love to see all teachers teach with the depth and intention that fully understanding the 4MAT Cycle instills...this book is different because it is not a "theory" book. It is more of a "how to" book...A holistic, step-by-step framework for addressing the diversity of learners is presented rather than a few helpful strategies to try."

Julia Koble
Minot High School

"4MAT has transformed my teachers from adequate to outstanding and made them different educators...knowledge of the 4MATmodel keeps my teachers searching for a variety of lesson approaches around a concept that will enable all our students to learn and achieve."

Robin Kvalo
Principal, Rusch Elementary, Portage, WI

"Principals and teachers have continually requested 4MAT training as the 'basic core' of knowledge for teacher in our 80,000-student district. We have trained literally hundreds of teachers over the past ten years to 'teach around the 4MAT wheel' and meet the learning needs of all their students."

Patricia Shelton
Director of Certicfication and Professional Development, Brevard County Schools, FL

"I have worked with teachers using 4MAT while serving as a high school principal and I have personally utilized the planning tools as a staff developer and superintendent...teachers are energized by the training and find it to be an invaluable tool for planning instruction as well as a powerful way to think about learning."

Fred Morton
Superintendent, Montgomery County Public Schools, Christianberg, VA

"The 4MAT system has had a positive impact in several schools througout Illinois ranging from rural to urban, impoverished to affluent. It is a proven model for improving instruction, and the leadership component has enabled formal and informal leaders to create a culture of success."

Max McGee
School Superintendent, Wilmette District 39, IL

"Through 4MAT, teachers are able to meet the needs of individual learners, address hemisphericity, and successfully engage students in the learning process."

J. Kay Giles
School Superintendent, Prarie Hills ESD 144, IL

Other Titles in: Teaching Methods & Learning Styles | Brain-Friendly Teaching & Learning | Learning Styles

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