What CTE Pathways Suit a Kinesthetic Learning Style?

Career and technical education (CTE) courses in middle and high school can help prepare students for the world of work by equipping them with concrete technical skills. 

In this article, part of a series on the VARK model’s four learning styles, we consider CTE pathways that may appeal to students with a kinesthetic learning style: those who thrive with hands-on learning over visual, auditory, or written instruction. Suitable future careers range from robotics and automotive technology to performing arts to emergency response. 

What Are CTE Courses?

CTE, or Career and Technical Education, helps prepare young learners for employment, giving them relevant technical skills that can help them find well-paid work. Although school-level CTE does not preclude students from going on to college, it is designed to help them become highly employable without a traditional four-year college degree. 

It’s important to distinguish modern CTE courses from the vocational courses of the past. Although CTE provides skills applicable to specific jobs, it still aims to deliver students a first-class academic education, ensuring they learn a variety of transferrable skills to keep their horizons as broad as possible. 

Recognizing the Kinesthetic Learning Style 

The VARK model, proposed by educationalist Neil Fleming in the late 1980s, is a way of understanding students in terms of their preferred learning styles. Although educators should try not to pigeonhole their students, the model is helpful for understanding why certain students absorb information better under certain circumstances. The model comprises four different modalities: 

• Visual 
• Aural 
• Read/write 
• Kinesthetic  
• Multimodal (a combination of the four) 

Kinesthetic learners are those who learn best through personal experience and practice. Such learners often prefer hands-on learning, such as lab experiments and other tactile activities, but they may also benefit from demonstrations or videos in which others carry out the activity. 

It’s important to remember that kinesthetic learners, while they often like to use their hands, can still excel at conceptual and traditional academic subjects. However, they may benefit from receiving information through real-world examples or activities. For example, kinesthetic learners may thrive in their English class when acting out plays in a group (as opposed to reading texts on their own). 

How to Teach Kinesthetic Learners 

Established kinesthetic teaching methods include: 

• Hands-on lessons and experiments 
• Active engagement 
• Demonstrations 
• Simulations 
• Role play 
• Use of physical models  
• Games 

CTE Pathways for the Kinesthetic Learning Style 

The newly revamped National Career Clusters® Framework from Advance CTE contains many CTE pathways suited to kinesthetic learning. Many of these relate to fields of employment where hands-on, practical work takes priority. 

Here, we look at 10 highly diverse CTE Sub-Clusters that might appeal to students with a kinesthetic learning style. 

1. Skilled Trades: Grouped under the Construction Cluster, Skilled Trades covers hands-on careers that pay well and are always in demand. CTE courses in this area can include carpentry, electrical systems, and welding. 
2. Robotics: A robotics course is part of Advanced Manufacturing and might cover areas of study like programming and robotic production lines. Sphero coding robots are widely used in robotics courses through high school. 
3. Maintenance & Repair: This Sub-Cluster focuses on the maintenance and repair of aircraft, trains, and other vehicles. Automotive technology courses include body technology and electric vehicle maintenance. 
4. Culinary & Food Service: CTE courses in this area—ideal for kinesthetic learners with an aptitude for food—can be more wide-reaching than you might think. Example courses include nutrition and restaurant management. 
5. Media Production & Broadcasting: The Arts, Entertainment, & Design Career Cluster contains many pathways for hands-on learners, such as filmmaking and video production.  
6. Performing Arts: Kinesthetic learners can have an aptitude for drama, and this can be channeled into Performing Arts CTE courses like Stage Design & Management.  
7. Physical Health: Part of the Healthcare & Human Services Cluster, Physical Health is a CTE pathway that can lead to employment in important professions like nursing, physical therapy, radiology, and sports medicine. 
8. Emergency Response: Emergency Response and other Public Service & Safety Sub-Clusters offer excellent CTE opportunities. Courses might involve training to mitigate natural disasters, fires, and accidents. 
9. Plant Systems: Kinesthetic learners may be highly suited to Agriculture courses. One example Sub-Cluster is Plant Systems, with study courses ranging from horticulture to forestry to floriculture. 
10. Environmental Protection: Environmental Protection is an exciting career pathway within the broader Energy & Natural Resources Cluster in which professionals use scientific skills to solve environmental issues. 

Remember that taking a high school CTE course does not necessarily define a student’s future. In fact, of students who complete a CTE course in high school and then go on to attain a postsecondary degree, only 27% stick with the same CTE pathway. 47% switch to a different CTE field, while 26% switch to a non-CTE field. 

Kinesthetic Learning with Sphero 

For CTE courses ranging from robotics to engineering to electronics, Sphero educational tools can assist educators and stimulate the minds (and hands) of kinesthetic learners. Coding robots give students a chance to program robotic devices; Blueprint Engineering lets budding engineers build working prototypes and models, while littleBits gives younger learners an intuitive route into circuitry, electronic systems, and engineering design. 

Schedule a meeting with a Sphero expert to learn more about funding options for CTE and find out how our learning tools can help CTE students toward their career goals.