In the third of a multi-part series on education in Bulgaria, Teanna Sunberg explains learning styles and the Bulgarian methods, while Magdalena Rahn shares the decisions that an international family has made when it comes to schooling.

A good education. What is it? Is it a set of grammar rules? Is it the mechanics of phonetics? Is it learning a foundational mathematical principle? Is the measure of a good education an ability to regurgitate data or is it an ability to apply principles? Is a good education more about the learner or the information? Perhaps, a good education is really about the ability to learn how to learn.

Philosophies of education, methods of education, different types of learning, teaching objectives: these are phrases that, at face value, may mean little to a parent who simply wants to make sure that his or her child is tooled to face the world. For many parents, the fact that there is even a question regarding how that tooling takes place can come as a surprise.

Every school and every teacher has a philosophy of education. A school or an individual teacher that is unable to communicate that philosophy clearly lacks a vital component for successful achievement in the classroom. The value and the power of the philosophy lies in the fact that it dictates and drives the manner in which a teacher approaches both the subject matter being taught and the student he or she is teaching. Does the teacher view the student as an individual with rights and privileges in the classroom? Is the teacher's role that of ambivalent dictator or that of facilitator in the learning process? Can every student learn? The answers to these questions and many more create the atmosphere in both a classroom and in an academic institution.

Working in conjunction with that philosophy are teaching methods that pave the way for learning in the classroom. Individual teachers have their own methods and these are often grounded in that individual educator's philosophy of education. For example, what is more important at the end of a chapter: the test score or the process of learning that occurred throughout the week spent on that chapter? Is learning about the right answer or is it about knowing how to find the answer? Perhaps a healthy response would be `both'. Still, the method determines how time for classroom instruction is spent and upon what it is spent. Interactive lessons, dialogue, integrated computer technology, and even integrated subject matter all lean toward a method that emphasizes process over test. An atmosphere that is more controlled and more rooted in desk-work and worksheets would tend to indicate that the method is focused upon test results.

For decades, scientists have been trying to understand how people learn. Recent studies clearly show that learning is varied. In an effort to systemise and categorise their findings, education specialists categorise the types of learners into three groups: visual learners, auditory learners and kinesthetic/tactile learners.

For a bite-sized, concise definition, the following will serve as a guide towards understanding those types of learning. Visual learners need to see the data. They will do best in a classroom where the teacher puts a lot on the board. They might benefit from reading a chapter to gather and assimilate information. An auditory learner remembers what he or she hears. The lecturer spouts the information and simply by hearing that information, the auditory learner has stored and processed it. Kinesthetic/tactile learners need to interact with the information by moving, doing and touching. They benefit most from a class project that allows them to take the letters of a word and lay them out on the table to produce a correct spelling, for example. Most people are a combination, but it is equally true that in most learners, one style dominates. For more information on learning styles: www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm or www.chaminade.org/inspire/learnstl.htm.

Equally interesting is that teachers tend to teach according to their preferred style of learning. Therefore, a auditory learner generally approaches the teaching task with an auditory set of tasks. A successful teacher will plan the lesson in a way that presents the information in a way that is accessible to all three categories of learners. The best lesson plan will be a combination of auditory, visual and kinesthetic/tactile tasks that lead to a lesson objective.

There are many facets and factors to learning and these facets and factors are influenced by a varied set of circumstances: the social, the economic and the emotional, to name just a few. All of these influence a child's ability and willingness to learn.

According to Amnesty International, learning is a human right. This is a strong statement, which brings a flood of questions. Many people assume that teaching is simply a matter of opening a textbook and maintaining control in the classroom. The process is so much more complicated than most people recognise. Parents who understand this fundamental reality are one step closer to helping their child grab hold of success. A wise parent does his or her homework when it comes to making choices with regard to education for his or her blossoming mathematician or politician.