Teaching Around the 4MAT® Cycle

Designing Instruction for Diverse Learners with Diverse Learning Styles
Bernice McCarthy - About Learning, Inc., Wauconda, IL
Dennis McCarthy - About Learning, Inc., Wauconda, IL
Teaching Around the 4MAT® Cycle
November 2005 | 120 pages | Corwin
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ISBN: 9781412925303
Available from January 0001

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. 

Contents

Foreword by Gordon Cawelti

Foreword by Gordon Cawelti

Prologue

Prologue

About the Authors

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

Epilogue

Bibliography

Bibliography

Index

Index

Additional materials

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. 

Contents

Foreword by Gordon Cawelti

Foreword by Gordon Cawelti

Prologue

Prologue

About the Authors

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

Epilogue

Bibliography

Bibliography

Index

Index

Additional materials

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Teaching Around the 4MAT® Cycle

Designing Instruction for Diverse Learners with Diverse Learning Styles


November 2005 | 120 pages | Corwin

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Paperback 01/02/2026 9781412925303 $37.95

"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. 


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

Recent Product 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
"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

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