Inductive Learning Styles versus Deductive Teaching

Stylesor

Uncovering Genius in your classroom

Bill Butler, Ph.D.

Understanding Learning Styles from a teaching

perspectiveInductive: Using particular examples to reach a general conclusion about something

Deductive: Using logic or reason to form a conclusion or opinion about something

Inductive learners prefer to begin with experience or hard data and infer the principles behind them. 1

Deductive learners prefer to start with abstractions or principles and enjoy deducing the consequences.1

1 Normandy, E. (2011). Learner-Centered Teaching.

INVOLVES: Knowing your students goals Knowing how your students perceive you Understanding Learning Styles from a teaching

perspective Using Inductive Learning to stimulate knowledge

Deductive to increase knowledge Learning Style Discovery Learning involves Teaching not facilitating Summary

Inductive Teaching

Classic Teaching Model

How many people think they are good teachers?

Teach a Subject/s

How many people think they connect with all their students?

Communicate with

Students

Teach a Subject/s

How many people think they are subject

experts?Subject

Expertise

Communicate with

Students

Teach a Subject/s

The Student’s Expectation

SubjectExpertise

Communicate with

Students

Teach a Subject/s

Increase knowledge of the individual –

1. Do you think all students are equally intelligent?2. Do you think all students come into your class with the

same level of subject knowledge?3. Do you think students are in your class because they want

to listen to you lecture?4. Do you think the majority of subject knowledge will come

from you?5. Do you think students will hang on to your every word?6. Do you think you have something unique to offer your

students?7. Do you think students come into your class to learn?

Knowing your students

Knowing how your students perceive you

• TEACHER• EXPERT• COMMUNICATOR• Or Some Combination

“Most college classes are taught deductively because it is easier and less time-consuming and because the teachers themselves are often deductive learners.” (excerpt from “Teaching for Inclusion: Diversity in the College Classroom” Center for Teaching and Learning, UNC-CH.

Understanding Learning Styles from a teaching

perspective

It might be helpful to formally assess your ownlearning style if you don’t already know it.

Here’s where:http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.htmlAnother learning style assessment is the VAK test (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic)

Knowing your Yourself

learning style descriptionVisual seeing and readingAuditory listening and speaking Kinesthetic touching and doing  

http://www.businessballs.com/vaklearningstylestest.htm

Using Inductive Learning to stimulate knowledge

Why inductive learning in the sciences is critical:• Groundbreaking scientific discoveries in the pure

sciences in the USA are trending lower. • Kuhn, T. S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Univ. Chicago Press, 1996)

• Majoring in the sciences has taken a back seat to service based academic subjects.

• Sunstein, C. S., (2013) Former administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

“The spirit of learning and creative thought were lost in strict rote learning”

Using Inductive Learning to stimulate knowledge

Why inductive learning in the sciences is critical:• Students educated in the USA lack the innovative

thought processes that nurture new ideas. • Stinebrickner, T. Director of Economic Policy Research Institute.

• Some Students that have the learning styles that nurture new scientific ideas are hindered by classic teaching environments .

• Guild, P. B., (2001). Diversity, Learning Style and Culture. New Horizons for Learning, JHU-ED.

“The spirit of learning and creative thought were lost in strict rote learning”

How Inductive Learning Develops

• The primal senses were developed for survival. They are particularly useful for inductive learning. Learning through observation or participation requires the use of different memory functions then instruction.

• Observation and participation provides the basis for the inductive state of learning.

• Absence of one of the primal senses seems to heighten inductive intelligence. To teach inductively means to challenge the senses.

Teachers who bring outstanding skills and competencies to their work offer their students regardless of upbringing, culture, and varying learning styles greater opportunities for excelling in their trade.

Teachers who are successful with students of various cultures get to know all they can about their students so that the learning opportunities and structures they provide are responsive to students' needs.

Inductive Teaching Models: Who are they?

Guild, P. B., (2001). Diversity, Learning Style and Culture. New Horizons for Learning, JHU-ED.

Learning Style Discovery

First steps:

• Know your students• Have your students know

themselves• Get Course expectations

established• Go over curriculum• Prepare to adapt

Know your Students

• Every student should know there dominant learning styles.

• Every teacher should know there students’ dominant learning style.

http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

Index of learning styles, developed by: Barbara Solomon, North Carolina State University

“Inductive learners need to see phenomena before they can understand underlying theory.” (Felder & Silverman ,1988, p. 677)

Felder, R. M. & Silverman, L. K. (1988). Learning and teaching styles: In engineering education. Engineering Education 78(7), 674-681.

Felder states that to be effective, engineering education should reach both types sensors and intuitors, rather than directing itself primarily to intuitors. The material presented should be a blend of concrete information (facts, data, observable phenomena) and abstract concepts (principles, theories, mathematical models). (Felder & Silverman, 1988)

Felder, R. M. & Silverman, L. K. (1988). Learning and teaching styles in

engineering education. Engineering Education, 78(7), 674-681.

Get Course expectations established

Set course goalsTeaching Goal Inductive DeductiveIs the goal for the student to learn the subject

Facts and Demonstration

Rote memory

Think and extrapolate Conceptualize Read and Write

Reflect and discover Visualize Read and StudyImprove upon the basic theory

Collaborate Comparison and Review

Create new ideas Positive Feedback

Peer Acknowledgement

Put yourself in the place of the student:

What would you like to see

What would you like to hear

What would you like to experience

What would you like to feel

What would make you remember?

Create – plan --- solve – act out

http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/a3_aspects/pages/VAK.htm

Engineering Instruction:

Inductive Learning Styles versus Deductive Teaching

Styles

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