Learning Styles and their application to StudyNet

LTI lunchtime seminar series

Janet Webber – Physiotherapy/LTI

Monday 15th June

1

Aims for this session

• To give an overview of learning styles and definitions from the simple to the more complex

• Briefly present research results obtained as part of MA

• Provide some food for thought

2

Overview of Learning Styles

• Origins in the psychology literature in the 1950’s

• Based on theory that the way that people approach a learning situation affects how much they benefit/their performance/results etc– i.e. performance is not just related to intelligence

• Diverse spread of use and therefore literature– business to education

• across the spectrum of ages and topic areas – academically and commercially– many claims and counter claims made

3

Overview of Learning Styles

• Large variety of terminology:– Cognitive Style– Learning Style– Learning Strategies and Learning/Instructional Preferences

• I.e. a blend of personality and application to external environment– Similar to nature/nurture debate

• Measured with Learning Style Questionnaires/Inventories

4

Curry’s Onion

Cognitive Style

• This is concerned with the person’s habitual psychological processes of perception, thinking, memory and learning

• Relatively fixed in personality

• Inner layer of the Curry’s onion. E.g. – Riding’s Cognitive Style Analysis

• Holist/Analyst and Verbaliser/Imager– Allinson and Hayes Cognitive Style Index 1996

• Intuition/Analysis

5

Learning Style• Application of a person’s cognitive style to a learning

situation • Again quite fixed but can be influenced by external factors• E.g. Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory

– Uses his learning cycle• Concrete Experience (CE)///Abstract Conceptualisation (AC) [prehension]• Reflective Observation (RO)///Active Experimentation (AE) [processing]

– And analyses • which you prefer, • how well you perform at each level and • how you approach each level• And gives you an orientation

– Accommodator/Diverger/Assimilator/Converger

6

Learning Strategies and Learning/Instructional Preference

• Used to describe a person’s preferences for one type of learning environment over another and the way in which they choose /prefer to interact with different learning tasks in the environment – Also considers the social preferences in the context of learning

• This is the Outer layer of the onion! E.g.– VARK– Honey and Mumford

• All these can be assessed with questionnaires/inventories etc

7

May 09 8

CAPITALS – Kolb’s LSI categories ,RED – Kolb’s learning cycleItalics – Honey and Mumford‘s categories - After Sadler-Smith 2001

CE (feeling/experiencing)

ACCOMMODATORActivist(Hands on)

AE (Doing)

DIVERGERReflector

(Look at problems from different perspectives)

RO (watching and listening)

CONVERGERPragmatist(Find applications for ideas and theories)

ASSIMILATORTheorist

(Can organise diverse pieces of information into organised thought)

AC (thinking)

Learning Styles and Education

• Student’s learning style is allied to their performance in different learning environments

• Perception of the learning materials and format of presentation is influenced by their style/preference

• Matching the style of teaching to that of the learners improves student performance

• Mismatching the teaching style to that of the students assists their ability to adapt to new situations

• Increasing students’ awareness of their learning style/preference and then providing them with strategies to learn, in both their favoured and non-favoured environments, enhances teaching and learning

9

Learning Styles and Education

• Students learning style vs. Educators learning styles– Awareness is important– Matching– Mismatching

• E.g.– Fleming and his VARK– Kolb – Honey and Mumford– All advocates of matching and mismatching

10

Learning Style Questionnaire/Inventory

• Coffield at al 2004– 71 questionnaires were found and 13 questionnaires/inventories

examined in detail: for internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity and predictive validity!

• Only one scored four out of four - – Allinson and Hayes Cognitive Style Index 1996

Useful overviews:• Rayner (2007) article counters this quite well, read the two together

and you will have a good picture of all the argumentsALSO• Evans & Sadler-Smith (2006) review of the 10th Annual Learning

Styles Information Network Conference gives a good overview of the current thinking on Learning Styles

11

Onto my study and VARK

• A learning style preference

• Outer layer of the onion

VARK - Neil Flemingwww.vark-learn.com

• Based on NLP, that we receive information via the visual, aural and kinaesthetic route

• Visual – Seeing

• Aural – Listening

• Read/(write)– The written word

• Kinaesthetic– Experience and practice

• Multimodal– A mixture of some or all of the above

13

VARK categories and recommended strategies adapted from Fleming 2001

• Visual (V):– like information to be that is presented as charts,

graphs and flow charts. – especially with arrows, circles etc that depicts facts

that could have been presented in words.

• Draw flow diagrams (mind maps) of information that you need to understand and learn

14

VARK categories and recommended strategies – adapted from Fleming 2001

• Aural / Auditory (A):– like information to be presented in the spoken word,

i.e. that is "heard." – learn best from lectures, tutorials, tapes, group

discussion, speaking, web chat, talking things through.

• Use discussion with other students to consolidate learning

• Make tapes of summarised notes (Podcasting?)

15

VARK categories and recommended strategies – adapted from Fleming 2001

• Read/write (R):– like to read about new information in all the various

forms, lecture notes, books, articles , web pages etc.

• Make lecture notes into lists • Use the lecture notes • Use the Discussion sites on line ask questions,

discuss topics with other students

16

VARK categories and recommended strategies – adapted from Fleming 2001

• Kinesthetic (K):– learn best by doing the task – whether it is simulated

or real  

• Maximise the use of clinical/practical experience• Use case studies/remember real life scenarios to

make learning real • Practice techniques to consolidate the theory.• Use role play

17

From VARK website

My study

• The aims of the study were:

– to investigate students’ frequency of access (‘Use’) and ‘Perception of usefulness’ of a Managed Learning Environment (StudyNet)

– to observe for a potential relationship between these and both the students’ learning style and their computer confidence.

19

Method

• Self reporting questionnaire on the student’s – use and perception of usefulness of various

tools on StudyNet at the time– VARK category– some open questions– computer confidence analysis

• 70% - (62% actual) return rate

20

Sample

Age and gender distribution

10

2 1

29

75

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

19-22yrs 23-30yrs 31yrs+above

No. of males

No. of females

VARK categories

VARK categories by percentage of the sample group

4% 4% 11%

26%55%

V=Visual

A=Aural

R=Read/write

K=Kinaesthetic

MM=MultiModal

Results –significance (with care!)

• Visual learners (who prefer diagrammatic representation of information) using StudyNet the most

• Aural learners (who prefer the spoken word) using StudyNet the least

• The Kinaesthetic learners were the second highest ‘Users’

23

Other results

• Of the tools analysed– the Lecture Notes were the most frequently accessed, – the active use of the Discussion sites, he least used.

• Discussion sites were ‘Viewed’ more frequently than they were actively used and – are the most preferred tool of the Aural learners.

• More Kinaesthetic learners in the sample than the general population (to be expected?)

• Computer Confidence score went down with increasing age

24

Computer confidence and gender

Comparison of StudyNet Use, Perception and Computer Confidence by gender

75

100

6471

91

72

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

Mean Use score Mean Perception score Mean Computer Confidence score

Female

Male

Females ‘Used’ StudyNet more, and ‘Perceived’ it to be more useful than their male colleagues but had a lower self-reported Computer Confidence

Computer confidence and age

Mean Computer Confidence score by age band

19

29

39

49

59

69

19-22yrs 23-30yrs 31yrs+over

Mean Computer Confidence score

From open questions:

• They liked StudyNet but:– felt it was replacing the personal contact with

lecturers

• There were to be expected technical difficulties reported

• Slowness of staff to respond/upload material was reported– ? Perceived/actual

27

Future

• Your thoughts

• Others experience of other learning styles?

• Your VARK category and consider?– Is it true for you– Can you use it

• Personally• Relevance to your learning and teaching practice

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Positives

• There is some evidence for many of the claims

• Usefulness of peoples awareness of:– Their own learning style– Others learning preferences and hence why

some staff/students appear not to respond well to certain teaching methods

– Strategies to be used

29

Aims for this session

• To give an overview of learning styles and definitions from the simple to the more complex

• Briefly present research results obtained as part of MA

• Provide some food for thought

30

ReferencesAllinson, C.W. & Hayes, J. (1996). The Cognitive Style Index: a measure of

intuition-analysis of organizational research. Journal of Management Studies. 33 (1), 119-135.

 Cassidy, S. (2004). Learning theory: an overview of styles, models and measures.

Educational Psychology 24 (4), 419-444.

Coffield F, Moseley D, Hall E and Ecclestone (2004a). ‘Learning Styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning. A systematic and critical review’. Learning and skills research centre. www.LSRC.ac.uk. Accessed 6/01/05

Coffield F, Moseley D, Hall E and Ecclestone (2004b). ‘Should we be using learning styles? What research has to say about practice’. Learning and skills research centre. www.LSRC.ac.uk. Accessed 6/01/05

Evans C, & Sadler-Smith E. (2006) ‘Learning styles in education and training: problems, politicisation and potential’ Education and training. 48 2/3. 77-83

 Rayner S. (2007). ‘A teaching elixir, learning chimera or just fool’s gold? Do

leaning styles matter?’ Support for Learning. 22 1, 24-30

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Percentage of each ‘User’ group per VARK category (p<0.043)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

V A R K MM

% of VARK students in High usage group

% of VARK students in Medium-high usage group

% of VARK students in Low-medium usage group

Some trends

Comparison of StudyNet Use, Perception and Computer Confidence by age

76

97

6768

98

6673

100

60

2030405060708090

100110

Mean Use score Mean Perceptionscore

Mean ComputerConfidence score

19-22yrs

23-30yrs

31yrs and above