Educational concepts: learning styles

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Educational concepts: “learning styles” Elizabeth FitzGerald (née Brown) [email protected] Institute of Educational Technology eSTEeM exploring the frontiers of STEM education

description

eSTEeM seminar around educational concepts held at the Open University on 2 Feb 2012

Transcript of Educational concepts: learning styles

Page 1: Educational concepts: learning styles

Educational concepts: “learning styles”

Elizabeth FitzGerald (née Brown) [email protected]

Institute of Educational Technology

eSTEeM

exploring the frontiers of STEM education

Page 2: Educational concepts: learning styles

What’s the idea behind learning styles?

• Different people have different ways of learning

• If we teach in a way that’s consistent with a student’s learning style, he/she should learn better

• Lots of different models; reports from Coffield et al 2004 mentions over 70 – analyses 13 in detail

• Best known is VAK (visual – auditory – kinaesthetic/tactile)

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How did it come about?

• Aim to improve student/employee learning and performance

• Idea that we can provide differentiation in a more sophisticated way than ability or prior knowledge (i.e. streaming/beginners-intermediate-advanced)

• Impetus by government to develop the necessary attitudes and skills for lifelong learning, particularly in relation to ‘learning to learn’ and self-supported study

• Increased availability and use of multimedia resources has helped

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Examples of learning styles

Reflector

Theorist

Activist

Pragmatist

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Learning styles

• Visualiser/imager vs. verbaliser

• Global vs. sequential

• Reflector/reflective vs. activist/impulsive

• Convergers vs. divergers

• Pragmatist vs. theorist

• Field dependence vs. field independence

• Concrete vs. abstract

• Left brain vs. right brain

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Learning style models

• Dunn + Dunn

• MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Inventory)

• Kolb’s experiential model / Honey + Mumford

• Riding's CSA (Cognitive Styles Analysis)

• Herrmann's brain dominance theory

• Multiple intelligences (7 or 9?)

• Biggs SPQ (Surface Processing Questionnaire)

• Field dependence vs field independence

• VAKT (Visual/Auditory/Kinaesthetic/Tactile)

• Wholist/holist vs analytic

Which is “best” and how should it be used?

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Example of use

• Research into personalised e-learning, matching user’s learning style profile with course resources/materials appropriate to that style

• Classroom teaching geared towards particular ‘types’ of learning (or groups of learners)

• Sometimes used for aptitude tests or for career planning

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Positive aspects of using learning styles (the ‘pros’)

• We’ll come back to this in a bit…

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Problems with learning styles (the ‘cons’)

• They don’t really work… (yup, none of them)

• Theoretical incoherence and conceptual confusion

• Temporal instability of preferred ‘style’

• The danger of labelling students

• The variable quality of learning style models (reliability; validity; consistency)

• Unwarranted faith placed in simple inventories

• No clear implications for pedagogy

• Low effect size; Hawthorne effect; problems with bias

• The reality of commercial gain

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Distribution of visual/verbal learning style preferences in 10-11 year old children

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Learning style

visual verbal

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Distribution of sequential/global learning style preferences in 10-11 year old children

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Learning style

sequential global

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(Hattie 1999, taken from Coffield et al, 2004)

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Positive aspects of using learning styles (yes, there are some!)

• Self-awareness and metacognition: increase self-development by talking about different models but also their relative strengths and weaknesses

• Help learners play to their strengths but also help their development as a good all-rounder

• A way to engage in dialogue about learning and new/alternative forms of support and personalisation increased motivational effect on students

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Take-home message

• Learning styles, if they do exist, are not useful as a means of individualising or differentiating learning/teaching materials for students

• The models used are highly variable in quality and most are highly flawed (methodologically, scientifically, pedagogically, theoretically etc.)

• Even if they did work, the effect size is very small

• They might be useful for encouraging students to engage in metacognition and dialogue around learning

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In your class there is a serialist pragmatist kinaesthetic learner (who is also field-dependent, not to mention his MBTI), primarily a convergent thinker, high on logico-mathematical intelligence but low on linguistic intelligence, working in a pair with another student who is a holist, reflector, primarily visual and field-independent... who is also chronically shy (no-one mentions that).

Even assuming that such things can be assessed with some validity and reliability, which is itself far from clear — what are you going to do about it? There are, after all, thirty other students on the course, each of whom could be described in similar terms. Two-thirds of them are female and one-third male (two of whom are gay).

Five of the class are from ethnic minorities, two are dyslexic, one is visually impaired, and three are clinically depressed (although only one of them knows it). Six are "mature" students — at least, they are chronologically over 25.

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References • Brown, E. J.; Brailsford, T. J.; Fisher, T. and Moore, A. (2009). Evaluating

learning style personalization in adaptive systems: quantitative methods and approaches. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies (Special Issue on Personalization) 2(1) pp. 10–22. http://oro.open.ac.uk/30224/

• Brown, E. J. (2008) PhD thesis: The Use of Learning Styles in Adaptive Hypermedia. http://etheses.nottingham.ac.uk/577/

• Coffield, F., D. Moseley, E. Hall and K. Ecclestone (2004) Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: A systematic and critical review. Learning & Skills Research Centre. https://crm.lsnlearning.org.uk/user/order.aspx?code=041543

• Coffield, F., D. Moseley, E. Hall and K. Ecclestone (2004) Should we be using learning styles? What research has to say to practice. Learning & Skills Research Centre. https://crm.lsnlearning.org.uk/user/order.aspx?code=041540

• YouTube video: “Learning Styles Don't Exist” (Prof. Daniel Willingham: http://tinyurl.com/esteem-ls (7 mins long)