University students’ learning styles across eight fields of study Angeliki Psaltou-Joycey Zoe Kantaridou Aristotle University University of Macedonia Thessaloniki, GREECE

Definitions of learning styles The overall patterns that give general direction to learning behaviour (Cornett, 1983) “…the biologically and developmentally imposed set of characteristics that make the same teaching method wonderful for some and terrible for others” (Dunn & Griggs, 1988) “… the characteristic cognitive, affective and physiological behaviours that serve as relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with and respond to the learning environment … (Keefe, 1979) “Language learning styles are general approaches to language learning” (Cohen 2003)

Types of learning styles examined sensory visual, auditory, and hands-on personality extroverted vs introverted, intuitive-random vs concrete-sequential, and closure-oriented vs open cognitive global/analytic

Previous studies Moody (1988) Ehrman and Oxford (1989) Reid (1987) Carell et al. (1996) Hendry et al. (2005) Hyland (1993) Dippelhofer-Stiem (1989)

Aim of study to illustrate the learning style profile of the Greek university students across fields of study to identify potential differences among them

The University of Macedonia Participants 1616 students, 416 males (26.7%) 1142 females (73.3%) Mean age: 19.5 years From: Aristotle University The University of Macedonia Thessaloniki, GREECE

8 Fields of study N 1616 Humanities 274 Foreign Languages (FL) 226 Engineering 116 Sciences 130 Medicine Economics 408 Education 113 Computer Science (CS) 123 TOTAL 1616

INSTRUMENT Style Analysis Survey (SAS) Use of senses during study: visual (V), auditory (Au), hands-on (H) Relationship with other people: extroverted (EX), introverted (IN) Handling of possibilities: intuitive-random (IR), concrete-sequential (CS) Approach to activities: closure-oriented (CL), open (O) Use of ideas: global (G), analytic (A)

SAS It combines elements of sensory preferences Personality / psychological type desired degree of generality which are “among those most strongly associated with L2 learning” (Oxford 2006)

Data Analysis a) descriptive statistics, in order to calculate the frequencies and percentages of learning styles in the various fields of study, and b) a series of analyses of variance to compare the differences in learning styles among the various fields

Use of senses

Relations with other people

Handling of possibilities

Approach to activities

Use of ideas

Profile of a Greek university student visual extroverted intuitive-random closure-oriented global

Significant differences among fields Visual: Economics with Humanities (p=.010) and Foreign Languages (p=.012) Auditory: Computer Science with Humanities (p=.007), Medicine (p=.003), Economics (p=.000), Foreign Languages (p=.003) Hands-on: Foreign Languages with Engineering (p=.040), Computer Science (p=.042) Extroverted: Computer Science with Humanities (p=.034), Engineering (p=.033), Foreign Languages (p=.003) Concrete-sequential: Humanities with Education (p=.027)

Teaching suggestions 1 Take advantage of visual and hands-on styles for use of computers Use activities enhancing cooperation among teacher and students (extraversion) Balance learning environments to suit intuitive-random & concrete-sequential styles Offer guidance to autonomy & lifelong learning (closure-oriented) Allow socialisation in classroom (global)

Dominant learning style Humanities & FL Visual Sciences, Medicine, Engineering, Economics & Computer Sciences Intuitive-random Education Global

Teaching suggestions 2 Present long texts carefully and gradually with Economics Offer practice in listening tasks and group work & projects with Humanities and FL Show Humanities how to enrich theory with examples Expose Education to decision-making activities General: improve listening comprehension skill

apsajoy@enl.auth.gr kantazoe@uom.gr Thank you apsajoy@enl.auth.gr kantazoe@uom.gr