Introduction to Learning Styles

Assumptions about Learning Styles There are actual stylistic preferences in the learning process These styles are a product of nature, nurture, and enculturation

Benefits of Learning Styles Thinking Learning styles assessment can help us understand ourselves as teachers and why we feel more comfortable with particular teaching methods. Learning styles thinking helps us focus on the varieties of processes by which people learn. Learning styles thinking enables us to be more flexible educators who are able to focus on students as people rather than consumers of content. With judicious planning, we can both play to the strengths and help develop the weaknesses of all our students. At times simply introducing the idea of learning styles may be helpful to the student and teacher. 2

Limitations of Learning Styles Thinking Learning style theories are still only theories and should be appropriately limited (e.g., due caution must be used in extending them to personality types) Some learning “styles” are actually skills (which may be acquired) Learning styles may be used as an excuse to limit growth or experimentation. Do not use learning styles to lock people into “learning-style jail” All learning style assessment tools are nothing more than tools (many still in the developmental stages). Learning styles thinking tends to ignore expectations and cultural values and the roles they play in the teaching/learning setting. Prior knowledge of the ideas being learned is an important, and all too often overlooked, factor in assessing differences in learning styles. 3

Selected Scales Compared Myers-Briggs Orientation in Mental Processing Introvert Extravert Mental Processing: Experiencing Sensing Intuitive Organizing Experience Thinking Feeling Perceiving Judging Kolb Perceiving Abstract Conceptualization Concrete Experience Active Experimentation Reflective Observation Transforming Transforming Perceiving Concrete Gregorc Abstract Random Sequential

Approaches to Learning Styles . . . Concrete Experience Concrete Active Experimentation Reflective Observation Random Sequential Abstract Abstract Conceptualization Gregorc (Learning Styles) Kolb (Learning Styles Inventory) Field Dependent Field Independent Witkin (Field Dependence) Holistic Analytic Nisbett (Easterners/Westerners) 6