Major, minor & negative learning style preferences of Greek university learners Angeliki Psaltou-Joycey Zoe Kantaridou

Outline  Literature review  Purpose  Instrument  Results  Teaching suggestions

Literature review-1  Moody, 1988  Ehrman & Oxford, 1989  Reid, 1987  Peacock, 2001

Literature review-2 General comment:  Learning styles are influenced by Educational & occupational engagements Culture

Oxford, Hollaway and Horton-Murillo (1992: 441) “Although culture is not the single determinant, and although many other influences intervene, culture often does play a significant role in the learning styles unconsciously adopted by many participants in the culture”

Purpose of study  Provide general learning style profile  Show differences among fields of study  Suggest learning strategies

Participants  Aristotle University & University of Macedonia  N=1616  Mean age: 19.5 yrs old  Fields of study: Humanities □Engineering Foreign Languages□Sciences Education □Medicine Economics□Computer Science

Styles Analysis Survey, Oxford 1995  Use of senses during study: visual, auditory, hands-on  Personality/ psychological: Relationship with others: Extroverted or introverted Handling of possibilities: Intuitive-random or Concrete-sequential Approach to activities: Closure-oriented or open  Cognitive: Use of ideas: Global or analytic

Greek uni Ss’ learning profile

 Major: ‘natural’ learning method, strong learning preference  Minor: Modest but functional learning preference  Negative: Difficult-to-handle learning method, non- spontaneous

Styles FIELDS of STUDY HUM/FLEDUECONMEDENG/SCCS Visual major Auditory negative Hands-on negativeminor Extrovert minor majorminor major Introvert negative Intuitive-Random major Concrete-sequential minormajorminor Closure-oriented major minormajor Open negativeminornegative Global major Analytic negative minornegative

Styles FIELDS of STUDY HUM/FL EDUECONMEDENG/SC CS Visual major Auditory negative Hands-on negative minor Extrovert minor majorminor major Introvert negative Intuitive-Random major Concrete-sequential minor majorminor Closure-oriented major minormajor Open negative minornegative Global major Analytic negative minor negative

Styles FIELDS of STUDY HUM/FLEDUECONMEDENG/SCCS Visual major Auditory negative Hands-on negativeminor Extrovert majorminor major Introvert negative Intuitive-Random major Concrete-sequential minormajorminor Closure-oriented major minormajor Open negativeminornegative Global major Analytic negative minornegative

Styles FIELDS of STUDY HUM/FLEDUECONMEDENG/SCCS Visual major Auditory negative Hands-on minor Extrovert minor majorminor major Introvert negative Intuitive-Random major Concrete-sequential minormajorminor Closure-oriented major minormajor Open negativeminornegative Global major Analytic negative minornegative

General comment  Most balanced learners:  Education: 5 major + 3 minor  Medicine: 4 major + 4 minor  Least flexible learners:  Humanities & Foreign Languages, 4 major + 2 minor

Major/ minorSuggested strategies Visual Visual input: OHTs, PowerPoint presentations, diagrams, highlighting, semantic mapping, revising Extroverted Active cooperative tasks, projects, laughter/jokes, role plays Intuitive-random Brainstorming, identifying the purpose, making guesses, using induction Independent work after clear instructions of the process & purpose of the task, goal- setting, self-evaluation Concrete-sequential Clear instructions, making plans, applying rules to new situations Closure-orientedGoal-setting with deadlines, links to previous knowledge Global Mind-maps, cultural knowledge, delay speech production, summarizing, guessing Frequent (re-)organizing of vocabulary, skimming

Negative styles Suggested strategies AuditoryNote-taking from auditory input OpenNegotiation of tasks/ purpose Except for EDU (minor) Analytic Scanning, recombining/ analyzing into constituents, compare/contrast Except for Medicine (minor)

the least balanced Humanities & Foreign Languages

one of the most balanced Education

Economics

one of the most balanced Medicine

A. Psaltou-Joycey & Z. Kantaridou Thank you Good Luck with your  Visual & hands-on  Extroverted  Intuitive-random & concrete sequential  Closure-oriented and  Global students