Learning Styles: Controversial but Oh-So Compelling!

Dr. Erin N. O’ReillyIntensive English Institute @ University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignNovember 20, 2014

OVERVIEW

• Basics & common assessments

• Identify your personal learning styles

• Understand the controversy behind learning styles

•Examine critical questions surrounding the value of learning styles for language teaching and learning

Yes. A learning style is an appropriate characterization of how an individual behaves in general; s/he may use a different style in a specific context.

What is a learning style?

An individual’s natural, habitual, and preferred ways of absorbing, processing and retaining new information and skills.

Are they constant and predictable?

Usually

Can learning styles change?

Common Assessments

• VARK (visual, auditory, reading, kinesthetic) – 1987

• Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model (concrete, abstract, active, reflective) – 1984

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) – 1962

• Barsch Learning Style Inventory - 1980

• Felder-Solomon Index of Learning Styles – 1988

4 DimensionsProvides an indication of an individual's learning preferences

F&S Index of Learning Styles

Active learners •Understand new information by doing something with it•Keen to try out and experiment with the new information •Often enjoy group work because this enables them todo active things

Reflective learners •Prefer to think about new information first before acting on it. •Often prefer to think through problems first on their own rather than discussing it in groups.

Active-Reflective

Sensing – Intuitive

Sensing learners•Like learning facts and solving problems by well established methods •Generally careful, practical and patient •Like new knowledge to have some connection to the real world

Intuitive learners •Prefer discovering new relationships•Can be innovative in their approach to problem solving •Tend to work faster•Dislike repetition and work which involves a lot of memorization and routine calculations

Visual - Verbal

Visual learners •Understand new information best by seeing it in the form of pictures, demonstrations, diagrams, charts, films and so on.

Verbal learners •Understand new information best through written and spoken words.

Sequential – Global

Sequential learners •Understand new information in linear steps where each step follows logically from the previous one.

Global learners •Tend to learn in large jumps by absorbing material in a random order without necessarily seeing any connections until they have grasped the whole concept.

Styles & Language Learning

• How might someone with a ______ learning style preference react to this language learning activity?

• How might someone with a ______ learning style preference need to adapt/change or re-learn the lesson?

At First Blush…

• Well-respected, established scholars build careers on styles (e.g., Ehrman, & Oxford)

• Mainstreamed into public education• Highly published topic• Highly commercialized• Frequent, general reference• Panacea for learning woes!

Controversy• Existence of preferences not debated

• Improve learning outcomes = Problematic• Lack of rigorous, 3rd party, experimental

studies• Studies sponsored by groups w/ interest in

positive results

Controversy• Match: Increase motivation and improve learning outcomes

• Mismatch: Learners had to ‘stretch’ to adapt to content (increased long-term retention) (Hayes & Allinson, 1996)

• Match: No significant outcomes - lack rigorous, controlled studies (Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, & Bjork, 2008)**

Many Other Interesting Studies/Applications:• Link btwn. ss’ questions and styles (Pedrosa de Jesus, Albergaria

Almeida, Teixeira Dias, & Watts, 2006)‐

• Diagnostic assessment at the superior/distinguished threshold (Cohen, 2003)

What happens in the language classroom?

Classroom Reality: Example #1Gerald reports that even though he knows his learning style preference, when he started his language course it didn’t matter what his learning style preference was because he’s been constantly thrown into other classrooms with students who have the complete opposite learning style.

The teachers don’t take this into account and neither do the tests. So, it really doesn’t matter how he learns. It’s how they teach and grade. If a teacher doesn’t teach to the student’s preference already, the teacher is certainly not going to change for the student. The teacher is focused on getting through what’s on the schedule. Nothing’s tailored.

Classroom Reality: Example #2Chris’s learning styles information hasn’t been used by his teachers. However, he’s referred to it a couple of times himself to re-focus his learning. Sometimes, though, he feels as if he needs to set aside his preferences and just do it the way the teachers tell him to. He’s a very systematic learner and would rather memorize a dictionary than be forced to understand globally; the teachers demand both. This means he does his systematic learning on his own time, which he has very little of. He can’t help but feel that he is more productive during self-study time than during class time. He’s struggled through the course for the first 3 months and only now feels as if he has figured out how he learns best and he’s finally doing well. It’s taken him this long to find his way.

Critical Questions for Teachers• What is the teacher’s role in understanding learning

styles?

• What is the learner’s role in understanding his/her preferred learning styles?

• What is your teaching style?

• What role, if any, should learning styles play in your language classroom? Materials development? Advising?

Questions for Learners

• When do they feel ‘engaged’ with a learning task or activity? When do they connect?

• When are they lost or frustrated with a task or activity? Why?

Challenge: Linguistic Profile / Styles Preference

Ultimate Value• Reflection Tool: How an individual relates with

the content and interrelates with others

Questions?