Learning Styles

Learning is a complex neurological experience. As yet, we cannot detect why or how learning occurs or to what it can be attributed^[1]but underlying, are theoretical concepts such as:

• Behaviour: an earlier school of thought, based on the way we react and learn from circumstances when motivated
• Structuralist: where learners are presented with an end goal and allowed to determine what has been achieved through thinking processes
• Cognitive: recognising that people have unique thought and mental processes that affect their learning; attention, memory, language, reasoning and problem solving are key to determining the learning environment conducive to individual learning traits.^[2]

Origin

• The notion that people think, feel and experience the world in different ways through four functions of the mind (thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition) was pioneered by the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung.^[3]His ideology became integrated into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Test, which emerged in the 1940s as a measure of cognitive style or "thinking style”. Its continued success has prompted the development of the contemporary interest in learning-style assessments.

Diagnosing Individual Learning Styles

• Those that champion learning style assessments claim that optimal instruction requires diagnosing individual’s learning styles and tailoring instruction accordingly. Assessments of learning style typically ask people to evaluate what kind of delivery of information they prefer (e.g., words versus pictures versus speech) and what kind of mental activity they find the most engaging (e.g., analysis versus listening) although tools for assessing are diverse.

Development of the Learning Style Model

• The rise of learning styles is attributed to the idea that people learn in different ways from each other and therefore need different methods of learning, particular to the individual, which presumes to allow that the individual will learn more effectively.^[4]Several distinctive learning style models have been proposed since the 1970s, and instruments developed to assess preferences within these models.

Different Learning Styles

• Some of the most popular learning-style pedagogical approaches are Experiential Learning and Visual, Audio, Kinaesthetic (VAK); the following models in these theories are well established:

• David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (1984), which gave rise to his Learning Styles Inventory (LSI) – an assessment method used to determine an individual’s learning style. Kolb’s LSI has gone on to impact management development training with studies to determine whether statistically there are significant differences in learning styles between supervisors, middle-managers, and upper managers; whether learning style differences could mirror the nature of the work environment; whether learning style differences could also be rooted in the different educational backgrounds found within managerial ranks^[5]and the practical implications for management education^[6]

• Honey and Mumford’s model (1992), an adaptation of Kolb’s, assumes acquired preferences are adaptable to that of fixed personality characteristics - this gave rise to H&M’s Learning-Styles Questionnaire (LSQ), a self-development tool, that differs from Kolb’s (LSI), by inviting individuals to complete a check list of work-related behaviours without directly asking them how they learn.

• Dunn and Dunn Learning-Styles Theory (2001, 2003), which identifies each individual’s strengths and preferences across five categories that includes perceptual strengths (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic Tactile - VAK).

Impact of Learning Styles

• The learning styles view has had a notable influence within the field of education, and a thriving industry has sprung up devoted to publishing learning-styles tests and guidebooks for instructors, many organisations offering professional development workshops for educators built around the concept.^[7]

Strategy for Implementation

• If learning styles models or concepts are to be subscribed to the following strategies might be taken into consideration:

• Analysis of the cognitive abilities of the learning group, to allow the instructor to know how learners will relate to the content of the course.
• Defining the perquisite knowledge or skills needed for the specific learning experience, to ensure success.
• Knowing how students interact with information to underpin the design of the learning environment and supporting materials.
• Consider varying the presentation of materials to match different learning styles (e.g., animation, text, verbal descriptions, and visual messages) which would ensure greater potential at reaching all learners.^[8]

Distance Learning and Learning Styles

• For some learners, the unique characteristics of distance learning tools facilitate better instruction than educational tools generally used in a traditional learning environment, and with continuing technological advances in social media tools and virtual spaces, online learning is rapidly gaining ground.