Learning Styles and Course Design

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Learning Styles and Course Design

• EDUC 572
• Week 12

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Learning Styles Premises

• Learning styles, a preferred mode of inputting,
  processing and retaining information, exist.
• Learning styles can be identified or categorized.
  Approximately 138 instruments currently identify
  learning styles.
• Attending to diversity in learning styles, when
  designing instruction, can remove barriers to
  learning.

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What is my style?

• But Im not a serpent, I tell you! said Alice.
  Im a Im a
• Well, what are you? said the Pigeon. I can see
  youre trying to invent something.
• IIm a little girl, said Alice, rather
  doubtfully, as she remembered the number of
  changes she had gone through that day.

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Refer back to your personality type inventory
from Week 1.
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MBTI Personality Types
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The Eight Functions of Personality

• Each of the four letters of your self-identified
  type indicates a preference.
• The first letter, I for introversion or E for
  extroversion, indicates the way you energize.
• The second letter, S for sensing or I for
  intuition, indicates the way you input data.

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Eight Functions Continued

• The third letter, T for thinking or F for
  feeling, indicates the way you make decisions.
• The fourth letter, J for judging or P for
  perceiving, indicates the way you live your life
  in the outside world.

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Extraversion

• Communicates energy and enthusiasm
• Responds quickly without long pauses to think
• Needs to moderate expression
• Focus of talk is on people and things in the
  external environment
• Seeks opportunities to communicate in groups
• Prefers face-to-face over written communication
• In class, likes talking out loud before coming to
  conclusions.
• Note Wait time was made for this student.

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Introversion

• Keeps energy and enthusiasm inside
• Likes to think before responding
• Focus is on internal ideas and thought
• Needs to be drawn out
• Seeks opportunities to communicate one-to-one.
• Prefers written over face-to-face communication
• In class verbalizes already well thought-out
  conclusions.

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Sensing

• Likes evidence (facts. Details, and examples)
  presented first
• Wants practical and realistic applications shown
• Relies on direct experience to provide anecdotes
• Uses an orderly step-by-step approach in
  presentations
• Likes suggestions to be straightforward and
  feasible
• Refers to a specific example
• In class in inclined to follow the schedule.

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Intuition

• Likes global schemes, with broad issues presented
  first
• Wants possible future challenges discussed
• Relies on insight and imagination to provoke
  discussion
• Uses a round-about approach in presentations
• Likes suggestions to be novel and unusual.
• In class, is inclined to use the schedule as a
  starting point only.

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Thinking

• Prefers to be brief and concise
• Want the pros and cons of each alternative to be
  listed
• Can be intellectually critical and objective
• Convinced by cool, impersonal reasoning
• Considers emotions and feelings as data to weigh
• In class, seeks involvement with tasks.

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Feeling

• Prefers to be sociable and friendly
• Wants to know why an alternative is valuable and
  how it affects people
• Can be interpersonally appreciative
• Is convinced by personal information,
  enthusiastically delivered
• Presents points of agreement first
• Considers logic and objectivity as data to value
• In class, seeks involvement with people.

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Judging

• Dislikes surprises and wants advance warnings
• Expects others to follow through, and counts on
  it
• States positions and decisions clearly
• Communicates results and achievements
• Talks of purpose and direction
• In class, focuses on the task to be done.

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Perceiving

• Enjoys surprises and likes adapting to
  last-minute changes
• Expects others to adapt to situational
  requirements
• Presents his/her views as tentative and
  modifiable
• Communicates options and opportunities
• Talks of autonomy and flexibility
• In class, focuses on the process to be
  appreciated.

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Information regarding personality type and
learning styles

• Your personality type is also an indication of
  your learning style. If you revisit the eight
  previous slides, you will see that they can refer
  to the learning process also.
• A great deal of research housed in the Center for
  Applications of Psychological Type indicates that
  certain personality types tend to gravitate
  toward certain content areas in school, and
  ultimately toward given careers.

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Quadrant View Premises

• In order to look at learning styles in a useful
  manner for the purpose of instructional design,
  we can divide the 16 personality types into
  quadrants. Each quadrant includes four types that
  share the first two letters of personality type.
• The first two letters indicate the way a person
  energizes and the way a person inputs data, that
  is, learns.

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Quadrant view for learning styles
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Quadrant View
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Strategies

• Research indicates that unless a teacher is made
  aware of his/her learning style, he/she tends to
  develop instruction based on personal
  preferences or on the way he/she learned, even if
  it wasnt a preferred learning mode, e.g., long
  lectures.
• When designing instruction, include strategies
  that appeal to the exact opposite of your
  learning style, as well as that of your own, and
  you will address the needs of all learners.

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Example

• Gain students attention by reading a story to
  the students. Mispronounce many of the words.
  Explain to the students that we need to
  understand phonics rules in order to be able to
  read.

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Example

• How many kinds of line can you name in your room?

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Example

• After receiving an reading handout, students will
  be able to answer three objective questions about
  the scenario correctly. Students work in groups
  discussing questions and arriving at answers.
  Teacher provides feedback after groups are
  finished.

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Example

• Students will use the search engine askjeeves for
  kids and kidsclick to find information about
  their state. A demonstration will be given using
  a computer and projector on how to conduct
  searches for state information. Students will
  then work in pairs to assist each other in
  finding web sites using the computers in the lab.