Student Profiling VARK Learning Preferences and Multiple Intelligences at Dubai Men

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Student ProfilingVARK Learning Preferences and
Multiple Intelligences at Dubai Mens College

• Peter Hatherley-GreeneMarch 2003

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Beginnings

• Best Practices
• Student Profiling
• VARK Learning Preferences
• Gardners Multiple Intelligences

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VARK Learning Preferences
http//www.vark-learn.com/
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VARK Learning Preferences

• Developed in 1987 by Neil Fleming, Lincoln
  College, New Zealand
• Provides users with a profile of their learning
  preferences
• Students can do something about their preferences
• Students awareness of their learning preference
  can make their learning more effective
• Faculty awareness of their students learning
  preferences can make them more sensitive to
  diverse teaching strategies

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VARK Learning Preferences

• This is not a learning style eg. Kolbs Model
• VARK deals with just one dimension of the complex
  amalgam of preferences that make up a learning
  style
• the ways in which people like information to come
  to them
• the ways in which they like to deliver their
  information
• Inventory consists of 13 questions supported by
  Arabic text
• Four main modal preferences and one multimodal
  preference

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VARK - visual
This preference includes the depiction of
information in charts, graphs, flow charts, and
all the symbolic arrows, circles, hierarchies and
other devices that instructors use to represent
what could have been presented in words.
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VARK - aural
This perceptual mode describes a preference for
information that is "heard." Students with this
modality report that they learn best from
lectures, tutorials, tapes, group discussion,
speaking, web chat, talking things through.
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VARK read/write
This preference is for information displayed as
words. Not surprisingly, many academics have a
strong preference for this modality. This
preference emphasizes text-based input and output
- reading and writing in all its forms.
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VARK - kinesthetic
By definition, this modality refers to the
perceptual preference related to the use of
experience and practice (simulated or real). The
key is that the student is connected to reality,
either through experience, example, practice or
simulation.
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VARK - multimodal
Multimodal students need to process information
in more than one mode in order to get effective
understanding. They can be more flexible about
how they take in and give out information than
those with a profile that emphasizes a single
preference. They tend to be able to match their
preferences with whatever mode(s) are being used.
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VARK results (CD Year 1)
n276
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VARK results (Foundations)
n162
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VARK results (combined)
n438
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VARK results (comparison to VARK database)
(n438)
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VARK multimodal breakdown
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VARK multimodal breakdown
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VARK breakdown comparisons
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VARK supporting evidence
Reid investigated multiple learning styles
preferences in nine ESL language groups. Arabic
learning styles support multimodalism.
Reid, J. (1987). The learning style preferences
of ESL students. TESOL Quarterly, 21/1, 87-111.
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VARK summary of results

• Strong multimodalism (63) indicates adult
  learning styles
• Old myth of Arab learning preferences (aural and
  visual learners) appears to be debunked
• No observable difference between CD and FD
• Bimodal differences between DMC and VARK results
• R/W learning preference strongly indicates they
  do have the potential ability to function in an
  academic arena
• Other studies support findings of multimodalism

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VARK Study Strategies
VARK learning preferences places the
responsibility for adopting preferred Study
Strategies for each modality squarely upon the
learner.   
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VARK Study Strategies
Faculty address study strategies through
one-on-one counselling with students. The study
strategy for each modal preference is outlined
and reinforced at various times during the
semester, especially leading up to assessments.  
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VARK Study Strategies
However, as educators, we may also take advantage
of this knowledge when planning learning
activities for a particular class with diverse
learning preferences.  
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VARK Study Strategies
For example, CD Year 1 classlists display the
VARK learning preference of each student so that
faculty can take a snapshot of the generalised
learning preferences in the class.  
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VARK Study Strategies
By using these two approaches, students are made
aware of their responsibilities to apply the
modal study strategy and faculty are
informed/reminded of the diverse nature of their
students.  
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VARK CEPA scores comparison

• increasing percentage of multimodals with
  increasing CEPA score
• support for Fleming's notion that multimodalism
  is a characteristic of scholastic adult learners
• more single mode learners in CD Year 1 compared
  to Foundations

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VARK did it make a difference?

• Too soon to tell
• This year provides the baseline for comparisons
• Reliability - modal changes occurred when some
  students were inadvertently retested
• Variability in counselling by faculty

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Other measures Gardiners Multiple Intelligences

• Naturalistic aptitude for being with and
  respecting nature
• Musical aptitude for musical expression
• Logical/mathematical aptitude for math, logic,
  deduction
• Existential aptitude for understanding ones
  purpose
• Interpersonal aptitude for working with others
• Bodily/kinesthetic aptitude for being physical
• Linguistic/verbal aptitude for the
  written/spoken word
• Intrapersonal aptitude for working alone
• Spatial/visual aptitude for picturing, seeing
• Emotional aptitude for identifying emotion (not
  assessed)

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Gardiners Multiple Intelligences
n213
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Gardiners Multiple Intelligences
n213
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Gardiners Multiple Intelligences - implications

• Know your students
• See your students in different contexts
• Vary your teaching approach
• Vary your assessment approach
• Keep an eye on whats going on outside

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Gardiners Multiple Intelligences and CEPA
correlation

• Does this mean that students with higher CEPA
  scores allowed them to more effectively read the
  survey and respond to more written cues?
  (Survey was translated into Arabic)
• What is actually being tested when we run a
  survey such as Multiple Intelligences, reading
  ability or actual intelligences?
• How can we sort out the "reading effect"?
• Does this imply students with higher CEPA scores
  are more sophisticated learners and therefore,
  are more open to different styles or
  intelligences of learning?

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Student profiling summary
VARK and Multiple Intelligences help us to define
how our students learn and what strengths they
bring to the learning process
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VARK - endpiece
Teach me my most difficult concepts in my
preferred style. Let me explore the easiest
concepts in different styles. Just don't teach
me all the time in your preferred style and think
I'm not capable of learning. A story and a
comment from Virleen M. Carlson , Center for
Learning and Teaching, Cornell University
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References

• Fleming, N.D. (1995), I'm different not dumb.
  Modes of presentation (VARK) in the tertiary
  classroom, in Zelmer, A., (Ed.) Research and
  Development in Higher Education, Proceedings of
  the 1995 Annual Conference of the Higher
  Education and Research Development Society of
  Australasia (HERDSA), HERDSA, Volume 18, pp. 308
  - 313
• Gardner, H., Hatch, T. (1989). Multiple
  intelligences go to school Educational
  implications of the theory of multiple
  intelligences. Educational Researcher, 18(8),
  4-9.
• Reid, J. (1987). The learning style preferences
  of ESL students. TESOL Quarterly, 21/1, 87-111.
• St Hill, R. (1997), Modal Preferences In Teaching
  And Learning Economics, Contributed paper, Fifth
  Annual Teaching Economics Conference, University
  of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, 2-4 July,
  1997.

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Student Profiling school leaver type and
cultural mindset
I
III
High flyers
Passers
School leaver type
Failures
Cultural mindset
Knowledge
Industrial
Agrarian
(Tofler)
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Best Practices 2002

• Cherished teaching practices and wisdom
• Moving towards e-learning scenarios
• See the students as individuals, not as a group.
  We classify the group rather than seeing the
  students as individuals.

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Learning Style - definition

• Any attribute or characteristic of learning that
  might affect a persons ability to learn.

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VARK inventory (online and PDF)
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VARK classlists