HRD Monika

In school everyone learns differently; however, according to the article The Myth of Learning Styles, “The idea of learning styles is based on a theory… developed in the early 1980’s.” (pg 1.) A lot has certainly changed from the 1980’s as we learn new more material in every class we take. With this being said, someone the scientists referred to in the article “assumed” that learning styles challenged the way of the educational system when in reality, it is simply a myth. Students, like myself, only prefer to process information that they find useful or interesting to him or her. Thus giving us the problems of that teachers may take too long to cover one idea, and students may miss out out on information because he or she did not prefer that learning style.

For years, there have been many theorists who have shared their views on how individuals learn. Such research has determined that individuals have different learning styles. It is important for teacher to understand the learning styles of both themselves and their students because it helps them to relay the subject knowledge to the students. The teacher is in a position where they must be able to assess the learning styles of their students. This means that the students and teachers are both in a process of learning.

It is practical to assume that students will do better in tasks that reflect their particular style of learning, so knowledge of students’ learning styles, including a variety of tasks will make teaching more inclusive. A learning style questionnaire could be handed out at the start of a course which, once completed will inform the teacher about the learning styles of the students.

From an early age I found learning hard and in my early educational years I

i. Understanding the learners learning styles can make my course to be engaging. Flemming (1987) noted three different styles of learning; visual, kinaesthetic and aural. In order to know which method(s) to use to benefit my students the first lesson on my course will centre around discussions on what they already know, the resources they are familiar with, and a learning style questionnaire which will provide me with information on preferred learning styles. Effectiveness can also be enhanced if I adapt my teaching style to give maximum benefit to learners.

It is important to make aware there are many different theories regarding the understanding of how individuals learn and develop. As we start to identify we begin to comprehend and realise that everyone does not learn the same way as the next person. The learning theories that are to be taken into account are as follows: Behaviourism, Cognitivists, Humanists, Social Learning, Adult Learning and Motivation.

“Just as students have different personalities, they also have different ways of learing (Slavin, 107).” Learning styles are another important factor to incorporate when implementing the best learning environment. Learning styles are defined as an individual's mode of gaining knowledge. The most common learning styles addressed are auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Auditory leaners understand information through hearing. Visual learners need more visual aids in the learning process, such as diagrams, webs, or pictures. Kinesthetic learners learn better by using manipulatives or by being physically involved in the learning process. Learning styles is a piece of the “backbone” of differentiated learning. Both are used to individualize instruction to help students achieve the most success.

Kolb’s theory (1984) is based on a four-stage learning cycle in which the learner contacts all the stages. These stages include first, concrete experience (how an individual encounters a situation), second, reflective observation (what an individual thinks about the situation), third, abstract conceptualization (how the individual analyzes the situation), and fourth, active experimentation (how the individual’s use of the conclusions in a situation change or prepare for another situation) (p. 21). Kolb also understood that individuals have different learning styles. Some individuals learn by observing while others learn by hands-on experience. Therefore, Kolb created side cycles to explain where in the learning cycles an individual’s learning style would fall. Although Kolb’s theory is a

Education benefits individual mentally, emotionally and physically by placing them in better place than they were previously before. Everybody would agree that learning something new would take place throughout the life. Learning style defined as "A term that describes the variations among learners in using one or more senses to understand, organize, and retain experience" (Reid, 1987, p. 89). Furthermore, Felder and Henriques (1995, p. 21) explained learning styles as "the ways in which an individual characteristically acquires, retains and retrieves information". However, different learners possess different characteristics and different preferred learning styles to perceive, process, take in and understand information.

Learning styles and barriers to learning can be by the VARK to give a profile of learning preferences of how a person takes in and gives out information or Tidwell and Rodgers Practical learning styles Questionnaire. The VARK learning styles determines if the person learns by being a theorist, reflector, activist and/or pragmatist. The practical learning styles questionnaire looks at how people learn by their orientation, whether they are a realistic or creative, by their interaction, are they a doer or a thinker, by how they represent things, either by words or pictures, and how they process information, whether they are a surface or deep processor. There are many other

Willingham, D. T., Hughes, E. M., & Dobolyi, D. G. (2015). The scientific status of learning styles theories. Teaching of Psychology, 42(3), 266-271. doi:10.1177/0098628315589505

Learning is a multifaceted perception unique to each individual. In looking to address the intricacies of learning, there have been a multitude of learning theories established over the centuries. To this day new theories are developed and traditional theories continue to be developed and expanded upon. (Swinburne Online, 2016)

This paper will identify which of the Kolb learning styles best suits me and why I think so. It will also give some examples from my past and present to support these findings. After determining, the learning styles that best fit me and completing an inventory exercise, I have concluded that I learn best using audio and visual techniques in the learning process. I agree with everything this exercise has brought to light. I never knew that these styles were the meaning by which I learned. I have also included examples as to how I see the use and benefits of these learning styles in my career.

Kolb’s experiential learning cycle is a theory that argues that we learn from our experiences of life on a daily basis. Cognitive ability is the way people learn and Kolb believed from an early age we begin to develop a sort of instinctive preference as to the way we process information and use it. Kolb (1984) believes that the process of learning follows a pattern or cycle. Kolb’s cycle is made up of 4 stages; the first stage is concrete experience and Kolb believes that life is full of loads of different experiences that everyone can learn from and whether you are at home, work, school or even out shopping that there was experiences everywhere within those sectors and that it was a way for us to start the learning cycle. The concrete experience is the doing stage, the stage where you have the experience. We then have stage two which is reflective observation, this stage involved looking back at our experiences and reflecting on them. Stage three is the abstract conceptualisation which is

In the reading Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development by David Kolb (1984), he proposed that learning is a cycle process in which individuals learn through their own experiences in life. This notion of the learning cycle in which he was influenced by the ideas of three other theorists (Piaget, Dewey, and Lewinian) called it Experiential Learning Theory. Kolb’s theory was based on how people learned by imputing information and processing the information. Within this two abilities, there are four steps in which Kolb’s believe the learning process occurs. The first one he calls “concrete experience”, in which one actually does the learning right then and now. The second one is “reflective observation” when the learner thinks about what they did as a reflection of the experience. The next step is the “abstract conceptualization”, where the learner makes a generalization of the experience. The last step is “active experimentation”, where the learner puts to practice his/her understanding and adapts to it. The learner does this by taking all the first three steps of the learning cycle and seeing the results (pg. 30). Learning is a process in which individuals learn through trial and error. This process can then be reused with our prior experience to strengthen the outcome of our first experience. It is shaped as a cycle in the way we process information cognitively. This is how I understood of the reading on Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory.