Learning Style is a Term that has been of interest in the past few decades in the field of Organizational Behavior. It refers to the way individuals perceive to acquire new skills, knowledge, or education. Scholars of organizational behavior owe David Kolb who is the leading pioneer for the introduction of such term due to his work since 1970`s.
David Kolb, a Professor of Organizational Behavior at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland in the US, established an Experimental theory based on a 17 years search study to develop and enhance the abilities of educators using the Learning Style Inventory (LSI). Coffieldand et al (2004).His aim was to improve traditional teaching for management students in perceiving new learned topics. He
…show more content…
xCoffieldand et al mentioned that the authors were keen to emphasize (2000, 43) that ‘no single style has an overwhelming advantage over any other. Each has strengths and weaknesses but the strengths may be especially important in one situation, but not in another.
Several scholars disagreed with the idea; that each individual has a unique learning style. They critiqued the work of Kolb, Honey and Mumford, and others who followed on the road of searching for improving and classifying educators in to learning categories. They insisted that naming individual according to learning style prevent them from adapting to new ways of learning.
In this paper I used Honey and Mumford questionnaire to determine a suitable development program for a candidate. The candidate will answer the Learning style questionnaire (attached in appendix) as honestly as possible, his educational background and past experience should be taken into consideration in the development program.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
People in organizations are individuals with deferent behavior, values and personality, whereas organizations “are group of people who works interdependently toward some purpose” (McShawn,andVonGlinow 4th edition). This workforce diversity needs to be stormed and aligned through what is called evolving employment relationship, thus resulting in increasing their flexibility. Employees should also increase their flexibility through
After taking the learning styles assessment it was found that I am a visual learner most of all followed by tactile and auditory. This meaning that I like to see what I am learning, I am able to understand things and later recall what I have seen. I honestly have to say that I do not agree with these results; I say that because after reading and just knowing how I am, I believe my best type of learning is through tactile, I have been this way since elementary school. When you are a tactile person you like to learn and pick up the information best through touching and doing things, you are very hands-on. Versus someone who is a visual learner just needs to see it or read it. Some of the characteristics a tactile person has is completely me; such as I am always doing something, I like to be hands on, when I talk I move my hands sort of like I am trying to act out what I am saying, I always have my legs going or am swaying side to side, like flashcards to study with, and am always chewing gum.
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.
In order to effectively teach students with different learning styles, I will most likely be using this website for ideas. Education.com has everything. They tell you how to know what styles your children are better with and give you some activities that you can use to reach all of those students. On their site, you can find specific activities for any grade, or subject, up through high school. For example, I will be teaching third grade so I would go and look under third grade and then go under whatever subject I need, such as math. Once there, I just scroll through and pick an activity that allows student to interact with each other while practicing the subject and having fun. I can also use
From an early age I found learning hard and in my early educational years I
ii. Another important factor I must consider when identifying the needs of my learners is their learning process. A commonly used theory of learning process is that of Kolb (1984) who describes four different stages of the learning process as; Concrete experience, observation and reflection, abstract conceptualisation, and active experimentation. This theory particularly gained insight into the fact that greater understanding is achieved by learners when different and appropriate means are deployed to teach the same concept.
In the learning style assessment, my score of 34 for active experimentation learning shocks me as I do not learn well through hands on experience such as lab work. However, after reading an in-depth analysis on active experimentation learning style, I understand how it affects me as I prefer testing out ideas to see what works in in order to understand a learning concept.
From doing the Learning Style Inventory, I learned that I learn better when I write things down and when I have a visual of the information I am learning. For my writing style way of learning, I found I should take notes. When the professors give us notes I should write them in my hand writing. I just need to be able to read my notes because I write so fast some times.
Your child/student took a “Learning Styles Inventory” last week to determine how they learn best. They discovered that they were a visual, an auditory, or a kinesthetic learner.
Allinson, C., and Hayes, J. (1988), ‘The learning styles questionnaire: an alternative to Kolb’s inventory’, Journal of Management Studies, 25, (3):269-281.
Sadler-Smith, Eugene and Carol Evans. Learning styles in education and training. 2nd. Bradford, England: Emerald Group Publication, 2012.
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
The concept of learning style refers to the notion that individuals differ in the manner in which they acquire knowledge and/or skills through structured instruction or teaching. This concept recommends that individuals should become aware of their most optimal or effective learning style and tailor instructional material to suit their instructional needs. According to Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer & Bjork (2008), there three avenues or channels of communication that are used in learning and through which instructional materials and resources are presented to a learner. Pictures/images, speech/auditory, kinesthetic, and written words are modes through which instructional material is presented to students (Pashler et al., 2008). Individuals differ with respect to the mode they learn most effectively in, and they should strive to assess their strengths and weaknesses concerning different learning styles.
A person with this learning style excels in the capacity to examine situations from many angles and generate many ideas. Studies indicate that individuals with the diverging learning style are interested in people and are creative and expressive. They also tend to be fascinated in the arts and often have humanities or liberal arts backgrounds. Counselors, organizational development specialists, and human resource managers have exhibited this learning style. (casa colorado teaching seminar Kolb Learning Style Inventory Info pdf website, 2008)