Learning Styles, Pashler; Education Psych

learning is optimized when learning style is matched to instruction styleex: visual format for visual learner

looking for studies with a cross over interaction between learning style and instructional method

learning styles assessments should NOT be incorporated into general education practice

preferred ways of processing information; one learning theory model suggests visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic modes of learning-the concept that individuals differ in regard to what mode of instruction is most effective for them

the claim that individualizing instruction to the learners style can allow people to achieve a better learning outcome

-passing the responsibility-being a part of a group-having a solution/hope for a teacher and/or student-being treated as unique-having a potential to learn

-people will volunteer preference-preferences are "reliable"-existence isn't a test of the learning styles hypothesis (because people are incorrect all the time)

a way to arrange data in a non-contiguous way to increase performance

A practice sequence in which individuals "repeatedly rehearse the same task" or "repeatedly rehearse a single version of a required movement"-better for short term

1) divide the learning into 2+ groups based on the learning style2) Randomly assign participants in each group to 2+ learning style methods3) Give all participants the same achievement test4) Results must show that the learned method that optimizes test preferences of one group is different than the method used with the other groups

that students have a particular learning style and these styles should be accommodated by instruction tailored to those learning styles

classifies individuals learning processes as differing among two dimensions:-preferred mode of perception (concrete to abstract)-preferred mode of processing (active experimentation to reflective observations)classifies individuals into four types on the basis of their position along these two dimensions-divergers (concrete, reflective)-assimilators (abstract, reflective)-convergers (abstract, active)-accommodators (concrete, active)-the self assessment requires people to agree or disagree with, for example, the idea that they learn best when they listen and watch carefully, or that when they learn they like to analyze things and to break them down into parts

placing them in learning and work situations with people whose learning strengths are different from their own, improving the fit between their learning style and the kind of learning experience they face and practicing skills in areas that are the opposite of their present strengths

-they classify people into supposedly distinct groups, rather than assigning people graded scores on different dimensions -lineage of this theory: Jung -Jung influenced Myers Briggs type indicator test-want to be seen and treated by educators as unique individuals-students learning is "enhanced" by instruction that is tailored in some way to their "style"

most widely used personality assessment. 100 question test. Faulty in that it forces you into a type where you may be both to some degree.Most evidence does not support MBTI as a measure of personality.

Four types tested.1. Extraverted vs introverted2. Sensing vs intuitive3. Thinking vs feeling4.

Judging vs perceivingDescribe 16 personality types in combination.

-people will, if asked, volunteer preferences about their preferred mode of taking in new info and studying**the reality of these preferences does not demonstrate that assessing a students learning style would be helpful in providing effective instruction for that student-the student having a preference does not imply optimal instruction for the student

-allows for the possibility that both learning-style groups could do equally well with on of the learning methods-the same learning method maximizes performance of all subjects-does not require that the optimal method for each group would somehow match or conform to each groups learning style-unacceptable evidence for meshing hypothesis if one style of learning is better for both learners

Only one

-thurstone-proposed seven primary mental abilities:*verbal comprehension*word fluency*number facility*spatial visualization*associative memory*perceptual speed*reasoning-not completely uncorrelated -do show moderate degree of independence-evidence for specific aptitudes-does not show that one needs to provide different groups with different forms of instruction to maximize their performance on any single outcome test

-measured analytical, creative, and practical ability-students selected dominant subset learning style-randomly assigned to psychology class meetings that emphasized either analytical, creative, practical or memory instruction-memory was the control group-screened deviant scoresFindings:-matched students outscored mismatched students on 2 out of the 3 assessments

-examined only a subset of students (approx. 1/3)-outliers were excluded for no reason-> need to give a reason for exclusion->can't generalize to the rest of the population-only one study-> not enough

-more studies with factorial randomized research design-IF there is evidence to support the learning style hypothesis, the benefits must still outweigh the costs-some content may favor students with aptitude in one area (ex: visual-> geography)-all students learn more when content drives the choice of modality (ex: english class heavily weighted in auditory and vocab.)

the delivery of information through sound

the third form of the three modalities in multimodal instruction. Visual modality is teaching in ways that appeal to visual learners.

primary hypothesis: idea that students with high ability tend to fare better in less structured learning environments than in highly structured learning environments-and vice versa for low ability students-they do occur, but it is not easy to determine when they occur

1) the implementation of instructional methods that differ in structure (guidance) has been quite variable2) the measures used to asses student abilities have varied considerably

-date does not establish that students at a particular ability level (high or low) fared significantly better (in terms of reading outcomes) as a function of the reading program in which the students were enrolled-the students with low ability outscored the students with high ability (at least nominally) after both received the more highly structured instruction-evidence that learning is optimized when students with high ability are provided-> less structure and vice versa

-perform better with lecture recitation teaching method-better able to attend to the lectures, take careful notes, memorize target information

-perform better when receiving inquiry or public issues methods -lecture recitation method put too heavy a burden on cognitive skills (unable to attend to the lectures, take careful notes, memorize target information)

-students with low verbal ability profiting more from concept mapping than students with high verbal ability

-construct too many substructures to accommodate incoming info, rather than constructing a unified integrated representation of the target material-embedded questions improve performance on target questions but not performance on non target questions

-able to extract coherent, well-organized mental representation of the text-do not profit from embedded questions-performance for nontarget information was better without embedded questions

better for:-learners with internal locus of control-high ability students -not entirely proven some studies say it, some studies don't

better for-learners with external locus of control-low ability students-again not a whole lot of proof

-learning styles, meshing hypothesis

they examined literature, looking for methods that would appropriately test the meshing hypothesis

few studies exist, only one supports their hypothesis

the meshing hypothesis is being implemented widely, but there really seems to be no point to it, as you would create more costs, when there are other methods that are as effective or more effective