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Learning Styles: Fact or Folklore Q & A Seminar Information

Q: Is there a correlation between quantity of responses and learning?

A: When one looks simply at the total number of postings (including postings that are purely social in nature, or off topic, or expresses simply agreement), I believe that the studies have found little or mixed support to show that more postings lead to better learning. However, studies that have examined the quantity of specific types of postings (e.g, the number of explanations posted in response to challenge/questions) have succeeded in finding correlations between number of specific types of postings/responses and learning (e.g., deeper understanding, etc.). This micro-level and more targeted approach is what we really need to get at the effects of learning style on student learning and performance.

Q: What's the best way to reach a kinetic learner online?

A: Popular educational folklore reinforces the notion of the existence of audio, visual and kinesthetic learners (VAK).  However, please keep in mind that there is no conclusive empirical evidence in the field of cognitive psychology and neurology that this is the case.  You might be better off looking at other learning styles models such as reflective-active with particular attention on the active learner orientation in place of a kinesthetic learner.  Refer to Allan’s work with active-reflective learners in the context of online discussions.

Q:  Were the message tag and posting requirements synchronous or asynchronous posts?

A: The message tags described in the presentation were used in asynchronous threaded discussions using the Blackboard threaded discussion forum. Interestingly, I have not seen anyone use message tagging in synchronous chats. It would make for an interesting study for sure!

Q: Does a mismatch of learning styles actually promote learning?

A: According to several decades of controlled studies where mismatches between so called learner styles and supposed incompatible instructional methods have been manipulated, the impact of such mismatches has had minimal impact.  Learner attributes such as prior knowledge, motivation and aptitudes seems to have much stronger interaction than most style related traits of learners. 

Q:  How does an ecourse serve tactile students?  How about ADD?

A: As mentioned previously an underlying premise in these types of questions is that students can be classified into sensory-based learning style categories.  There is little or no scientific evidence to support these types of assumptions so the question is difficult for us to address as we report on the empirical evidence.   Unfortunately, since learning disabilities are not technically considered learning styles, this topic is out of scope for our us.  However, we point you to the abundant resources in the field of special education for more complete guidelines for addressing the needs learning disable students including ADD, dyslexia etc.  

Q: What evidence is there that suggests that age or life-experience impacts a style dominance? 

A: According to most learning style theories, styles are persistent cognitive patterns related to how a person approaches the acquisition of new knowledge in a wide range of learning situations.  Learner characteristics such as life experiences relate heavily to prior knowledge which is not a style related learner trait.   We mention this in our session and emphasize that instructional scientists have consistently demonstrated that prior knowledge and experience far outweighs all learning style constructs in addressing individual differences of learners.   There is considerable research on how age affects learning and memory – especially working memory capacity --  but as far as we are aware age and life experiences are not subsumed within the field of learning style theory and practice.

Q: Might it be better to focus on determining delivery methods based on the content to be delivered rather than focusing on learning styles?

Absolutely.  This is the position the majority of educational psychologists hold today.   As we mention in or session, the design of multimedia instruction should be driven more by selecting the modality(s) that best represents the nature of the content one is trying to teach.   See our example of an instructional design that attempts to teach the concept of disordinal interactions using an auditory only method without the use of visual diagrams.  Imagine attempting to teach this concept to a so called kinesthetic learner.  Do you choreograph a dance to express the inverse spatial relationships between method and subjects as plotted spatially on the graph?   It’s possible, but not really practical or even necessary, unless dealing with someone who can’t see.   

Q: Is there research concerning: (1) millennial students preferring holistic styles? (2) differences between learning styles for graduate students vs. undergraduate students?

There are many people today who focus on the learning characteristics and patterns of millennial students.  Some people associate millennial students with a separate type of learning style altogether.  We are not aware of any research that demonstrates that millennial students have a particular type of learning style as defined by current learning style theories.  This area of research on millennial student learning patterns may be more associated with learning preferences and/or strategies which we differentiated from “styles” in the first part of our session.

Q: In terms of gender, which gender interacts better with questions based upon personal experience?

A: I'm not personally aware of any empirical studies that have tested for gender differences in responses to questions based on personal experience. Nevertheless, I believe this question is concerned with the learners’ epistemological beliefs about ways of knowing and the learner’s beliefs as whether knowledge is best constructed with information from external sources or from information from personal experiences. My first glance at the literature on potential gender differences in epistemological beliefs seem to suggest that there are no clear differences between genders.

Q: Is there a difference in male and female participation for different disciplines?

A: I don’t personally have any knowledge of the empirical research that would directly address the question here. However, I have found some studies that show how differences in learning styles can at times depend on the nature of the discipline, and as a result, I would suspect that one might find that same when one looks at gender differences.

Q: Does culture act as a mediating factor for the impact of learner traits?

A: I have come across some studies that show that Asian learners in online courses are much less likely to confront, question, and/or challenge ideas presented by other learners. Given that my study revealed that intellectual openness predicted performance in argumentation for only male learners and not female learners (where gender mediated the effects of a cognitive learning style), one can see how cultural differences might also mediate the effects of this or similar learning styles.

Q: How does personality impact learning style and vice versa?

A: There are several learning style models that derive from personality traits.  According to these models certain personality characteristics can impact how a person interacts with other learners in a learning situation as well as how they might approach learning in general.  A good example are the numerous learning style models that base their constructs the work of psychologist Carl Jung. (introversion – extroversion, feeling- sensing,  intuitive – judging ect). 

Q: Is the learning potential greater in a women-only online classroom?  Would male students be less argumentative in a male-only online classroom?

A: It again depends on what type of learning outcome and what type of instruction/activity you are trying to address. In the webinar, we spoke specifically about the effects of learning styles and traits on learners’ ability to work in groups to identify problem solutions through argumentative discourse in online discussion boards. Within the context of this particular goal using this particular instructional method, the empirical findings we reported in the webinar suggest that mixed gender groups (at least in large groups) might perform better than all-female and all-male groups because learners in mixed gender groups can work together and benefit from the strengths that each gender brings to the group. Ideally and theoretically speaking, male learners can help bring in more opposing viewpoint to trigger deeper and more sustained inquiry, and female learners can help the group build group consensus by posting responses to support and build (rather than oppose) on other learner’s ideas.

Q: Why does gender matter?

A: In our presentation, we looked at how learner’s learning styles and learner traits affect the way they behave and respond to other learner’s messages in online discussions that involve the use/application of argumentation skills. In reference to some of my recent studies, I found that reflective learners were much more likely to respond to the messages posted by other reflective learners with questions and challenges, and more likely to respond to challenges with counter-challenges – interactions that help to trigger further and deeper inquiry. Conversely, active learners were more likely than reflective learners to post responses to learners sharing similar (not opposing) views with information to support and build on other learner’s ideas. The implications of these findings suggest that we should form learning groups that are mixed in learning styles so that learners’ can work more synergistically based on learners’ strengths/preferences. As to the effects of gender? Similar differences were found when we examined the effects of gender, and hence the same implications apply to gender (a learner trait) as well as to learning styles. Furthermore, I found that the effects of the cognitive style, intellectual openness, predicted learner performance in the online discussions only for male learners, but not for female learners. This finding suggest that if an instructor is working with mostly female learners in the online course, using the learners’ differences in intellectual openness may not be all that useful. These are just two situations that illustrate how gender can be used in ways to better understand and to improve learner performance in group discussions/activities.

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