Learning activities for different learning styles

[Diane Hockridge]

I have always found Kolb’s learning cycle a helpful concept but have been a little more uncertain about his learning styles theory.  I suppose I don’t like the idea of “putting people in boxes”.  However the question we have been asked to consider this week is what learning activities might work well for the four learning styles identified by Kolb.  I found this a helpful question to consider because rather than putting people into boxes, it provides a way for thinking about including a range of different learning activities in our courses that cater for and encourage the expression of a range of different ways of learning.

So here are my very preliminary thoughts about the kinds of learning activities and assessment tasks that might be relevant to the four learning styles identified by Kolb. I’d appreciate any suggestions from others.

Diverging (feeling and watching – CE/RO)

Brainstorming,
Creative assignments,
Group work (summariser, motivator),
PBL,
Wikis,
Peer feedback,
Social media

Assimilating (watching and thinking – AC/RO)

Readings,
Lectures/presentations,
Models,
Written analysis, critique,
Discussion forums which focus on analysis/critique/ideas,
Group work (summariser, leader, note-taker),
Portfolio

Converging (doing and thinking – AC/AE)

Practically oriented and applied assessment tasks e.g. devise a plan, produce a set of resources,
PBL,
Discussion forums that focus on application of knowledge,
Simulations,
Group work (producer)

Accommodating (doing and feeling – CE/AE)

Simulations,
Practical tasks,
Group work (leader),
Create own learning tasks,
Report on outcomes of trials/experiments,
Portfolio

[philtubman]

mistake – see below

[philtubman]

in reading the posts for this exercise, esp James’ post on Social Media and Sanchas post on Graphic Design, it makes wonder how much the ‘thinking’ (watching and doing) is now being done ‘socially’ through rapid sharing of opinions and creativity through social media.

Your  ‘thinking’ exercises focus on social aspects too (online) except for reading and lectures (not nec online), although this is also probably up for debate.

Its also interesting that the ‘platforms and tech’ that support these activities do not usually fit into one quadrant either – its dependent on contextual use…

I have a feeling that Kolb was thinking ‘individual’ type stuff on the right hand side of the cycle (the watching and reflecting), and I read the descriptions of those learners and their preferred learning styles as quite ‘bookish’ (I also read ‘solitary’). On the left hand side, (the doing and feeling), he says is preferred by more ‘social’ types who share more ’empathy’ and ‘feeling’.

Do you think that adding social media (or indeed any online activity perhaps?) turns some of this on its head, as the thinking and reflecting are done much more in online,  virtual communities of practice rather than inside the individual?

[MariusJugariu]

Hi Diane,

I was recently watching again this very interesting recording – https://www.annotag.tv/learningtechnologies/play/18189 where Dr. Itiel was arguing that learning must be made memorable, at times perhaps to set “traps” for students.

I believe that through using the activities described by yourself and some others, the challenge is to make the learning “memorable” to cater all the learner styles.

[Andrew Chambers]

I personally don’t believe in “Learning Styles”. The brain is simply too complex and learning too differentiated between people. And yes putting people in boxes is an issue. Everything from personality types to “learning styles” is usually (on a person by person basis) on a continuum…

This article might be of interest to some:

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/learning-styles/getting-over-learning-styles/

 

(Apologies if it has been proffered up before but I have little time to do this full course)

 

Extract from the above link:
One of the outcomes of students making decisions about how they will learn and what standards of performance they will strive for is customization. Students do the customization within the teachers’ framework. Teachers don’t attempt to do the impossible—predict students’ learning variations and design appropriate exercises. The teaching task becomes how to design a classroom situation that maximizes students’ opportunities to choose and to learn from the results of those choices.
Teachers then can focus on their most creative work—observing students’ actions and interceding to correct them. What do learners do with course materials? How do they tackle problems? What assumptions do they use? What do they do when they fail? Answers to those questions would most definitely improve our teaching.
 

[Diane Hockridge]

Phil’s comment about whether social media or any online learning might lead to a more socialised group type of thinking/learning rather than an individual approach to thinking/learning is interesting.  I think Phil that you have put your finger on something that the social media technologies do allow for – that is they can provide opportunity for both rapid and sustained exchange of ideas or exploration of issues with a potentially wider audience than previously (the whole “crowd-sourcing” phenomenon).  For educators using TEL the question is how can we encourage and support a worthwhile and critically rigorous exchange of ideas and exploration of meaning in our courses?  There are plenty of online courses I have come across that really don’t do this well.

This raises another question for me also: while I can see the benefit of interaction with others for learning, I can also see that there is value in what we might call an “older style” of distance learning, where individual students interact primarily with written texts and work primarily independently.  And perhaps this gets us back to the whole learning styles question again – some people seem to prefer working independently, choosing not to interact with others, while others love to get in and bounce ideas of each other.

So for me the value of thinking about learning styles is to alert us as educators to the basic fact that students will have different ways in which they prefer to learn. If we keep this in mind in designing our courses we can include a variety of tasks that use a variety of ways of learning and as Andrew points out, we can also observe students actions and look at how they are interacting with learning materials so that we can guide their learning and improve the way we design our courses.

[fieryred1]

HI loving this discussion.

I think often social network can be about reacting rather than actually thinking. For example the girl who recently was sacked as a youth representative because she ‘reacted’ to other comments on Twitter. If students are used to using social media in this fashion it does not necessarily mean when the context is changed to a learning interaction this will change their reaction and learning style.

Sandra

Fiery Red

[ElizabethECharl]

Diane – I think your last paragraph is spot on regarding the debate about “learning styles”.  If you have a variety of facets to your teaching it will enrich the experience for all learners and those with a particular preference; one size does not fit all.

Sandra – An issue that teachers may well have to be explicit about – the difference in thinking and reacting and the role that the context of this plays?

[Niall Watts]

For what it is worth – I did a small research study with a group of student bloggers using Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory (KLSI) and found that most had a converging learning style. I would have expected more assimilating and diveging learning styles.

Since then I have become more sceptical of learning styles. See the report by Frank Coffield et al ‘Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning – A systematic and critical review’, London, Learning and Skills Research Centre,  http://www.lsda.org.uk/files/PDF/1543.pdf  . They examined 71 theories of learning style – they questioned the validity of KLSI and learning styles in general.

 

[imogenbertin]

I couldn’t get that link to work, Niall – but the same report appears to be here: http://sxills.nl/lerenlerennu/bronnen/Learning%20styles%20by%20Coffield%20e.a..pdf

 

Thanks for posting it.

Imogen

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