Integrating Learning Style Theory
with Tutor and Mentor Training
Preston VanLoon, Ed.D.
“I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to
provide the conditions in which they can learn.”
~ Albert Einstein
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do
and I understand.” ~Confucius
What have you learned and how have you
learned it in the past two days?
What did you learn about how your partner
learns compared to how you learn?
How would you describe your learning style?
Learning Styles/Brain Dominance/
Multiple Intelligences
Learning style theory focuses on the process (input)
or how a person internalizes and takes in new
information.
Brain dominance theory (Sperry) focuses on our
preference, or dominant side of the brain we use
when learning new information.
Multiple intelligence theory (Gardner) focuses on the
content, or the product (output) and method by
which a person shows what he knows.
What is a Learning Style?
• The “composite of characteristic cognitive, affective, and
physiological factors that serve as relatively stable indicators of
how a learner perceives, interacts with, and responds to the
learning environment.” (Keefe, 1979)
• Those “educational conditions under which a student is most
likely to learn.” (Stewart and Felicetti,1992)
• “The way each person perceives, sorts, absorbs, processes, and
retains information. The central concept of this definition is
that learners perceive and process information differently.”
(Gregorc, 1982)
• The “complex manner in which, and conditions under which,
learners most efficiently and most effectively perceive,
process, store, and recall what they are attempting to learn.”
(Gardner, 1995)
• “A predisposition on the part of some learners to adopt a
particular learning strategy regardless of the specific demands
of the learning task.”(Schmeck, 1977)
Why integrate learning style theory with tutor
training?
•Poor course performance could be misinterpreted as a lack
of knowledge when it might be an issue with learning style.
•Tutors who understand a learner’s learning style are better
able to adapt their tutoring strategies.
•Incorporating a variety of tutoring strategies will most likely
increase motivation and engage the tutee in the tutoring
experience.
•Knowing about different learning styles can serve as a
guide when designing learning experiences that match a
students learning style.
•Students who tend to learn about their own style will
become better learners and have more positive attitudes
toward their education.
Learning style theory implies that how much
individuals learn has more to do with whether the
educational experience is geared toward their
particular style of learning than whether or not they
are “smart.”
What are some ways that we take in information
when we are learning?
Brain Dominance Theory
Left Brain Functions
Uses logic, facts
Detail Oriented
Words and Language
Present and Past
Math and Science
Order/pattern perception
Knows object name
Language
Critical Thinking
Numbers
Reasoning
Right Brain Functions
Uses feeling, imagination
“Big-picture oriented
Symbols and images
Present and future
Philosophy and religion
Spatial perception
Knows object function
Recognizes faces
Music
Color
Intuition
Creativity
Gardner’s Nine Multiple Intelligences
“It is not how smart you are, it is “how you are smart.”
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Verbal/Linguistic: Word smart
Logical/Mathematical: Number smart
Visual/Spatial: Picture smart
Bodily/Kinesthetic: Body smart
Musical/Rhythmic: Music smart
Interpersonal: People smart
Intrapersonal: Self smart
Naturalistic: Nature smart
Existential: Big picture smart
Approaches to Learning Style Theory
Over the past three decades, educators have
offered several different approaches to learning
styles, with over 71 different types of learning
styles identified (Holden and Westfall, 2010).
The various Learning Style Models fit into four
categories (Claxton and Murrell, 1987):
• Personality Models – Look at personality
characteristics such as introvert and extrovert. (i.e.
Myers Briggs)
• Information Processing Models – Look at how a
person takes in and processes information. (i.e.
Four Dimensional Learning Style Model)
• Social Interaction Models – Look at how a student
reacts and behaves in a learning situation. (i.e.
Instructional and Environmental Model)
• Instructional Preferences Models – Differentiate
students by the way they acquire information. (i.e.
VARK)
Approaches to Learning Style Theory
•
Kolb’s (1985) Experiential Learning Theory Model which has four
different learning styles.
•
Felder and Silverman’s (1988) Four Dimensional Learning Style
Model; four learning styles.
•
James and Galbraith (1985) Perceptual Learning Styles Model
focuses on seven different pathways to learning.
•
Dunn, Dunn, and Price (1979) Instructional and
Environmental Learning Style Model consists of five learning factors
with 21 elements that affect each individual's learning ability.
•
Fleming and Mills (1992) suggests learners acquire
information through visual, auditory, reading and writing and
kinesthetic means.
Why the VARK Learning Style Model?
1. It offers a positive affirmation of the learning ability of all
students.
2. It encourages the belief that everyone can learn if their
learning preferences are addressed.
3.The VARK inventory is short and simple to use.
4.The questionnaire alerts students and teachers to the
variety of different approaches to learning.
5. It supports students who have been having difficulties
with learning and supports teachers who would like to
develop additional learning strategies for their classrooms.
6. It can be used with a group, class, or in a one-to-one
setting.
7. It can be used to help educators to better understand
how students process information.
The Training Activity
1. Ask participants to share about a time when
they learned something really well, then
write 3-4 sentences about it. Discuss in pairs.
2. In pairs list the instructional strategies
participants described above under the
headings of visual, auditory, read/write,
kinesthetic. Discuss together.
3. Instruct trainees to go to the VARK link
(www.vark-learn.com) on their computers and
complete the VARK questionnaire to see if
their learning experience is consistent with
their preferred learning styles.
4. Lead a discussion with the group and ask
about other learning experiences when the
trainees might have learned something well
using an approach different from their
preferred or dominant learning style.
5. Instruct trainees to move into small groups of
three to four with others who have the same
learning style and make a list of different
strategies that can be used to tutor someone
with the same learning preference.
6. Conclude by asking trainees to complete and
share with the group their responses to the
following “Something I learned today about
myself as a learner is ___________. Strategies
I can use with someone who learns visually
are ______, auditory are _____, through
reading and writing are _____, and
kinesthetically are _____.”
Dunn, Beaudry, and Klavas (1995) urged educators to
provide responsive instruction to the learning styles of
diverse student populations.
How does responsive instruction relate to learning
style theory and tutor training?
VARK Strategies
What are some strategies that tutors can use with
learners for each of the VARK learning styles?
TUTOR STRATEGIES FOR VISUAL LEARNERS ?
Ask learners to:
• Picture their notes or textbook information.
• Draw diagrams when appropriate.
• Write exam answers.
• Turn tables into graphs.
• Practice turning visuals back into words.
• Recreate content into charts, acronyms,
pictures.
• Replace words with symbols, pictures, or
initials.
TUTOR STRATEGIES FOR AURAL LEARNERS ?
Ask learners to:
• Talk with the test administrator.
• Read summaries or notes out-loud.
• Spend time in quiet places recalling the ideas
studied.
• Read written paper drafts out-loud to edit and
make improvements.
• Ask others to “hear” your understanding of a
topic.
• Explain notes to the tutor.
• Put summarized notes on tapes and listen to
them.
TUTOR STRATEGIES FOR READING and WRITING
LEARNERS ?
Ask learners to:
• Reduce lecture notes into learnable packages.
• Write out key words again and again.
• Rewrite ideas, formulas, and principles into
other words.
• Organize diagrams, graphs, and charts into
words.
• Write your notes into lists.
• Practice writing short answers and essays.
• Do extra readings or re-read chapter headings
and summaries.
TUTOR STRATEGIES FOR KINESTHETIC LEARNERS ?
Ask learners to:
• Write practice answers and paragraphs.
• Role play the exam situation in the tutoring center.
• Go for a walk and discuss the material.
• Recall and visit the lab environment.
• Create gestures to remember material.
• Write examples into your notes.
• Recall previous exams, especially those on which
you did well.
“The aim of education should be to teach us
rather how to think, than what to think—
rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us
to think for ourselves, than to load the memory
with the thoughts of other men.” ~John Dewey
“We now accept the fact that learning is a
lifelong process of keeping abreast of change.
And the most pressing task is to teach people
how to learn.” ~Peter Drucker
Thank you!