Student Profiling
VARK Learning Preferences and
Multiple Intelligences at Dubai Men’s
College
Peter Hatherley-Greene
March 2003
Beginnings
• Best Practices
• Student Profiling
– VARK Learning Preferences
– Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
VARK Learning Preferences
http://www.vark-learn.com/
VARK Learning Preferences
• Developed in 1987 by Neil Fleming, Lincoln College, New
Zealand
• Provides users with a profile of their learning preferences
• Students can do something about their preferences
• Students’ awareness of their learning preference can make
their learning more effective
• Faculty awareness of their students’ learning preferences can
make them more sensitive to diverse teaching strategies
VARK Learning Preferences
• This is not a learning style eg. Kolb’s Model
• VARK deals with just one dimension of the complex amalgam
of preferences that make up a learning style –
– the ways in which people like information to come to them
– the ways in which they like to deliver their information
• Inventory consists of 13 questions supported by Arabic text
• Four main modal preferences and one multimodal preference
VARK - visual
This preference includes the depiction of
information in charts, graphs, flow charts,
and all the symbolic arrows, circles,
hierarchies and other devices that
instructors use to represent what could have
been presented in words.
VARK - aural
This perceptual mode describes a
preference for information that is "heard."
Students with this modality report that they
learn best from lectures, tutorials, tapes,
group discussion, speaking, web chat,
talking things through.
VARK – read/write
This preference is for information displayed
as words. Not surprisingly, many academics
have a strong preference for this modality.
This preference emphasizes text-based
input and output - reading and writing in all
its forms.
VARK - kinesthetic
By definition, this modality refers to the
perceptual preference related to the use of
experience and practice (simulated or real).
The key is that the student is connected to
reality, either through experience, example,
practice or simulation.
VARK - multimodal
Multimodal students need to process
information in more than one mode in order
to get effective understanding. They can be
more flexible about how they take in and
give out information than those with a profile
that emphasizes a single preference. They
tend to be able to match their preferences
with whatever mode(s) are being used.
VARK – results (CD Year 1)
n=276
VARK – results (Foundations)
n=162
VARK – results (combined)
n=438
VARK – results (comparison to VARK database)
(n=438)
VARK – multimodal breakdown
VARK – multimodal breakdown
VARK – breakdown comparisons
VARK – supporting evidence
Reid investigated multiple learning styles preferences in nine ESL
language groups. Arabic learning styles support multimodalism.
Reid, J. (1987). The learning style preferences of ESL students.
TESOL Quarterly, 21/1, 87-111.
VARK – summary of results
• Strong multimodalism (63%) indicates adult learning styles
• Old myth of Arab learning preferences (aural and visual learners)
appears to be debunked
• No observable difference between CD and FD
• Bimodal differences between DMC and VARK results
• R/W learning preference strongly indicates they do have the
potential ability to function in an academic arena
• Other studies support findings of multimodalism
VARK – Study Strategies
VARK learning preferences places the responsibility for
adopting preferred Study Strategies for each modality
squarely upon the learner.
VARK – Study Strategies
Faculty address study strategies through one-on-one
counselling with students. The study strategy for each modal
preference is outlined and reinforced at various times during
the semester, especially leading up to assessments.
VARK – Study Strategies
However, as educators, we may also take advantage of this
knowledge when planning learning activities for a particular
class with diverse learning preferences.
VARK – Study Strategies
For example, CD Year 1 classlists display the VARK learning
preference of each student so that faculty can take a
snapshot of the generalised learning preferences in the
class.
VARK – Study Strategies
By using these two approaches, students are made aware of
their responsibilities to apply the modal study strategy and
faculty are informed/reminded of the diverse nature of their
students.
VARK – CEPA scores comparison
• increasing percentage of multimodals with increasing CEPA score
• support for Fleming's notion that multimodalism is a characteristic of scholastic adult learners
• more single mode learners in CD Year 1 compared to Foundations
VARK – did it make a difference?
• Too soon to tell
• This year provides the baseline for
comparisons
• Reliability - modal changes occurred when
some students were inadvertently retested
• Variability in counselling by faculty
Other measures – Gardiner’s
Multiple Intelligences
•
Naturalistic – aptitude for being with and respecting nature
•
Musical – aptitude for musical expression
•
Logical/mathematical – aptitude for math, logic, deduction
•
Existential – aptitude for understanding one’s purpose
•
Interpersonal – aptitude for working with others
•
Bodily/kinesthetic – aptitude for being physical
•
Linguistic/verbal – aptitude for the written/spoken word
•
Intrapersonal – aptitude for working alone
•
Spatial/visual – aptitude for picturing, seeing
•
Emotional – aptitude for identifying emotion (not assessed)
Gardiner’s Multiple Intelligences
n=213
Gardiner’s Multiple Intelligences
n=213
Gardiner’s Multiple Intelligences implications
• Know your students
• See your students in different contexts
• Vary your teaching approach
• Vary your assessment approach
• Keep an eye on what’s going on outside
Gardiner’s Multiple Intelligences and
CEPA correlation
• Does this mean that students with higher CEPA scores allowed them to more effectively read the survey
and respond to more written cues? (Survey was translated into Arabic)
• What is actually being tested when we run a survey such as Multiple Intelligences, reading ability or actual
intelligences?
• How can we sort out the "reading effect"?
• Does this imply students with higher CEPA scores are more sophisticated learners and therefore, are
more open to different styles or intelligences of learning?
Student profiling – summary
VARK and Multiple Intelligences help us to
define how our students learn and what
strengths they bring to the learning process
VARK - endpiece
Teach me my most difficult concepts in my
preferred style. Let me explore the easiest
concepts in different styles. Just don't teach
me all the time in your preferred style and
think I'm not capable of learning.
A story and a comment from Virleen M. Carlson , Center for
Learning and Teaching, Cornell University
References
•
Fleming, N.D. (1995), I'm different; not dumb. Modes of presentation
(VARK) in the tertiary classroom, in Zelmer, A., (Ed.) Research and
Development in Higher Education, Proceedings of the 1995 Annual
Conference of the Higher Education and Research Development Society
of Australasia (HERDSA), HERDSA, Volume 18, pp. 308 - 313
•
Gardner, H., & Hatch, T. (1989). Multiple intelligences go to school:
Educational implications of the theory of multiple intelligences.
Educational Researcher, 18(8), 4-9.
•
Reid, J. (1987). The learning style preferences of ESL students. TESOL
Quarterly, 21/1, 87-111.
•
St Hill, R. (1997), Modal Preferences In Teaching And Learning
Economics, Contributed paper, Fifth Annual Teaching Economics
Conference, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, 2-4 July,
1997.
Student Profiling – school leaver
type and cultural mindset
School leaver type
High flyers
I
III
Passers
II
Failures
Knowledge
Industrial
Agrarian
Cultural
mindset
(Tofler)
Best Practices 2002
• Cherished teaching practices and wisdom
• Moving towards e-learning scenarios
• “See the students as individuals, not as a
group. We classify the group rather than
seeing the students as individuals.”
Learning Style - definition
“Any attribute or characteristic of learning that
might affect a person’s ability to learn.”
VARK – inventory (online and PDF)
VARK – classlists