CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNING STYLE TYPES

ACCOMMODATOR “Enthusiastic”

 Strong in getting things done, in carrying out plans and experiments

 Gets involved with lots of new activities – good starter
 Operates on trial and error: “gut reaction”
 Gets others’ opinions, feelings, information and depends on others
rather than on his own analytical ability
 Involves and inspires other people
 Searches, seeks out new experiences
 Likes risks, excitement, change and incentives
 Dislikes routine
 Excels in adapting to situations
 Willing to try, jump in
 Spontaneous and impatient; can be impulsive
 Looks to the future
 Likes learning with people through projects, discussion, “doing”
 Broad practical interest

DIVERGER “Imaginative”

 Able to view concrete situations from many perspectives

 Sees lots of alternatives – the whole picture “Gestalt”
 Strong imagination
 Excels in idea-generation, “brainstorming”
 Creates with emotions, aesthetic interest
 Oriented to relationships with people, supportive
 Uses eyes, ears, listens, observes, asks questions
 Observes others, can model behavior
 Good at seeing, imagining self in different situations
 Unhurried, casual, calm, friendly, avoids conflict
 Imaginative and reflective
 Timing is important, can’t be pushed until ready
 Likes assurances from others
 Learns by listening, then sharing ideas with small number of people or
by modeling
 Broad cultural interests and tend to specialize in the arts
 Characteristics of persons with humanities and liberal arts background
ASSIMILATOR “Logical”

 A good theory builder, planner

 Puts ideas together to form a new model
 Excels in integrating data for explanations
 Good synthesizer
 Precise, thorough, careful
 Organized, follows a plan
 Redesigns, re-tests, digests
 Calculates the probabilities
 Reacts slowly and wants facts
 Works independently, thinking, reading
 Avoids over involvement
 Reflective and patient
 Pushes mind, analyzes ideas, critiques
 Rational, logical, complete
 Learns by individually thinking through ideas and designing a plan or
model in an organized way
 Less interested in people and more concerned with theories being
logically sound and precise
 Characteristics of the basic sciences and mathematics

CONVERGER “Practical”

 Applies ideas to solving problems

 Makes theories useful
 Has detective skills; search and solve
 Tests hypotheses objectively
 Unemotional, prefers to deal with things rather than people
 Uses reason, logic to meet goals; takes action
 Speculates on alternatives
 Likes to be in control of the situation
 Sets up projects, pilots with research
 Acts independently then gets feedback
 Uses factual data, book, theories
 Practical and action oriented
 Responsible, takes action on tasks
 Learns by working at probabilities and testing them out; coming to
conclusions
 Narrow technical interests
 Characteristics of many engineers
 EXAMINING LEARNING STYLES
Possible Plus
Enthusiastic
 Gets others involved
 Operates on intuition “gut
reactions”
 Takes risks with new experiences
 Motivates easily
 Talks to other people to gain
inspiration
 Tries several options
Imaginative
 Generates lots of options for
change
 Observes how others have made
changes
 Uses creative hunches
 Plays with ideas
 Fantasizes, can see images
 Lets ideas integrate or come
together before making changes
 Waits for the best things
Logical
 Gathers relevant facts, puts in
logical order
 Is very organized
 Feels more secure in change
 Reads books, looks at several
approaches, double checks
 Uses resources well
 Analyses options, calculates
probabilities
 Maps out on paper before jumping
in
 Works well alone
Practical
 Sees change as problem to be
solved
 Uses detective skills to get facts
 Evaluates options, set up trial
situations
 Sets goals and acts, does not
become bogged down
 Works well independently
Possible Minus
 Does not organize or set goals
 Is too impulsive
 Becomes splintered because of
over involvement
 Doesn’t always take care of loose
ends
 Becomes unbelievable to other
people
 Changes job too quickly
 Is afraid to change relationships
 Hates conflict or hurting people,
so stays the same
 Has good ideas that don’t result in
any real changes
 Desires security of status quo
 Refused to be pushed
 Waits too long for inspiration
 Needs much evidence before
willing to act
 Is too cautious, slow, methodical
 Doesn’t get involved with people
 Becomes easily bogged down in
theory
 Wants too many guarantees
 Takes risks very slowly
 Emphasizes tasks over people
 Finds it difficult to wait for anything
 Is impatient
 Has need to control and do things
alone
 Doesn’t listen enough to others