Types of Learning and Learning Styles

OBJECTIVES
After 1.5 hrs. of active and interactive student-teacher discussion and interaction the BSN level 1 students will be able to gain
beginning knowledge, skills, and attitude in the concept Types of Learning and Learning styles.

Specifically, the BSN 2 students will be able to:

1. Integrate common concepts of cognitive theories

• Learning
• Intelligence
• Metacognition
• Memory
• Transfer
2. Differentiate pedagogy from andragogy 3. Identify types of learners.
4. Cite Learning Styles Models
5. Appreciate the types of Learning and Learning Styles.

Common Concepts of Cognitive Theories

1. Learning
2. Intelligence

3. Metacognition

4. Memory

5. Transfer
1. Learning

▪ The acquisition of knowledge and skills that change a person’s behavior (behaviorist) ▪ Acquisition of
knowledge than on the resulting behavior change (cognitive theory) ▪ “The process whereby novices become
more expert” (Breur, 1993)
✔Has led to the belief that learning does not follow the same principles and path in
every circumstance
✔The amount of knowledge and understanding you already possess on a subject will have a
tremendous influence on what and how you learn (domain-specific learning)
2. Metacognition

▪ Thinking about one’s thinking

▪ A process learners use to gauge their thinking while reading, studying, trying to learn, or problem-solving

▪ Metacognitive skills:
✔Analysis of what the learning task involves ✔Planning an approach to the task
✔Reflecting on the material learned
✔Monitoring learning progress

▪ Some people are intelligent novices

3. Intelligence

▪ An innate ability that predicts success in learning

▪ Multiple Intelligences (Gardner, 1992)

1. Linguistic – sensitivity to and mastery of words and language

2. Logical-Mathematical – reasoning deductively and recognizing abstract patterns
3. Spatial – creating and manipulating mental images
4. Aural-auditory/Musical – understanding and creating music
5. Bodily-Kinesthetic – skilled coordination of movement and awareness of
the body
6. Interpersonal – understanding relationships and communication
7. Intrapersonal – understanding one’s own feelings and emotions
Visual Learners
• they tend to see positive educational outcomes when they are
presented with summarizing charts and diagrams rather than sequential slides of
information

Auditory Learners
• often find success in group activities where they are asked to discuss course
materials vocally with their classmates, and they may benefit from reading their written
work aloud to themselves to help them think it through.

Reading/Writing Learners
• Reading/writing-oriented students should be encouraged to take copious notes during classroom
lectures to help them both process information and have an easier time recalling it later.

Kinesthetic Learners
• Because of their active nature, kinesthetic learners often have the most difficult time
succeeding in conventional classroom settings.
• Some educators have found success encouraging kinesthetic learners to utilize flashcards for subjects like
math and English to make note memorization into an interactive experience.

Kinesthetic Learners
• These students also often thrive in scientific subjects with lab components, as the
skills-based, instructional training that occurs in these settings engages them in productive ways.

▪ Theory of Successful Intelligence (Sternberg, 2003)

⮚The ability to be successful in life within the person’s own culture and based on the person’s goals

⮚ Subsets:
✔Analytical Intelligence
✔Creative intelligence
✔Practical intelligence

❑ Summary of the Relationship between Intelligence and Metacognition as Predictors of Learning

❖ Metacognition is part of intelligence, therefore, state that intelligence alone is the best predictor of learning

❖Intellectual ability and metacognitive ability are not related and are separate predictors of
learning

❖There is a mixed model in which metacognitive ability is related to intelligence to some degree

4. Memory

▪ There is a consolidation function in the memory process

o Items are stationed in memory
OTypical Retention/ Forgetting Curve
 • The more we connect new information to old, the more we ruminate over new information.
• The more frequently we recall and think about it, the more long-lasting it will be.

ACTIVITY
The following is a list of 10 words. Read and study them for a minute, then recite them for 10 seconds.

Tree Battery

Closet Lake

Food Book

Road Chicken

Boy Chair

• Chunking

❖ Chunks – formed when information is clustered into patterns

❖ If you were to form chunks by grouping the words in some meaningful way, you remember even more.

E.g. Boy, Chicken, Tree (living things), Closet, Chair (elements of a house), Food, Book (things you desperately need) Battery,
Road, Lake (you need a battery in your car to ride the road that takes you to the lake)
• Forgetting

▪ Reasons:
✔Weakening of networks in the brain ✔New memories interfere with
old ones ✔Not having the right stimulus or cue ✔Intent to learn partly
5. Transfer

▪ The ability to take the information learned in one situation and apply it to another ▪ Factors to
successful transfer:
1. The extent to which the material was originally learned
2. The ability to retrieve information from memory
3. The way in which the material was taught and learned
4. The setting in which the material was taught and learned
5. The similarity of the new situation to the original

A Model of Adult Learning

• Malcolm Knowles (1984)

• Adopted the term andragogy to differentiate the teaching of adults from pedagogy, the teaching of
children

PEDAGOGY ANDRAGOGY

Need to know why they

Need to know Learn what the teacher need to learn something
wants them to learn

Self-concept Perception of being dependent Feel responsible for their

on the teacher for learning own learning

Role of experience The teacher’s experience, not Adults learn from each
the children’s, is what counts other’s experience

Readiness to learn Must be ready when the teacher Ready to learn when they
says they must or they will not feel the need to know
be promoted

Orientation to learning Subject-centered orientation Life-centered or task-centered orientation

 Motivation Externally motivated Primarily internally
motivated, with some
external motivation

Learning Prepositions with Which Most Psychologists will Agree

1. “Behaviors which are rewarded (reinforced) are more likely to occur.”

2. “Sheer repetition without indications of improvement or any kind of reinforcement is a poor way to attempt to
learn.”
3. “Threat and punishment have variable and uncertain effects upon learning; they may make the punished response
more likely or less likely to recur; they may set up avoidance tendencies which prevent further learning.”
4. Reward (reinforcement) to be most effective in learning, must follow almost immediately after the
desired behavior and be clearly connected with that behavior in the mind of the learner.”

5. “Learners progress in any area of learning only as far as they need to in order to achieve their
purposes. Often they do well enough to ‘get by’; with increased motivation, they improve.”
6. “Forgetting proceeds rapidly at first– then more and more slowly; recall shortly after learning reduces the amount
forgotten.”
7. “Learning from reading is facilitated more by time spent recalling what has been read than by rereading.”
8. The best way to help pupils form a general concept is to present the concept in numerous ways and varied
situations, contrasting experiences, with and without the concept, then to encourage precise formulations of the
general idea and its application in situations different from those in which the concept was learned.”
9. “When children and adults experience too much frustration, their behavior ceases to be integrated, purposeful, and rational.
➢ Blindly they act out their rage, discouragement, or withdrawal.
➢ The threshold of what is ‘too much’ varies;
➢ it is lowered by previous failures.”
10.“No school subjects are markedly superior to others for ‘strengthening mental powers.”
➢ General improvement as a result of a study in any subject depends on instruction
designed to build up generalizations about principles, concept formation, and
improvements of techniques of study, thinking, and communication.”
11. “What is learned is most likely to be available for use if it is learned in a situation much like that in
which it is to be used and immediately preceding the time when it is needed.”
12. “Children (and adults even more)… remember new information which confirms their previous
attitudes better than they remember new information which runs counter to their previous attitudes.”
13. “Adults need to know the need to learn something before undertaking to learn it.”

TYPES OF LEARNING

Gagne’s Conditions of Learning (1970)

1. Signal Learning (conditioned response)

▪ The person develops a general diffuse reaction to a stimulus
2. Stimulus-Response Learning
▪ Involves developing a voluntary response to a specific stimulus or a combination of stimuli
3. Chaining

▪ The acquisition of a series of related conditioned responses or stimulus-response connections

4. Verbal Association

▪ A type of chaining that is easily recognized in the process of learning medical terminology.

5. Discrimination Learning

▪ The process wherein the person has to be able to discriminate large numbers of stimulus-response or
verbal chains
6. Concept Learning

▪ Learning how to classify stimuli into groups represented by a common concept

7. Rule Learning

▪ Rule – considered a chain of concepts or a relationship between concepts

8. Problem Solving

▪ To solve problems, the learner must have a clear idea of the problem or goal being sought
and must be able to recall and apply previously learned rules that relate to the
situation

▪ A process of formulating and testing hypotheses

LEARNING STYLES

Learning Style – a habitual manner in which learners receive and perceive new information,
process it, understand it, value it, store it, and recall it.

Learning Style Models

Holistic (Global) Thinkers

▪ Want to get the whole picture quickly or get the gist of things

▪ Want to see broad categories before the details

▪ Process information simultaneously rather than in a step-by-step manner

▪ Need to see how new information connects to what they already know and value

▪ Retain an overall or global view of information

Analytic Thinkers

▪ Process the details of a picture, outlining the component parts in a logical progression

▪ Perceive information in an objective manner and do not need to connect it to their personal
values or experiences
Verbal Approach

▪ Represent, in their brains, the information they read, see, or hear in terms of words or verbal
associations

Visual Approach

▪ Experience information they read, see, or hear in terms of mental pictures or images

Kolb’s Theory of Experiential Learning

▪ 4 abilities for learning effectively:

1. Abstract Conceptualization (AC) abilities: Creating theories to explain what is seen

2. Concrete Experience (CE) abilities: Learning from actual experience

3. Active Experimentation (AE) abilities: Using theories to solve problems
4. Reflective Observation (RO) abilities: Learning by observing others
Kolb’s Learning Style

…Kolb’s Theory of Experiential Learning

4 Learning Styles

1. Converger
▪ learns by Abstract Conceptualization(AC) and Active Experimentation (AE)
▪ Is good at decision-making and problem-solving and likes dealing with technical work rather than interpersonal
relationships

2. Diverger
▪ Stresses Concrete Experience(CE) and Reflective Observation(RO)
▪ Excels in imagination and awareness of meaning ▪ Is feeling-oriented and people-oriented and likes
working in groups
3. Accommodator

▪ Relies heavily on Concrete Experience (CE) and Active Experimentation (AE)

▪ Likes to actively accomplish things, often using trial-and-error methods to solve problems
▪ May be impatient with other people
▪ Acts on intuition and is a risk taker
4. Assimilator

▪ Emphasizes Abstract Conceptualization (AC) and Reflective Observation (RO) ▪ Strengths are in
inductive reasoning, creating theoretical models, and integrating ideas

▪ Prefers playing with ideas to actively applying them

▪ More concerned with ideas than with people

ACTIVITY

• Let's imagine that you are going to learn how to drive a car:
A. Begin learning via reflection by observing other people as they drive.
B. Begin learning by reading and analyzing a driving instruction book.
C. Just jump right in and get behind the seat of a car to practice driving on a test course.

Gregorc’s Cognitive Styles Model

▪ The mind has the mediation abilities of perception and order: that is, the perception and
ordering of knowledge affect how the person learns

❖ Perception ability – the way you grasp incoming stimuli; on a continuum ranging from
abstractness to concreteness

❖Ordering ability – the way you arrange and systematize incoming stimuli; on a continuum from
sequence to randomness

…Gregorc’s Cognitive Styles Model

4 Mediation Channels

1. Concrete Sequential (CS)

2. Concrete Random (CR)
3. Abstract Sequential (AS)
4. Abstract Random (AR)

…Gregorc’s Cognitive Styles Model

Concrete Sequential Learners

▪ Like highly structured, quiet learning environments, and do not like being interrupted
▪ Often focus on details

▪ Like concrete learning materials, especially those that are visual

▪ May interpret words literally

Concrete Random

▪ Intuitive, use trial-and-error methods and look for alternatives

 ▪ Tend to order new information mentally into a three-dimensional pattern

Abstract Sequential

▪ Holistic thinkers who seek understanding of incoming information

▪ Need consistency in the learning environment and do not like interruptions ▪ Have good verbal skills and are logical and
rational
Abstract Random

▪ Think holistically and benefit greatly from visual stimuli

▪ Like busy, unstructured learning environments and are often focused on personal relationships

Field-Independent/ Dependent Model

▪ A cognitive style model associated primarily with Herman Witkin (1976)
✔ identified a continuum of perception that ranges from field-independent style in which items are perceived
relatively independent of their surrounding field, and a field-dependent style in which a person has difficulty
perceiving items aside from their surrounding field
❖Field-Dependent Style- more global
❖Field-Independent Style – more analytical

Differences Between Field-Independent and Field-Dependent Learning Styles

Field Independent Field Dependent

Mathematical reasoning may be strong More difficulty with

mathematical reasoning

Analyzes the elements of a situation Analyzes the whole picture; less able to
analyze the elements

Recognizes and recalls details Does not perceive details

More task oriented More people oriented

Forms attitudes independently Attitudes guided by authority figures or peer

group

More pronounced self-identity See themselves as others see them

Matching Learning Styles to Instruction

❖ Some students have shown increased levels of student achievement when learners with a strong preference for a certain
style were matched with a similar teaching or testing style
❖ More student satisfaction when the teacher matches the student’s learning style, but some have not

How Useful is Learning Style

Many are still skeptical about the usefulness of learning style theory at this point in its development