Learning Style Preferences

1
Learning Style Preferences

• Andrew D. Cohen
• University of Minnesota

2

• The learners typical preferences for approaching
  learning.
• While style preferences are relatively stable,
  style-stretching is possible.

3
Summary of Style Preferences

• Sensory Style Preferences
• visual ? ? auditory ? ? hands on
• Cognitive Style Preferences
• abstract-intuitive ? ? concrete-sequential
• global ? ? particular
  
• synthesizing ? ? analytic
• field-dependent ? ? field-independent
• Personality-Related Style Preferences
• extroverted ? ? introverted
• reflective ? ? impulsive
• open ? ? closure-oriented

4
Sensory Style Preferences 

• visual relying more on the sense of sight and
  learn best through visual means (e.g., books,
  video, charts, pictures). Visual
  Vera?
• auditory preferring listening and speaking
  activities (e.g., discussions, debates,
  audiotapes, role-plays, lectures).

5

• hands-on benefiting from doing projects,
  working with objects and moving around.

6

• Cognitive Style Preferences 
• abstract-intuitive future-oriented, enjoying
  abstract thinking, and happy speculating about
  possibilities.
• concrete-sequential present-oriented,
  preferring one-step-at-a-time activities and
  wanting to know where they are going in their
  learning at every moment.

7

• more global enjoying getting the main idea and
  comfortable communicating even without knowing
  all the words or concepts.
• more particular focusing more on details and
  remembering specific information about a topic
  well.
• Particular
  Perry?

8

• more synthesizing summarizing material well and
  noticing similarities quickly.
• more analytic pulling ideas apart, doing well
  on logical analysis and contrast tasks, and
  tending to focus on grammar rules.

9

• more field-dependent needs context in order to
  focus and understand something takes each
  language part one at a time and may have
  difficulty handling all of the parts at one time.
  
• more field-independent able to keep a sense of
  the whole while handling all the individual parts
  as well without being distracted

10

• Personality-Related
• Style Preferences 
• extroverted enjoying a wide range of social,
  interactive learning tasks (e.g., games,
  conversations, debates, role-plays, simulations).
• Extroverted Ellie?
• introverted preferring more independent work
  (e.g., studying or reading by oneself or learning
  with the computer) or enjoying working with, say,
  one other person.
• Introverted Iris?

11

• more reflective processes material at a low
  speed with high accuracy avoids risks and
  guessing
• more impulsive processes material at a high
  speed with low accuracy often takes risks and
  guesses

12

• keeping all options open enjoying discovery
  learning where information is picked up naturally
  and where learning doesnt involve a concern for
  deadlines or rules.
• Open-Oriented
  Oliver?
• closure-oriented focusing carefully on all
  learning tasks and seek clarity, meeting
  deadlines, planning ahead for assignments and
  staying organized, and wanting explicit
  directions and decisions.

13

• A Learning Style Survey Assessing Your Own
  Learning Styles by Andrew D. Cohen, Rebecca L.
  Oxford, Julie C. Chi (2001) downloadable from
  the CARLA website at
• http//www.carla.umn.edu/about/profiles/Cohen
• This measure was informed by earlier work
  conducted by Rebecca Oxford, Madeline Ehrman, and
  Betty Lou Leaver

14
Concerns about Styles

• Are the descriptions of style too vague and
  superficial?
• How certain that assessing the style constructs
  through measures? What if the characteristic is
  more an ability than a style preference?
• And what if a person comes out in the middle on a
  dichotomous measure?
• Asking learners to self-report about their style
  preferences isnt as valuable as actually giving
  them performance tasks where their style
  preferences emerge.
• See Ch. 5, Learning styles and cognitive styles
  in Dörnyei (2005) on individual differences.

15

• Oxford, R. L. (1993). Style Analysis Survey. In
  J. Reid (Ed.) (1995). Learning styles in the
  ESL/EFL classroom (pp. 208-215). Boston Heinle
  Heinle.
• Ehrman, M. E. Leaver, B. L. (1997). Sorting our
  global and analytic functions in second language
  learning. Paper presented at the American
  Association for Applied Linguistics annual
  meeting, Orlando, FL, March 8-11, 1997.
• Ehrman, M. E. Leaver, B. L. (2001). EL
  Questionnaire.
• Ehrman, M. Leaver, B. L. (2003). Cognitive
  styles in the service of language learning.
  System, 31(3), 313-330.
• Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the
  language learner. Mahwah, NJ Lawrence Erlbaum.

16
Teacher-Learner Style Conflicts in the Classroom

• The teacher is more analytic, reflective, and
  auditory, while the learner is more global,
  impulsive, and visual,
• The teacher is more open-oriented, while the
  learner is more closure-oriented,
• The teacher is more concrete-sequential, while
  the learner is more random-intuitive,

17

• The teacher is more concrete-sequential, visual,
  and reflective, while the learner is more
  random-intuitive, auditory, and impulsive,
• The teacher is more extroverted and hands-on,
  while the learner is more introverted and visual.
  
• From Oxford, R. L. Lavine, R. Z. (1992).
  Teacher-student style wars in the language
  classroom Research insights and suggestions.
  ADFL Bulletin, 23 (2), 38-45.

18
To avoid or resolve such conflicts

• Assessment of students' and teachers' styles and
  use of this information in understanding
  classroom dynamics,
• Changes in the teacher's instructional style,
• Style-stretching by students,
• Changes in the way group work is done in the
  classroom,
• Changes in the curriculum,
• Changes in the way style conflicts are viewed.