Evaluating Learning Styles
- research: evaluating learning styles
- hypothesis: presentation of material should match learner’s style
- rejected - no evidence to prove this
- learners have style preferences, but outcomes are the same regardless of style
- why are learning styles so popular?
- people like to fit a type - identity
- people want to be seen as individuals
- not like everyone else, just like a set of people
- ‘i’d learn better if this was tailored to me’
- individual differences and assessment
- people have study preferences
- predict the choices students make when choices are given
- desirable differences
- need to distinguish preferences from aptitudes (academic ability to learn)
- we have differences in prior knowledge that can make using different methods more / less effective
- related research
- aptitude-by-treatment interactions
- hypothesis: high aptitude students do better in loosely structured activities than low aptitude students (not conclusive results)
- personality-by-treatment interactions
- hypothesis: students w an internal locus of control benefit more from less structured lessons than those w external loc
- not clear why / which aspects of the lesson
- alternatives to iq
- multiple intelligences - howard gardner
- studied savants
- instead of general intelligence, we have different strengths and weaknesses
- robert sternburg - triarchic theory
- analytical: academic, problem solving
- practical: everyday tasks
- creative: generating new ideas