How does your learning style preference influence your pedagogical choices? Can you use your learning style preferences to be more effective in the classroom? In this session, participants will evaluate their learning styles using the VARK assessment tool, and join an interactive discussion of teaching strategies aligned with preferred styles.
Context
Understanding the student perspective is a critical part of student-centred teaching. At The University of the West Indies, facilitator training incorporates a self-assessment using the VARK questionnaire as a part of a series of self-reflections completed during training. As part of this assessment, facilitators gain experience in incorporating reflective-reflexive practices in their professional development. The exercise allows the facilitators to consider whether their learning style preferences influence their pedagogical choices. Do they unknowingly favour practices that mirror the way they learn, or the way they were taught? Do they experiment with other forms of content presentation as a means to reach students who may not have the same preferences? Are they aware of other ways to present information and guide learning for students who do not match with the established approach to delivery?
What pedagogical choices are you making?
Achievement in online programmes can be enhanced by delivering instruction in a manner consistent with a student’s learning style (Zapalska & Brozki, 2006). However, even if a student learns best in a specific way, using a variety of approaches to learning experiences helps students become more versatile in their reception of information. In the UWI training programme, the use of the VARK assessment tool allows facilitators to explore their own learning preferences, to increase their understanding of how their students learn, and sensitize them with respect to the pedagogical choices made when facilitating learning in an online environment.
The presenters will review findings from the reflections of the more than 600 UWI training participants and challenge audience members to a reflect upon their own pedagogical choices. Are they choosing strategies that reflect their learning styles or that of the students they guide?
To start the interactive process, participants will be asked to participate in a live poll (using polldaddy or a similar product) to identify their “go to” instructional strategy such as lecture, videos, readings, etc. This will give the audience and the presenters and idea of the commonly used pedagogies of the audience.
What learning style do you have?
In online delivery, it is important to consider the differences in learning styles to be an effective teacher. Instructors who understand the types of learners they encounter are better able to adapt their teaching strategies to be more inclusive and create learning environments that maximize the potential for student learning (Zapalska & Brozki, 2006). The VARK questionnaire, developed by Fleming in 1995, has been used repeatedly in higher education as a tool to assess the learning styles of students. The VARK questionnaire focuses on the sensory preferences related to receiving and absorbing information as a measure of determining learning style (Boatman, Courtney, & Lee, 2008). By identifying characteristics related to learners the tool classifies preferences in four categories: Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic. A dominant preference is identified but the tool also recognizes when a student has more than one preference.
While many audience members may have an idea of what their learning style is, participants will be guided through the completion of the VARK questionnaire during the presentation by logging in to VARK-learn.com through their own devices or phones. The presenters will then use a live poll to record the dominant styles of the audience.
Does an instructor’s personal learning style influence his or her pedagogical choices?
Boatman, Courtney, and Lee (2008) conducted a study of professor learning preferences using the VARK inventory to explore whether commonalities in learning preferences between professors and students had an influence on student performance in the context of an introductory economics course. While their results did not show a significant relationship between professor and student learning styles, the results did show a relationship between student learning styles and student performance. However, they concluded that due to the small class size, instructors were able to learn more about their students’ preferences and therefore adapted their teaching approaches to suit student needs.
With an understanding of the dominant learning styles in the audience, the “go to” pedagogical choices identified, the participants will be guided through an interactive discussion of strategies that complement the participants’ styles, and be directed to alternatives that extend their approach to other learning styles.
Goals for this Session
Understanding the mix of learning preferences allows a facilitator to create and maintain a learning environment that is authentic and allows student to explore creative ways to solve problems or interact with the content of the course (Glenn, 2016). Connecting with students by capitalizing on their learning preferences helps motivate learners to actively accept responsibility for their own learning when a professor is not physically present.
The primary goal for this session is to raise awareness of how an instructor’s own learning style can influence their selection of teaching strategies. Through this awareness, an increased sensitivity to the variety of student needs arising from differing learning preferences will be discussed, along with a reflective understanding of embedded biases in choices made by instructors that need to be acknowledged and built upon.
Interactive Techniques to be Used
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Live Interactive Polls - Members of the audience will be queried about their pedagogical preferences, and VARK results to determine any dominant styles in the room.
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VARK - Participants will be guided through the completion of the VARK questionnaire during the presentation by logging in to VARK-learn.com through their own devices or phones.
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Collaborative Discourse - Participants will be guided through an interactive discussion of strategies that complement the participants’ styles, and be directed to alternatives that extend their approach to other learning styles.
References
Boatman, K, Courtney, R, & Lee, W. (2008). ”See how they learn”: The impact of faculty and student learning styles on student performance in introductory economics, The American Economist, 52(1), 39-48.
Glenn, C.W. (2016). Adding the human touch to asynchronous online learning. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 0(0), 1-13. doi: 10.1177/1521025116634104
Zapalska, A., & Brozki, D. (2006). Learning styles and online education, Campus-Wide Information Systems, 23(5), 325-335. doi: 10.1108/10650740610714080