Special

topics 3:
Unit2.
Learners and
their
Learning
 REPORTERS

Reynel M. Libresse Jean

Sheryn Joy C. Lauren
Cabe Chaves
Montano
Antonette
A. Jayme
Remy C.
martin Rench S.
Canada
Agenda
A. Define learning styles
B. Different learning styles and models
1. Davide kolb’s Models
2. Peter honey and Alan Mumford’s models
3. Learning Modalities
4. Neil Fleming’s VAK\VARK Models
5. Anthony Gregorc’s models
6. Cognitive Approaches
7. National Association of Secondary School Principals’ (NASSP)
model
Introduction
• A learner is an individual who is willing to learn and understand
new things. Learning is a process of understanding and
acquiring knowledge of new things and concepts. An individual
can be a learner at any point in time they want.
• Creating and improvising opportunities to involve students in
the learning process allows students to become aware of how
they learn and why certain skills benefit them. As a result,
students are motivated and more likely to apply those skills
when working independently.
 Define learning styles
• Learning styles refer to a range of theories that aim to account
for differences in individuals' learning. Although there is ample
evidence that individuals express personal preferences on how
they prefer to receive information, few studies have found
validity in using learning styles in education.
• Many theories share the proposition that humans can be
classified according to their "style" of learning, but differ on
how the proposed styles should be defined, categorized and
assessed. A common concept is that individuals differ in how
they learn.
Different learning styles and
models
• A learning style includes the various methods that students use to
understand and remember information.
• The four key learning styles include visual, auditory, kinesthetic and
reading and writing.
• The visual learning style involves uncovering the relationship between
two topics visually through mind maps, graphs and charts. Visual
learners may be asked to rewrite words with symbols or icons when
taking notes
• The auditory learning style includes discussing ideas in class and using
debates or peer interaction as a way to digest material. Auditory
learners may be encouraged to record their summarized notes and
listen to this file when studying.
• The kinesthetic learning style supports a hands-on approach to
education. Here, students rely on tactile experiences such as
dissections or experiments to understand new concepts.
Kinesthetic learners may want to connect class concepts to
real-world scenarios in their field of study.
• Finally, the reading and writing learning style involves putting
pen to paper and asking students to complete essays or written
case studies. Learners who benefit from reading and writing
may benefit from making lists and designing multiple choice
quizzes from their notes.
David Kolb's model
• David A. Kolb's model is based on his experiential learning
model, as explained in his book Experiential Learning. Kolb's
model outlines two related approaches toward grasping
experience: Concrete Experience and Abstract
Conceptualization, as well as two related approaches toward
transforming experience: Reflective Observation and Active
Experimentation.
• According to Kolb's model, the ideal learning process engages
all four of these modes in response to situational demands;
they form a learning cycle from experience to observation to
conceptualization to experimentation and back to experience.
• In order for learning to be
effective, Kolb postulated, all
four of these approaches must
be incorporated. As individuals
attempt to use all four
approaches, they may tend to
develop strengths in one
experience-grasping approach
and one experience-
transforming approach, leading
them to prefer one of the
following four learning styles:
1. Accommodator = Concrete Experience + Active Experiment:
strong in "hands-on" practical doing (e.g., physical therapists)
2. Converger = Abstract Conceptualization + Active Experiment:
strong in practical "hands-on" application of theories (e.g.,
engineers)
3. Diverger = Concrete Experience + Reflective Observation: strong
in imaginative ability and discussion (e.g., social workers)
4. Assimilator = Abstract Conceptualization + Reflective
Observation: strong in inductive reasoning and creation of
theories (e.g., philosophers)
• Kolb's model gave rise to the Learning Style Inventory, an
assessment method used to determine an individual's learning
style. According to this model, individuals may exhibit a
preference for one of the four styles—Accommodating,
Converging, Diverging and Assimilating—depending on their
approach to learning in Kolb's experiential learning model.
Peter Honey and Alan
Mumford's model
• Peter Honey and Alan Mumford adapted Kolb's experiential
learning model. First, they renamed the stages in the learning cycle
to accord with managerial experiences: having an experience,
reviewing the experience, concluding from the experience, and
planning the next steps. Second, they aligned these stages to four
learning styles named.

1. Activist
2. Reflector
3. Theorist
4. Pragmatist
• These learning styles are not innate to an individual but rather
are developed based on an individual's experiences and
preferences. Based on this model, the Honey and Mumford's
Learning Styles Questionnaire (LSQ) was developed to allow
individuals to assess and reflect on how they consume
information and learn from their experiences.
• It serves as an alternative to Kolb's LSI as it directly asks about
common behaviors found in the workplace compared to
judging how an individual learns. Having completed the self-
assessment, managers are encouraged to focus on
strengthening underutilized styles in order to become better
equipped to learn from a wide range of everyday experiences.
• A MORI survey commissioned by The Campaign for Learning in
1999 found the Honey and Mumford LSQ to be the most widely
used system for assessing preferred learning styles in the local
government sector in the UK.[
 Learning modalities
• Walter Burke Barbe and colleagues proposed three learning
modalities (often identified by the acronym VAK):

1. Visualizing modality
2. Auditory modality
3. Kinesthetic modality
Descriptions of learning modalities
Visual Kinesthetic/ Auditory
tactile
Picture Gestures Listening

Shape Body Rhythms

movements
Sculpture Object Tone
manipulation
Paintings Positioning Chants

Shows the different modalities for learners,

and their overlap in terms of how people learn
best. Follows the VAK model.
• Barbe and colleagues reported that learning modality strengths
can occur independently or in combination (although the most
frequent modality strengths, according to their research, are
visual or mixed), they can change over time, and they become
integrated with age.
• They also pointed out that learning modality strengths are
different from preferences; a person's self-reported modality
preference may not correspond to their empirically measured
modality strength. This disconnect between strengths and
preferences was confirmed by a subsequent study.
Nevertheless, some scholars have criticized the VAK model.
• Psychologist Scott Lilienfeld and colleagues have argued that
much use of the VAK model is nothing more than
pseudoscience or a psychological urban legend.
Neil Fleming's VAK/VARK model
• Neil Fleming's VARK model and inventory expanded upon earlier
notions of sensory modalities such as the VAK model of Barbe and
colleagues and the representational systems (VAKOG) in neuro-linguistic
programming. The four sensory modalities in Fleming's model are:

1. Visual learning
2. Aural learning
3. Reading/writing learning
4. Kinesthetic learning
• Fleming claimed that visual learners have a preference for
seeing (visual aids that represent ideas using methods other
than words, such as graphs, charts, diagrams, symbols, etc.).
Subsequent neuroimaging research has suggested that visual
learners convert words into images in the brain and vice versa,
but some psychologists have argued that this "is not an
instance of learning styles, rather, it is an instance of ability
appearing as a style".
• Likewise, Fleming claimed that auditory learners best learn
through listening (lectures, discussions, tapes, etc.), and
tactile/kinesthetic learners prefer to learn via experience—
moving, touching, and doing (active exploration of the world,
science projects, experiments, etc.).
• Students can use the model and inventory to identify their
preferred learning style and, it is claimed, improve their
learning by focusing on the mode that benefits them the most.
Fleming's model also posits two types of multimodality. This
means that not everyone has one defined preferred modality
of learning; some people may have a mixture that makes up
their preferred learning style.
• There are two types of multimodality learners: VARK type one
learners are able to assimilate their learning style to those
around them. VARK type two learners need to receive input or
output in all of their preferred styles. They will continue to
work until all preferred learning areas have been met.
 Gregorc & Butler's model
• Anthony Gregorc and Kathleen Butler organized a model describing
different learning styles rooted in the way individuals acquire and
process information differently. This model posits that an
individual's perceptual abilities are the foundation of his or her
specific learning strengths, or learning styles.
• In this model, there are two perceptual qualities: concrete and
abstract, and two ordering abilities: random and sequential.
Concrete perceptions involve registering information through the
five senses, while abstract perceptions involve the understanding of
ideas, qualities, and concepts which cannot be seen.
• In regard to the two ordering abilities, sequential
ordering involves the organization of information in a
linear, logical way, and random ordering involves the
organization of information in chunks and in no specific
order.
• The model posits that both of the perceptual qualities
and both of the ordering abilities are present in each
individual, but some qualities and ordering abilities are
more dominant within certain individuals.
• There are four combinations of perceptual qualities and
ordering abilities based on dominance: concrete
sequential, abstract random, abstract sequential, and
concrete random.
The model posits that individuals with different
combinations learn in different ways—they have
different strengths, different things make sense to
them, different things are difficult for them, and they
ask different questions throughout the learning
process.
 Cognitive approaches
• Anthony Grasha and Sheryl Riechmann, in 1974,
formulated the Grasha-Reichmann Learning Style Scale.
It was developed to analyze the attitudes of students
and how they approach learning. The test was originally
designed to provide teachers with insight on how to
approach instructional plans for college students.
• Grasha's background was in cognitive processes and
coping techniques. Unlike some models of cognitive
styles which are relatively nonjudgmental, Grasha and
Riechmann distinguish between adaptive and
maladaptive styles.
The names of Grasha and Riechmann's learning
styles are:
Aiming to explain why aptitude
tests, school grades, and
• avoidant classroom performance often fail
• participative to identify real ability, Robert
Sternberg listed various cognitive
• competitive dimensions in his book Thinking
• collaborative Styles. Several other models are
• dependent also often used when researching
cognitive styles; some of these
• independent models are described in books
that Sternberg co-edited, such as
Perspectives on Thinking,
Learning, and Cognitive Styles.
NASSP model
• In the 1980s, the National Association of
Secondary School Principals (NASSP) formed a task
force to study learning styles.
• The task force defined three broad categories of
style—cognitive, affective, and physiological—and
31 variables, including the perceptual strengths
and preferences from the VAK model of Barbe and
colleagues, but also many other variables such as
need for structure, types of motivation, time of
day preferences, and so on.
• They defined a learning style as "a gestalt—not an
amalgam of related characteristics but greater than any
of its parts. It is a composite of internal and external
operations based in neurobiology, personality, and human
development and reflected in learner behavior.
• Cognitive styles are preferred ways of perception,
organization and retention.
• Affective styles represent the motivational dimensions of
the learning personality; each learner has a personal
motivational approach.
• Physiological styles are bodily states or predispositions,
including sex-related differences, health and nutrition,
and reaction to physical surroundings, such as
preferences for levels of light, sound, and temperature.
• According to the NASSP task force, styles are
hypothetical constructs that help to explain the
learning (and teaching) process.
• They posited that one can recognize the learning
style of an individual student by observing his or her
behavior.
• Learning has taken place only when one observes a
relatively stable change in learner behavior resulting
from what has been experienced.
References
• https://www.teachmint.com/glossary/w/what-is-lear
ner/#:~:text=A%20learner%20is%20an%20individ
ual,the%20learning%20of%20the%20learner
.
• https://www.ldonline.org/ld-topics/teaching-instruct
ion/include-students-learning-process#:~:text=Cre
ating%20and%20improvising%20opportunities%2
0to,those%20skills%20when%20working%20indep
endently
.
• https://tophat.com/glossary/l/learning-style/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles
Thank you