Learning Styles

The four stages of the ELM are the polar points of the two learning dimensions. The four stages are: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. Kolb has assigned titles to the learning styles in each group. For example, divergers prefer concrete reflective learning situations. Convergers do best in abstract active learning situations, and so on with the assimilators and accommodators. Prior research has associated the learning styles with psychological attributes, choices of academic majors, preferences for certain types of instructional styles, and choices of vocations.

Kolb ( 1985) has developed an instrument, the Learning Style Inventory, which is an update from an earlier instrument, to measure the learning styles of individuals. Prior research by Kolb and others has shown an association between the states of the learning cycle and the type of instructional strategy that is most effective in that state.

Is this kind of teaching successful? It is if the teaching is auditory and the student's learning modality is auditory, if the teaching is visual and the student is visual, if the teaching is tactile-kinesthetic and the student is tactile-kinesthetic. It is if the teaching matches the student's learning preference - affective, perceptive, symbolic, or behavioral -or if the student has a happy combination of all of these learning styles. If not, the odds against success increase dramatically. In fact, higher education administrators and instructors responsible for the success of their teaching efforts can no longer afford to assume that all students will learn through whichever strategy the teacher prefers to use. Why gamble with the potential success of a teaching effort? For the student who has been unsuccessful with previous teaching styles, learning is a misery, and there is little chance that in the next course or class the student will suddenly adjust his or her learning style or even be capable of adjusting.

As noted earlier, work by others has shown that Kolb's ( 1984) ELM and accompanying learning styles ( 1985) can assist those interested in better understanding individual learning differences. Like Kolb's work on learning styles, the work of Sperry, Gazzaniga and Bogen ( 1969) on brain hemisphericity and thinking styles can also prove beneficial to the higher education instructors in better understanding learning differences and their effect on learning and the learning process.

Higher education instructors can enhance learning in their teaching initiatives by understanding that like learning styles, each thinking style has its own strengths and weaknesses and students can benefit by knowing and consciously using the side of their brain that is best equipped for certain kinds of tasks. What does all this mean to the higher education instructor?

The faculty can improve teaching effectiveness and learner productivity by taking note of their own thinking styles and sharing this information with each other and students. "With this information, instructors can better understand what inhibits, frustrates, or promotes learning. Knowledge of learning styles or whole-brain thinking can assist individuals in becoming more flexible and effective in teaching, both in and out of the classroom.

To meet the learning needs of students, instructors must consider their own teaching methods. Teachers must develop and use teaching methodologies that will effectively teach to all four learning styles and both right and left brain modes. Right-brained students may need to have more outlines and more structure in their teaching or learning experiences. Left-brained students may need to have more unstructured teaching experiences.

Higher education instructors must take stock of their own and students'learning skills and, if abilities in any one of the learning styles or on either side of the brain are lacking, seek to develop them to reach their fullest potential and assist students to do so as well. Students should also increase their understanding of the available learning or teaching methods.