Diverse Student Learning Styles

STYLE refers to a certain manner or way of doing something which is typical or representative of a person. In the context of educational psychology, learning style is a student’s characteristic behaviour of giving attention and performance to process and acquire information, knowledge, or new experience. Peterson interpreted learning style as a preferred approach to learning by a student. As Gregore asserted, every individual is born with their own learning style. He even said that family inheritance and the environment play important roles in formulating an individual’s learning style. Sex, age, personality, parents’ way of nurturing, community culture, and the school are also integrated into learning styles.

According to Slavin, learning styles can be distinguished into two main categories: dependent learning style and independent learning style. Students who are dependent learners emphasize all patterns of cognitive learning and accept them totally. They perceive a situation or pattern in an overall manner; accept a general opinion; count on their extrinsic motivation for learning activity; are sensitive towards others’ opinions or advice; are willing to be led by people who praise them highly; do not have the initiative to learn, depending a lot on the motivation and instruction of teachers; are unable to determine the learning objective on their own; and possess the attitude of following order as well as learn whatever is taught with no question. Those learners prefer to learn together with their peer group in smaller units. The suitable instructional strategies for them are class teaching, demonstration, lecture, and group activities.

On the other hand, students who are independent learners place the importance of detailed analysis in every section of learning materials. Apparently enough, they make perceptions analytically; are interested in determining the learning objective on their own terms; are not sensitive towards others’ opinions or devices; possess intrinsic motivation; are able to manage their own learning; have critical and creative thinking skills; and learn on their own initiative. Those learners prefer to learn and think of problems all by themselves. Hence, the appropriate teaching strategies for them are experiment study, inquiry-discovery and problem-solving.

By Murnford and Honey, learning styles are divided into four major types: activist, reflectivist, theorist, and pragmatist. Firstly, activist learners involve themselves actively and aggressively in their learning activities. They possess important and hasty attitudes; have strong, inquisitive instincts, especially towards new things in the environment; move fast and quickly to respond; like to search for new experiences through individual effort to achieve the goal; are very energetic, flexible and open-minded; are of strong intrinsic motivation and often take initiative to solve problems themselves; and hold critical and creative thinking skills. They even involve themselves in such activities as practical training, sports, games, and co-curricular activities. Thus, the good teaching strategies for them are inquiry-discovery learning, project, problem-solving, practical work, class discussion, brainstorming, buzz session, simulation, and role-playing.

Secondly, reflectivist learners tend to observe, think and make their own reflections on what is being perceived in the environment. They also possess critical and creative thinking skills; like to interpret and evaluate a certain concept, principle, conclusion, or project all by means of their own reflection; are given to search for universal truths; have got cautions, alert attitude and always think carefully of various alternatives for problem-solving; are good listeners but slow to response; learn and work in a systematic way; and do not make a decision or conclusion hastily. Those learners enjoy taking up subjects such as history or language and involve themselves in project activities or outdoor research work. As such, the proper strategies for instruction to them are problem-solving, inquiry-discovery activity, project, and discussion.

Thirdly, theorist learners wish to use principles and theories to derive generalizations or conclusions. They possess rational and logical thinking, disciplined attitude, and objective character; they are not creative but emphasize the use of the left brain to process information, like to design hypotheses, test them and draw conclusions based on concrete evidence and proofs, like tracing the cause and effect of how an event occurs; and are interested in studying the occurrence of phenomena in the surroundings. These learners usually study mathematics, science, logic, geography, and history. The essential strategies for teaching them are induction and deduction methods, the exchange of opinion through discussion, and the collection of data to analyze or interpret so as to derive a conclusion through research study.

Fourthly, pragmatist learners possess a practical attitude and emphasize facts or truths based on the existing theory, law or principle. They give special emphasis to the application of those existing theories, laws or principles in real-life situations. They adopt practical approaches, earnest and down-to-earth; emphasize facts, proofs, and truths as the learning objective; believe that seeing is better than hearing; lay emphasis on how to use and use a certain thing; are more expressive than creative; and like to make comparisons. Also, such learners tend to use concrete materials to carry out learning activities. The nice instruction strategies for them are practical activities, a material-centred strategy that includes electronic materials, charts, and diagrams, and a deductive method that involves the application of specific examples in the actual situation.

By examining the six learning styles mentioned above, a teacher will be able to draw a lesson plan based on these styles. Alternatively, student learning styles can be included in teachers’ instructional methods in accordance with the nature of subjects. Of course, it would be best if the student’s learning style and subject nature match teaching methods. Besides, a student’s learning styles should be encouraged through the whole teaching process as much as possible. Above all, the greatest expectation regarding learning styles is that a student has become an independent learner from a dependent one.

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