Jennifer Lesh, Tricia Clarke, and Jennie TrocchioBarry University

Florida ASCD Conference, 2009

PURPOSEThis study investigates the relationship among variables pertaining to the learning and teaching

process in graduate level education students.

Just as each person is a unique individual, each

person has his/her own unique methods of processing and taking in new information, or

his/her own preferred learning styles (Felder & Silverman, 1988).

The purpose it to explore if education majors teach the same way they learn.

In 1988, Richard Felder and Linda Silverman developed a learning-style model which

classifies the ways in which students receive and process information according to four

dimensions.

Sensing/Intuitive

Visual/Verbal

Active/Reflective

Sequential/Global

Why are Learning Styles Important?

Most of the studies by Felder and Silverman focused on Engineering students.

Felder and Silverman did not find a match with

professors’ teaching styles to students’ learning styles.

Changing the way that teachers present material to accommodate many learning

styles, the quality of learning will increase dramatically,

(Felder & Silverman, 1988).

Teaching StylesHow do we think that we teach?

Zhang and Sternberg (2002) developed the Thinking Styles Inventory For Teachers, The Teaching Style

Questionnaire.

This teaching style questionnaire measures seven styles of thinking as they pertain to teaching.

Thinking styles: Legislative Executive

Judicial

Liberal Conservative Local Global

Teaching Styles and Learning Styles: Why is this connection important?

Self-Awareness of one’s own teaching style can increase efforts to enhance student learning,

(Zhang & Sternberg, 2000).

According to Zhang and Sternberg (2002), knowledge about the relationship between teaching styles and learning styles can be

beneficial to teacher training.

Participants in this study included 95 graduate level students from various

programs in the School of Education at Barry University.

According to U.S. News & World Report (2009), Barry University, Miami Shores,

Florida was ranked 11th (Diversity index-.64) among best colleges for

racial diversity.

______________________________________________________________________________n__________%________________Gender Female 77 81.1 Male 18 18.9Ethnic Group Black 43 45.3 Hispanic 24 25.3 White 23 24.2 Other 5 5.3______________________________________________________

Demographic Information

Demographic Information cont.____________________________________________________________________ _n_________&__________Age 19-25 14 14.7 26-35 28 29.5 36-45 33 34.7 46+ 19 20.0

_____________________________________________

Demographic Information cont._____________________________________________________________________________n______%____

Program Educational/Curriculum Leadership 31 32.6 Exceptional Student Education 29 30.5 Reading 21 22.1 Elementary Education 14 14.8__________________________________________

Demographic Information cont._______________________________________________________________________________n__________%________________Currently Teaching Yes 70 73.7 No 25 26.3Place of Birth United States 65 68.4 Other 30 30.5Native Language English 69 72.6 Spanish 18 18.9 Creole/French 5 5.3 Other 3 2.1______________________________________________________

Demographic Information cont._______________________________________________________________________________n__________%________________Currently Teaching Yes 70 73.7 No 25 26.3Place of Birth United States 65 68.4 Other 30 30.5Native Language English 69 72.6 Spanish 18 18.9 Creole/French 5 5.3 Other 3 2.1______________________________________________________

Instruments and ProceduresThe following instruments were used in this study:

Background questionnaire

Thinking Styles Questionnaire for Teachers (Grigorenko & Sternberg, 1993c)

The Index of Learning Styles (Felder & Silverman, 1994)

Results

No males were found to be reflective learners, while 17.6% of the females had a reflective

learning style, x2 =10.047, p<.01.

ResultsFemale students demonstrated a greater

preference towards observing, gathering data slowly and carefully through the senses, or using a sensing learning style than male students (t(89=3.27,p<.002) who preferred to learn by making inferences and creating hunches quickly and not very carefully, or by using an intuitive learning style.

Results• Local thinking or a tendency to work with

concrete details was strongly correlated (r(83)=.51, p< .001) with having a sequential learning style or a tendency to learn in continual steps.

• Adherence to existing rules or procedures, or having a conservative thinking style was strongly correlated (r(86) = .41, p <.001) with the sensing learning style; in other words, education students with a conservative thinking style has a tendency to solve problems by means of established methods, using concrete ideas and facts.

Results

Activity

References

.Felder, R.M., & Silverman, L.K. (1988). Learning

and teaching styles in Engineering Education. Engineering Education, 78, 674-681.

Felder, R.M., & Soloman, B.A. (1994). Index of Learning Styles. Retrieved March 10, 2008, from http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/ILSpage.html

U.S. News & World Report (2009). Best colleges-education. Retrieved August 20, 2009 from

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com

References cont.

Zhang, L.F., & Sternberg, R.J. (2000). Are learning approaches and thinking styles related? A study in two Chinese populations. The Journal of Psychology, 13, 469-489.

Zhang, L.F., & Sternberg, R.J. (2002). Thinking styles and teachers’ characteristics. International Journal of Psychology, 37, 3-12.