Different Leaning Styles

Different Leaning Styles

  • Submitted By: fcagea
  • Date Submitted: 11/20/2008 4:10 AM
  • Category: Psychology
  • Words: 1103
  • Page: 5
  • Views: 900

Many individuals have addressed the issue of whether people have their own individual learning styles, techniques, approaches and capabilities. A vast majority of learning styles have been stated to help aid people in the learning process.
Kolb (1984) conducted research which enabled him to identify four main ways people learn, which include: Concrete, reflective, abstract and active. All of these different ways are used to a certain degree in order to gain a vast understanding and knowledge base of the subject matter concerned. Kolb’s experimental learning theory has been supported and criticised by many others. Impacting and influencing many people’s outlooks and techniques of the ways of learning.
Research such as Kolb’s demonstrates that there are distinctive approaches to the way in which individuals learn.
Marton and Saljo (1984) acknowledged that there were two main approaches to learning. In their studies they found that a select group of students followed set procedures when studying. These students learnt facts and details; by doing this they took a surface approach to their learning. However, the research also found that other students took a different approach, by looking for underlying concepts and principles beneath the facts, and trying to make connections between them. By doing this they were taking what Marton and Saljo considered to be a ‘deep’ approach to their learning, as these individuals looked into the subject matter in detail.
At a later date, Gibbs (1992) added that he believed that there was a third way of learning to add to Marton and Saljo’s study. Concluding that there were some students who used both a surface approach and a deep approach. These students were therefore taking a ‘strategic’ approach to their learning, by considering both aspect of the other approaches and deciding what would gain them the best mark. However, Gibbs realised that a problem sometimes arose when students did this. He noticed that some individuals...

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