How do we teach them, if we don't know how they learn?

Researchers create two new instruments for assessing global students

iriam had taught eighth grade for years. She knew the required curriculum and the amount of time available for each unit. Over the years she had collected many instructional resources to add interest to the topic. She was confident that she had fully prepared for teaching this material. Miriam was unaware that the classroom itself doomed some of her students to failure.

Sue had planned on using at least one Cooperative Learning activity to teach this unit. She assumed that, by actively involving her students, they'd all learn enough to get As or B's on the unit test. She was doing exactly what her supervisor had suggested. This time her students would out-perform themselves! Sue was unaware that Cooperative Learning would not be effective for a majority of her students.

Barbara had taken a course in alternative teaching strategies. She'd learned that the Activity Alternatives in a Contract Activity Package allowed students to use their "multiple intelligences" to show what and how much they had learned. Her roster included several adolescents who were struggling with identity issues. She thought she'd try a Contract to see if students did as well as her professor had predicted they would. Barbara forgot that the professor had said that Contracts were great -for motivated auditory and/or v students.

Most teachers assume that if they care about the youngsters they teach and "cover the curriculum," their students should be able to master it. Most teachers know what to teach, but don't realize that they can't possibly know how to teach it without first identifying how their children learn. And most children do not learn traditionally through lectures, readings or discussions.

Doesn't everybody learn the same way?

Prize-winning research has made it clear that most children can master the curriculum when they're taught with strategies, methods or resources that complement how they learn. However, students in the same class often learn differently from each other and many actually learn backwards from each other. As a result, Strategy A can produce an A for one student and a C for another, whereas Strategy B can reverse these same two students' grades.

How do learners differ?

Between six and 14 - of 21 possible elements - often impact on how each person masters new and difficult material (see Figure 1). Easy material (for the individual) can be learned in the "wrong" style, but even most adults cannot internalize new and difficult academic information without relying on their learning-style strengths. These elements are divided into five different categories that either stimulate or inhibit learning and constitute each individual's particular learning style. To capitalize on their learning styles, students must become aware of their:

reaction to the classroom environment learning with sound or in silence, bright versus soft lighting, warm versus cool temperatures and formal versus informal seating

own emotionality - motivation, persistence and responsibility levels, and preference for structure versus options sociological preferences for learning - either alone, with peers, with a collegial or authoritative adult and/or in a variety of ways as opposed to patterns or routines.

physiological characteristics - perceptual strengths (auditory, visual, tactual and/or kinesthetic modalities, time-of-day energy highs and lows, intake (snacking or sipping while concentrating) and/or mobility needs

global versus analytic processing, as determined through correlations among sound, light, design, persistence, sociological prefer ence and intake

Can we match students' styles with responsive instruction?

Once teachers learn how their students learn, they can match individuals' learning styles with the method most responsive to that style. If teachers in a school are not comfortable using several different reading methods, each can volunteer to teach reading with one specific method. Then the children with similar learning styles can be assigned to the teacher using the method most responsive to that youngsters' learning style.

Also, teachers who know how their students learn can distribute individual, printed prescriptions describing how each child should study and do homework by capitalizing on his or her learning-style strengths. One Homework Disc can service an entire school year after year. Studies have shown that students learn significantly more and enjoy learning better through their learning-style homework prescriptions.

Which tests identify students' learning styles?

Different versions of the Learning-Style Inventory (Dunn, Dunn & Price) have proven reliable and valid for many students in grades 3-12. However, almost two decades ago, when we first recognized that analytic and global students neither concentrated nor processed academic information in the same way, we experimented to see whether their processing differences impacted on their achievement. A series of studies convinced us that globals taught globally and analytics taught analytically achieved statistically better than when either was mismatched.

When we found that global students earned statistically higher standardized achievement test scores when they were taught globally, it made sense that they might achieve even better if they were tested with global rather than with analytic tests.

When we examined available tests, every single IQ and achievement test we could find was analytic, except the Kaufman ABC IQ Test. We then decided to develop a global learning style identification test.

New, reliable global learning-style assessments.

Our Wonderful Learning Styles (OWLS) (Guastello & Dunn, 1997), for grades 2-5, and Learning Style: The Clue to You (LS:CY) (Burke & Dunn, 1998), for grades 6-8, are new identification instruments designed to respond to global learners. These inventories include stories, holistic writing, imagery, fantasy, humor and imagination to access global thinking.

The questions following each story correspond to the learning-style strands of the Dunn and Dunn model. Each question is repeated three times throughout the test as a means of assessing the students' preferences and the consistency of their responses. Each possible response to a question is in the form of a picture image (non-verbal message) and a series of words (verbal message) under the picture.

The inclusion of both the verbal and nonverbal clues allows answers to be processed in the learner's preferred thinking style. Students select the response based on their preference for that particular learning-style element.

We recently completed a pair of two-year national studies with these two assessments. They have excellent reliability and appear to be valid, but we still need to determine the accuracy of their predictions. For example, if a student reports a strong preference for learning kinesthetically, and then earns significantly higher test scores when taught kinesthetically than when taught traditionally, the instrument would have predictive validity for that particular element.

We now need to begin a series of experimental studies. In the meantime, these instruments are available to interested educators who wish to experiment with them.

If you're thinking of obtaining these global instruments, it's worth remembering that it's all part of a national validating process. Your participation may help a great many global learners achieve significantly higher test scores.

Editor's Note: How can educators obtain these global instruments?

Teachers who wish to try either of these new instruments can purchase a subscriber's contract for either OWLS or LS:CY for a one-time fee of $150. This payment entitles the purchaser to duplicate the assessment repeatedly. Each completed inventory must be mailed back. The student's learning-style data and an individual Homework Prescription will be returned to the purchaser for the cost of $1.50 per student plus the cost of mailing. For information on how you can obtain these instruments, see the box on this page.

Rita Dunn is Professor, Division of Administrative and Instructional Leadership, and Director, Center for the Study of Learning and Teaching Styles, St. John's University, Jamaica, NY.

Copyright Early Years, Inc. Apr 1999
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