Batayang Teoretikal

Knowles (1990) defined theory as “a comprehensive, coherent, and internally consistent

system of ideas about a set of phenomena” (p. 5). He suggested that theories of learning dwell on

the learning phenomena as approached by studying either animals or children. The rationale being

that to study or research in a comprehensive, coherent, consistent, and systematic way, a level of

control must exist. Control is easier to obtain

with animals than children. It is hardest to obtain with adults. Therefore, the early theories of

learning were developed based on phenomena involving animals and children.

Knowles referred to the adult learner as a “neglected species” (Knowles, 1990, p. 27). Adult

learners were considered neglected because learning theorists had ignored the methods of teaching

employed by great teachers from Confucius to Socrates. For those

great teachers, like Confucius and Socrates, the main audiences were adults. Even though his work

is considered seminal in the field of adult learning, Knowles credited the

philosophies of theorists and educators in the field of adult learning like Edward L. Thorndike,

Herbert Sorenson, John Dewey, and Eduard C. Lindeman for building “scientific evidences that

adults could learn and that they possessed interests and abilities

that were different from those of children” (Knowles, 1990, p. 29).

The concept of learning can be viewed from varied perspectives. Behaviorists’ views on

learning indicated that learning produced an observable behavior or characteristic that was not

present prior to the learning event. Behavioral objectives written and developed by teachers are

the focus of traditional and online learning. Behaviors that increase student achievement are

pivotal to the learner’s success. Merriam, Caffarella, and Baumgartner (2007) noted that a

behavioral orientation is vital

to many aspects of adult learning.

Batayang Konseptwal

The VARK Preferences instrument was used to gather data that was quantitatively

analyzed. The acronym VARK stands for Visual, Aural, Read/write, and Kinesthetic sensory

modalities used in learning. This instrument is based on identifying the ways that people prefer

information to come to them and the ways they like to deliver their communication. These patterns

showed that multi-model (visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic) was the most preferred learning

style and kinesthetic second. Knowing emergency responders learning styles preferences will help

curriculum developers design curricula that can be used to improve their learning. This knowledge

will ultimately help the responder protect the public.

An instrument named The VARK Preferences Inventory was developed with the added

read/write component to the list of learning characteristics. As previously stated the acronym

VARK stands for and encompasses visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic, and multi-modal sensory

modalities that are used in learning. While the different modalities have been known for centuries,

this inventory systematically presents a series of questions with help-sheets for students, teachers,

employees, and others to use in their own way.

Mga Kaugnay na Literatura

The concept of students having preferred learning styles is likely as an outgrowth

of earlier work by psychologists, educators, educational researchers, and other scientists

who study human intelligence. The work of Carl Jung and Howard Gardner, in the area of

personality types and multiple intelligences, educators like Maria Montessori, and educational

researchers like Isabel Briggs Myers in the area of personality types were very influential in the

minds of educational researchers who developed learning style theory (Beebe, 2012; Ross 2012;

Gardner, 2011; Quenk 2009). This early work supports the view that there are basic differences

in the way that people perceive the world, which creates differences in the way they prefer to

interact with the world around them and the way they take in information. Learning style theory

holds that these differences affect how people learn.

The concept of learning styles is not a single unified theory, but rather a family of related

theories about how people learn or how they process and store information. One attribute that all

the theories have in common is the theory that people learn or prefer to learn in different ways.

These differences mean that different modes of instruction are most effective for different

individuals. Many of these theories postulate that, for best results, educators should assess

students’ learning style preferences and then tailor instruction to fit the students’ preferences,

which is sometimes referred to as the meshing hypothesis (Paschler, McDaniel, Rohrer, & Bjork,

2008). However, there are varying ideas about how best to assess learning style preferences and

how best to tailor instruction to address those preferences.

The concept of style in the learning process indicates the fact that students differ as to how

they receive new information and how they interact with that information. Therefore, students who

have visual preferences tend to obtain more knowledge from the materials that depend on the visual
forms of information, whereas the same material will be more useful for the learners with verbal

preferences if these materials are represented using text and audio. Moreover, some students tend

to learn more through ‘doing’, whereas some others prefer to ‘think and reflect’. These preferences

are called learning styles. Over the last few decades, a number of learning style models and

instruments were developed.

As posited by Chick, (208), the term learning styles is widely used to describe how learners

gather, sift through, interpret, organize, come to conclusions about, and “store” information for

further use. As spelled out in VARK (one of the most popular learning styles inventories), these

styles are often categorized by sensory approaches: visual, aural, verbal [reading/writing],

and kinesthetic. Many of the models that don’t resemble the VARK’s sensory focus are

reminiscent of Felder and Silverman’s Index of Learning Styles, with a continuum of descriptors

for how learners process and organize information: active-reflective, sensing-intuitive, verbal-

visual, and sequential-global.

Reading is usually taught utilizing auditory and visual techniques according to Dunn,

Dunn, & Perrin (1994). Their research has shown that the visual perceptual element in a learner is

not strong until around age eight, and the auditory perceptual element is not developed until after

age eleven. This information strongly supported that teachers need to utilize the tactile and

kinesthetic perceptual elements when instructing reading to primary children. Therefore, it is

essential for teachers to incorporate the tactile and kinesthetic elements during reading instruction.

Akin to Dunn and Dunn, Piaget (108) also describes how individuals take in information from the

environment based on sensory input and defines the same three learning style preferences: visual,

auditory, and kinesthetic. People with a visual preference like to have information presented to

them in images, flow charts, graphs, videos, and by watching demonstrations and others' body
language (108). There are also two sub-categories within the visual modality - linguistic and

spatial. People that fall into the linguistic category like to gather information through reading and

will also write things down in order to better study and grasp concepts, while those with a spatial

preference do not, but rather rely predominantly on images, videos, and graphs (108). As the name

suggests, those with an auditory preference favor information presented aurally and will sometimes

talk to themselves or read out loud to gain a better understanding of something (108). Kinesthetic

learning is defined as learning via movement and touch, those things which stimulate receptors

within the muscles, tendons, and joints of a person (94, 108). Therefore, kinesthetic learners prefer

hands-on activities, active role playing, or anything that involves movement. According to this

model, and sensory-based models in general, a person may have a dominant preference and be

single modal, or have multiple strong learning preferences and be regarded as multimodal.

Another psychologist by the name of Bruner (22, 23) also had a sensory based, VAK

learning style model. Although his terms for the modalities differed from Piaget, the meanings and

categorization were similar: enactive representation (kinesthetic), iconic representation (visual),

and symbolic representation (auditory) (22). Unlike Piaget (108), Bruner (23) felt that education

should not be centered on the individual student, but rather on group work using computers and

outside experts to enhance understanding

of content material (especially of Biology) and how the students themselves learn. Furthermore,

Bruner's philosophy of instruction expanded beyond using learning theory in the classroom and

instead centered on the reciprocal relationship between applying culture to societal needs and vice

versa (23).

While education can mold a student's way of perceiving the world, it is up to the students

to process that perception and then in turn, apply that knowledge to improve the world as they see
fit for their culture. One of the more recent, but widely used learning style assessment

questionnaires is the VARK, which was created at Lincoln University and is accessible online at

www.vark-learn.com (53, 54, 55). The VARK has elements similar to ones found in the learning

style theories and assessments discussed above. Like many assessment instruments such as the

Index of Learning Styles (ILS) (52) and the MBTI (19), the VARK uses multiple-choice questions

to determine student learning style preference. Rather than directly asking about learning

preference, the VARK uses more of an indirect approach by asking questions that do not appear

to be related to learning styles on the surface, but it does also include some direct questions about

learning preferences (54). The VARK is a sensory based learning style preference, similar to Dunn

and Dunn's, Piaget's, and Bruner's VAK learning style theories. The same sensory modalities are

used (visual, aural (auditory), kinesthetic), except the VARK separates the read-write category

from the visual category and lists it as a separate learning style, giving the VARK four learning

modalities instead of just three (23, 53, 54, 55, 108). In addition, there are discrepancies between

the VARK and the other VAK theories in defining what sorts of activates are included within each

learning modality. Most strikingly, the visual category does not include videos, Power Points, or

watching demonstrations, even though these are clearly visual by standard sensory definitions (41,

53, 54, 55, 108). Furthermore, the kinesthetic category includes items that do not involve

movement or touch on the part of the learner such as listening to or reading real-life stories, case

studies, and watching videos or demonstrations.

The concept for identifying learning styles is based on patterns of behaviour which reveal

certain preferences for a particular learning style. The approach is similar to the one of the Index

of Learning Styles (ILS) questionnaire (Felder & Soloman, 1997), which is an instrument for

identifying learning styles based on the FSLSM. However, while the questionnaire asks students
about how they think they prefer to behave and learn, the proposed approach gathers data about

how students really behave and learn by observing them during their learning process. The patterns

of behaviour which are assumed to be relevant for each learning style dimension are discussed in

the next subsection in more detail. Subsequently, the procedure about how to calculate learning

styles from the data of the patterns is described.

Identification of sensing/intuitive learning style tendencies

For identifying a sensing or intuitive learning style, self-assessment tests and exercises play an

important role. Since sensing learners prefer to learn concrete material like facts while intuitive

learners prefer to learn abstract material such as theories, the learners’ performance on questions

about facts as well as questions about theories and concepts was used as hints for identifying their

learning styles. Furthermore, sensing learners prefer to solve problems by applying standard

procedures, which they have learned before, and thus like to be well-prepared for tasks such as

assignments and exams. Therefore, we can assume that they perform a higher number of self-

assessment tests and exercises in order to check their acquired knowledge and practise to apply it.

In contrast, intuitive learners tend to be more creative and like to solve problems in new ways.

Therefore, a good performance on questions which ask for developing new solutions can give an

indication for an intuitive learning style. Furthermore, a basic understanding of the underlying

concepts and theories is important for developing new solutions, which can be seen as another

argument for intuitive learners to yield on average better results on such questions. Since sensing

learners tend to be more patient with details and work carefully but slowly, the time students take

for self-assessment tests can be used as another pattern. Since sensing learners also like to check

their answers carefully before submitting them, another pattern is the number of revisions

performed before submitting a test or exercise. In line with these characteristics, sensing learners
are also expected to spend more time on reviewing their results on self-assessment tests and

exercises. Furthermore, by looking at students’ performance on questions about details, the sensing

learners’ preference for being careful with details can help them in achieving better results on such

questions and is therefore used as another pattern. Besides self-assessment tests and exercises, the

students’ behaviour regarding content objects and examples can contribute to identifying their

preference regarding sensing or intuitive learning. Since sensing learners prefer to learn from

concrete material, we can assume that they prefer learning from examples. Therefore, the number

of visits and the time spent on examples can act as other patterns. Another argument for the

preference for learning from examples for sensing learners is that they like to solve problems based

on standard procedures and examples can help them to learn existing approaches for solving

problems. On the other hand, intuitive learners are supposed to learn from more abstract material

such as content objects and use examples only as supplementary material. Therefore, we can

assume that they visit content objects more often and tend to spend more time on them.

Visual/verbal learning style dimension

The visual/verbal dimension deals with the preferred input mode. The dimension

differentiates learners who remember best what they have seen (e.g., pictures, diagrams, flow-

charts and so on), from learners who get more out of textual representations, regardless of whether

they are written or spoken. Identification of visual/verbal learning style tendencies A main feature

for identifying a visual or verbal learning style is the forum, where verbal learners are expected to

use the forum more often and more intensive in order to discuss and communicate with others.

Therefore, the number of visits of forum messages, the time spent in the forum, and the numbers

of postings are considered as relevant patterns for this dimension. Furthermore, we expect visual

learners to perform better on questions about material which was presented in a visual way using,
for example, figures and graphics. On the other hand, verbal learners are expected to yield better

results on questions about learning material which has been presented in textual format. Another

feature which can provide information about students’ preference for either visual or verbal

learning is content objects. Based on the preference for textual representation, verbal learners are

expected to visit reading material such as content objects more often, which can be used as another

pattern.