LEARNING METHODOLIGIES AND STYLES

By

Sibtain Hassan

(NUML - F18 - 25614)

Professor

Prof. Asim Khan

An assignment submitted in 1st semester course Studies Skills of BS English

At the

Institute of English Department

National University of Modern Languages (NUML)

Islamabad, Pakistan

(10 September 2018)

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
…….....V

ABSTRACT
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………..…VI

LIST OF TABLES ……………………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………..…..x

ABSTRACT ….
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
……….….xiii

INTRODUCTION ………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………..…….…....1

TYPES OF LEARNING STRATEGIES ………………………………………………………………….

………..…………...….10

EFFECTIVE LEARNING TECHNIQUES ……………………………………………………………..

……………………..…..17

LEARNING STYLES
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
…..35

IMPLICATIONS………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………..…….....V

REFERENCES
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
………….…..67
 Abstract
Learning is by Doing (Prof .Asim Khan).It is the process of acquiring new or modifying
existing, knowledge, behaviour, skills, values, or preference.

Every knowledge and information related to any field of life requires a specific and accurate method
of learning. It may in text or in our long term memory, the Brain. Educational psychology involves
the study of memory, conceptual process, and individual difference in conceptualizing new strategies
for learning process in human. Researchers and Educational Psychologist and especially the
Neurologist have prescribed the way of learning, their strategies, techniques and styles. Learning
style theories have been criticized by many Scholars and researchers. Such as Time Management,
Concept Mapping, Elaborative Interrogative, Representational Imagery, Summarizing and so on.
Human learning begins with birth and continues until death. The most important among them is
critical thinking and logical reasoning.

Introduction
Learning strategies are specific behaviours or thought processes that students use to enhance their own
learning. The word strategy comes from the ancient Greek word strategia, which means steps or actions
taken for the purpose of winning a war. The warlike meaning of strategia has fortunately fallen away, but
the control and goal directedness remain in the modern version of the word.
Learning strategies are defined as “specific actions, behaviours, steps, or techniques -such as seeking out
conversation partners, or giving oneself encouragement to tackle a difficult language task. When the learner
consciously chooses strategies that fit his or her learning style and the L2 task at hand, these strategies
become a useful toolkit for active, conscious, and purposeful self-regulation of learning. Learning strategies
can be classified into different types. Learning styles are the general approaches for example, global or
analytic, auditory or visual –that students use in acquiring a new language or in learning any other subject.

“I hear, and I forget, I see, and I remember, I do, and I understand “

Chinese Proverb

Types of learning strategies

1.1 Time Management

It is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially
to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity. Learning is considered to be an activity of stress free
notifying of an exposure received with mindfulness. Any form of stress is considered to be debilitative for
learning and life, even if adaptability could be acquired (eustress) its effects are damaging
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management)

1. Concept Mapping

Concept mapping (also called webbing, concept webbing, mind mapping, or semantic networking) is an
effective strategy for helping students develop a conceptual understanding of complex prose. In concept
mapping, the student is required to identify important concepts and relate those concepts to each other. The
strategy may be used in almost any content domain, including science, social studies, mathematics, and
physical education. Developmentally, the concept map has been successfully used with students in all
grade levels. The concept map is an effective strategy for two reasons. First, and most importantly, it
requires students to identify important concepts and the relationships between those concepts. It makes
them mentally active. Second, it creates a visually representation of the ideas. The relationships are
represented in a visual display (the map), which may be used to enhance retrieval of ideas in the map. And
dual-coding theory suggests that verbal and visual representations will enhance memory of information to
be learned.

To create a concept map, students need to do three things:

1) Read the passage

2) Identify important concepts contained in the passage and make a list of them. A list of
important ideas may also be helpful.

3) Arrange the concepts on a page according to how related .Draw lines between concepts to
represent a relationship between the concepts.
 4) Label the lines with the relationship (some people do this, some do not- it seems optional)

2. Elaborative interrogation

Elaborative interrogation is a simple strategy to enhance memory for facts. The strategy involves reading
a fact to-be-remembered, asking Why would that be true?, and then trying to generate an answer. For
example, the student might read a fact such as during winter, the snowshoe hare turns white in colour.
To use elaborative interrogation to remember this fact, the student would then ask himself or herself Why
would the snowshoe hare turn white in colour?, and then try to answer the question.

However, given the lack of research such conclusions seem weak. I would hypothesize that if young
children are able to generate an answer to the why question they will benefit. The potential pitfall in using
this strategy with young children is that they may not possess enough prior knowledge to generate an
answer to the why question.

Elaborative interrogation is a fairly straightforward strategy and involves three steps:

1) Read the fact to be remembered
2) Turn the fact into a why question
3) Answer the why question

As an example, consider the first fact from the imagery example - The great blue heron builds its nest in
the tops of trees. Using elaborative interrogation to remember this fact involves three steps. First, read
the fact. Second, turn it into a why question (Why would the great blue heron build its nest in the tops
of trees?). Third, answer the why question (for protection from enemies, lots of building materials
available).

3. Representational Imagery

One of the most common and useful methods of remembering information is to use mental imagery. It can
be used for remembering facts (e.g., during winter, the snowshoe hare turns white in winter) and with
extended prose (such as a description of a mechanical device, a geographical location, or a scene in a
novel). However, providing the illustration for younger children (K-2) will aid memory, as will the use of
motor activity (play). One system is a verbal system used for representing and thinking with language.
The second system is a non-verbal system for representing and thinking with non-verbal information like
images. When information is received (such as reading or hearing words) either or both systems may be
activated. A word or sentence becomes stored in either a verbal or non-verbal representation, or both. If
the information is encoded in both verbal and non-verbal from, the likelihood of memory for that
information increases. By generating images of verbal information, including illustrations with text
(pictures or mental images), or by elaborating upon illustrations with explanations, the likelihood is
 increased that both systems are activated, that information is encoded in verbal and non-verbal form, and
that memory is enhanced.

That is, the image contains both the concepts to be learned and the relationships between
those concepts.

There are two steps in using mental imagery:

1) Read the information to be remembered.

2) Make a picture of that information in your head.

A good image is one which contains all the important concepts and shows the relationships between those
concepts. To use imagery, the student needs to read this fact then make a mental image of it.

4. Summarizing

Summarization is one strategy that has been demonstrated to enhance memory for main ideas. In
summarization, students read a section of prose (typically a paragraph) and then write a sentence that
describes what that prose was about. Research has demonstrated that summarization can improve memory
for prose by about 33%.

As a strategy, summarization should be effective for two reasons. First, the act of summarizing requires
students to attend to important concepts within the text and then generate meaningful relationships
between those concepts. Students must distinguish important information from unimportant, and state
how important concepts are related to each other. Second, because summarizing requires students to
express the main ideas in their own words, there is a transformation in which students mentally manipulate
the information. Without this transformation, the task is reduced to a form of rehearsal in which students
merely copy out the main idea. Subsequently, learning is reduced.
The generation of a summary involves three important steps:

1) Read the text (such as the paragraph).

2) Identify the main idea or main ideas.

3) Write a sentence that describes what the main idea is, in the students ‘own words.

5. Practice Testing

The main idea behind practice testing is that actively testing your memory improves learning far
more than passively reviewing material. Tests are not just for evaluation anymore. Testing
improves learning by exercising memory retrieval. When you answer a test question, you have to
 actively search your long-term memory. Doing so creates more and better pathways to the answer.
This makes the answer easier to find the next time around. Scientists sometimes call it, “retrieval practice.”

Practice testing is easy to do. You can make flash cards or answer questions from your text book Practice
testing works best when you can find out whether got the answers right or wrong.

6. Self-Explanation

Self-explanation is a close relative of elaborative interrogation.  This method involves the

participant explaining and recording how one reaches an answer or conclusion.  This is actually a
popular method for solving abstract problems and similar to the requirement in many math classes
to show your work. However, studies show that this method does require some training and is one
of the more time consuming methods of study.

Tips for self-explanation: When doing self-explanation, it helps to write out the questions that
you want to ask yourself and then write down the answers.  The process of writing the questions
and answers down further commits the concepts to memory, and lets your brain organize the
importance of the materials.(https://examinedexistence.com/top-10-learning-techniques-ranking-from-
best-to-worst/)

7. Interleaved practice

Interleaved practice is when the student studies the topic at hand but also blends the study with
previous topics/concepts at the same time.  For instance, if a student is learning the concept of
polynomials this week in Algebra but learned about simplifying algebraic equations, and solving
inequalities the previous couple of weeks, then interleaved practice means that the student should
spend most of his time studying polynomials but also spend a fair amount of time simplifying
algebraic equations and solving inequalities. (https://examinedexistence.com/top-10-learning-techniques-
ranking-from-best-to-worst/)

2. Effective Learning Techniques

One professor highlights some useful tips compiled from a research study into what studying
methods are more practical and beneficial than others. “But I studied for hours! I don’t understand
why I got such a low test grade!” What some students do not yet realize is that the quality of study
strategies matters almost as much as the amount of time they spend using them. What advice can be
given to these motivated students who struggle to study effectively?
 In a recent monograph, Dunlosky and colleagues* reviewed research from educational and cognitive
psychology surrounding ten popular learning strategies. Their findings suggest that some very
popular study strategies are actually detrimental to learning and understanding (and were rated ‘low
utility’), some are somewhat helpful or are only helpful under certain circumstances (and were rated
‘moderate utility’), and some are helpful in virtually any learning setting (and were rated ‘high
utility’).

2.1. High utility strategies include Practice Testing and Distributed Practice.

2.1.1 Practice Testing also known as retrieval practice, supports both recall and comprehension of
course material for students of all ages, all abilities, and in many subject areas The key component to
practice testing is that students must retrieve the answer from their long term memories. There are no
benefits to looking up the answer in the book, or flipping the flashcard over immediately.

2.1.2 Distributed Practice is about spacing out study sessions over time instead of “cramming” the night
before a test.

2.2. Moderate utility strategies include Elaborative Interrogation, Self-Explanation, and Interleaved
Practice.

Elaborative Interrogation involves the student generating an explanation for why a fact or concept
is true.

Self-Explanation is similar. Students explain how new information is related to known information,
or explain steps taken during problem solving. Both of these strategies help students connect new
and already-known information, which aids in memory encoding. Both work best if the student, not
the instructor, generates the explanation. Interleaved Practice is a schedule of practice that mixes
different kinds of problems within a single study session. Help students understand how and when to
use these strategies when they come to you for help.

2.3. Low utility strategies include Summarization, Highlighting/Underlining, Keyword Mnemonic,

Rereading, and Imagery for Text.
Rereading and Highlighting/Underlining are two of the most frequently reported student study
strategies, but unfortunately, are two of the least effective. Some research on
highlighting/underlining shows that it may even harm the student’s ability to make inferences about
that topic (https://ctl.byu.edu/tip/improving-student-achievement-effective-learning-techniques )
. The 9/8/2018 Improving Student Achievement with Effective Learning Techniques | CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING .

Imagery for Text and Summarization do not actually harm learning like other strategies in this
category, but they are not as helpful as the high or moderate utility strategies in improving learning.
When discussing learning strategies with students, encourage them to use those that have proven to
be more efficient and effective.
” byu.e” du/tip/improving-student-achievement-effective-learning-techniques

3. Learning styles

Learning styles are the general approaches –for example, global or analytic, auditory or visual –that students use in

acquiring a new language or in learning any other subject. These styles are “the overall patterns that give general

direction to learning behaviour

Learning styles are not dichotomous (black or white, present or absent). Learning styles generally
operate on a continuum or on multiple, intersecting continuity.

Sensory Preferences

Sensory preferences can be broken down into four main areas: visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic
(movement-oriented), and tactile (touch-oriented).Visual students like to read and obtain a great
deal from visual stimulation. For them, lectures, conversations, and oral directions without any
visual backup can be very confusing. In contrast, auditory students are comfortable without visual
input and therefore enjoy and profit from unembellished lectures, conversations, and oral
directions. Kinaesthetic and tactile students like lots of movement and enjoy working with tangible
objects, collages, and flashcards. Sitting at a desk for very long is not for them; they prefer to have
frequent breaks and move around the room.

Biological Differences

Differences in learning style can also be related to biological factors, such as biorhythms,
sustenance, and location. Biorhythms reveal the times of day when students feel good and perform
their best. Some learners are morning people, while others do not want to start learning until the
afternoon, and still others are creatures of the evening, happily “pulling an all-nighter” when
necessary. Sustenance refers to the need for food or drink while learning. Location involves the
nature of the environment: temperature, lighting, sound, and even the firmness of the chairs.
Students differ widely with regard to these environmental factors. The biological aspects of
learning style are often forgotten, but vigilant teachers can often make accommodations and
compromises when needed. (https://learning-styles-online.com/overview/)
Learning Style Types

Each person has different learning preferences and styles that benefit them. Some may find they
even have a dominant learning style. Others that they prefer different learning styles in different
circumstances. There is no right or wrong answer to which learning style is best for you – or mix
of learning styles. However, by discovering and better understanding your own learning styles,
you can employ techniques that will improve the rate and quality of your learning.

There are seven key learning styles. These include:

Visual (spacial) – learning through imagery and spacial understanding

Aural (auditory) – learning through listening, sound, and music
Verbal (linguistic) – learning through speech and writing
Physical (kinaesthetic) – learning through hands-on, tactile interaction
Logical (mathematical) – learning through logic, reasoning and systems
Social (interpersonal) – preference for learning in groups or working with other people
Solitary (intrapersonal) – preference for learning alone via self-study

3.1. Visual Learning Style

 Visual learners retain information better when it's presented in pictures, videos, graphs, and
books. These learners benefit when information is presented on an overhead projector or
white board, or on a piece of paper. Visual learners also frequently draw pictures or develop
diagrams when trying to comprehend a subject or memorize rote information.

 Try to develop diagrams to understand concepts and story boards to remember important
sequences and relationships.

3.2. Aural Learning Style

 Aural (auditory) learners retain information better when it's presented in lecture format, via
speeches, audio recordings, and other forms of verbal communication. Aural learners are also
big on sound and music. They can typically sing, are musically inclined, play an instrument,
and can identify different sounds.
 If you're an aural learner, integrate auditory media, listening techniques, sound, rhyme, or
even music in your learning and studying. They can also use music, rhythm, rhyming and
music
 . Use this technique and you'll never forget the information again.
 3.4. Verbal Learning Style

Verbal learning involves both writing and speaking. People who are verbal learners usually
find it easy to express themselves, both verbally and in writing. Word-based techniques such
as scripting and assertion are effective strategies for improving memory and recall for verbal
learners.

3.5. Physical learners, also referred to as kinesthetic or tactile learners, retain information

best through hands-on interaction and participation – they need to experience things. For
example, a physical learner in an automotive repair class would learn better working directly
on cars than sitting through a lecture or reading a book about cars.

 . If you're going to learn how to sail boat, read your manual, but make sure to spend the
majority of your time on a boat working through the techniques and sequences.

3.6 . Logical Learning Style

 Individuals who excel at math and possess strong logical reasoning skills are usually logical
learners. They notice patterns quickly and have a keen ability to link information that would
seem non-related by others. Logical learners retain details better by drawing connections after
organizing an assortment of information.
 Maximize your ability to learn by seeking to understand the meaning and reasoning behind
the subject you're studying. Explore the links between related subject matter and make sure to
understand details. This will not only help you understand the bigger picture, it will help you
understand why each component part is important.

3.7. Social Learning Style

 Social learners usually have excellent written and verbal communication skills. These
individuals are at ease speaking with others and are adept at comprehending other people's
perspectives. If you like bouncing your ideas off others, prefer working through issues as a
group, and thoroughly enjoy working with others, there's a good chance you're a social
learner.
 If you're a social learner, you should seek opportunities to study with others. If the class
you're in doesn't have formal groups, make your own group.
 3.8. Solitary Learning Style

Solitary learners usually prefer working by themselves in private settings. They do not rely on
others for help when solving a problem or studying. Since solitary learners prefer to work
alone, it is possible for them to waste time on a difficult problem before seeking assistance.
However, solitary learning can be very effective learning style for students. To get the most out
of your time studying, it is very helpful to identify your personal learning preferences and
styles. (https://www.educationcorner.com/learning-styles.html)

4. Implications

The method which I researched and remind above is prescribed by different Educational
Psychologist and Prof. Asim Khan of National University Of Modern Languages stated that
learn,” How to Learn?”. I get a lot of ideas from Sir. Asim that good leaners are those who
thinks critically, logically and learn by transformation not by transfer. The mentioned learning
strategy above is not been observed by me in my personality except Interrogative learning. It is
very important for us to create best learning techniques and strategies. We mostly are teacher
centred students. I am now understand by what are the best methods.

Figure 1: Our Education System

 References

Cottrell, S. (2013). The Study Skills Handbook. UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rogers, R. A. (2018). improving-student-achievement-effective-learning-techniques. Retrieved from

BYE Center for Teaching And Learning: https://ctl.byu.edu/tip/improving-student-
achievement-effective-learning-techniques

Seifert, T. (1993). LEARNING STRATEGIES IN THE CLASSROOM. Houstan, USA.

Tri. (2017). top-10-learning-techniques-ranking-from-best-to-worst. Retrieved from Eximine

Existence: https://examinedexistence.com/top-10-learning-techniques-ranking-from-best-to-
worst/

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (2018, 8 27). Time_management. Retrieved from Wikimedia the Free
Enclyopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management