Educational psychologists use the concept of learning styles to help instructors understand how their students learn (and urge them to diversify their teaching processes and modes of assessment accordingly) or to explain to students how they should identify learning styles they are comfortable with and use these to maximize their learning potential. While I have incorporated the first approach into my course design, I also believe that students should identify learning styles they are NOT comfortable with in order to enable them to create learning strategies to help overcome these limitations when the methods and means of assessment in the course require it. I try to provide learning objects for students to employ both as aids where their learning styles are less developed and as advanced tools to maximize learning efficiencies with learning styles they use more effectively.

Here are some learning styles that have been identified by educational psychologists that I find particularly useful for students in my courses to think about.

• From abstract to concrete (conceptual learning vs. hands on, experiential learning)
• From independence to dependence (from more structured to less structured learning)
• Perceptual preferences (auditory, visual, tactile, kinesthetic)
• Conceptual tempo (speed of information processing; from reflective to reactive
• From sequential to global (from linear, logical to associative, "big picture")
• From leveling to sharpening (from simplicity/generalization to complexity/specificity).
• Literal/qualitative analysis (often found in social sciences and sciences), literal/quantitative analysis (social science and sciences), scientific method, formalist analysis (music, film, art, theater, etc.), figurative analysis (literature, film, cultural studies, art).
• Intellectual risk-taking to risk-averse—varies by context (one-on-one w/professor, w/small and large groups of peers) and format (writing, speaking, online).
• Task-oriented to task-avoiding
• Detail-oriented to detail-adverse
• Proactive to reactive
• Social learner to individual learner

Note that while the learning styles that are placed on a continuum usually indicate that a learner is at one point on the continuum, some learners contain facility for both (that is, they are effective as sequential AND global learners). Further, one's place on the scale usually changes with different learning contexts. For example, a learner might be very detail-oriented, proactive, and task-oriented in a course that fits her other learning styles and be detail-averse, reactive, and task-avoiding in a course in which she feels threatened or has little interest. The point is not to place any one in a box, but to identify tendencies and preferences. Also, although there is an inherent/genetic component to these learning styles, most can be at least ameliorated if not completely overcome by training. However, it is important to realize that people have multiple intelligences with varying degree of strengths and weaknesses, and that sometimes inherent strength in one means weakness in others. Validating these differences is an important part of wisdom and self-knowledge. And being willing to take a course that requires a learning style you may never be entirely comfortable is a sign of a mature and committed learner.

© 2001 Michael Lewis Goldberg: intellectual property information

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