This study examines the significance of understanding learners’ learning styles in relation to an educator’s learning style. The study explores the extent to which an educator and learners make provision for learning style flexibility by knowing and understanding their learning styles. There were reasons for being actively involved in the study. I wanted to know my learning style and to know and understand the learning styles of my learners. Action research was used to focus on the significance of learning style flexibility in my teaching practice, with the aim to developing myself as a professional and improving my teaching practice. Action research develops through a selfreflective spiral, consisting of cycle, each with its own steps of planning, acting, observing, reflecting and planning again for further implementation. Action research was critical in helping me to enhance my competencies and the competencies of learners who participated in my study and enabled me to improve in an ongoing, cyclical fashion. The use of qualitative and quantitative research methods helped me to learn and understand my learning style and learners’ learning styles. Herrmann’s Whole Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) was used to identify my learning style. To identify learners’ learning styles I used a simplified questionnaire that helped me to understand learners’ thinking preferences according to the four quadrants of Herrmann’s model. Learners’ profiles were identified and indicated that they have didderent profiles. Feedback questionnaires for learners and lecturers were used to dtermine feedback on how I facilitate learning and accommodate learners according to their learning styles, and improve myself professionally. Learning style flexibility is an approach that enhances teaching and learning, including the achievement of complex learning outcomes that includes attitudes and personality traits. Educators should move away from a content-driven learning approach to learner-driven approaches that allow learners to discover and construct knowledge on their own. Learning style flexibility and educational change complement each other. Learning style flexibility is significant in teaching and learning and the professional development of educators. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Humanities Education / unrestricted

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No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseECMH.pdf: 5016372 bytes, checksum: 1ae169c4a370a647c5616953817c07a6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais (INEP) / Usually, experimental studies that are conducted to generate evidences on the different scientific fields produce many qualitative data to be analyzed by researchers. For instance, this is the case of defects lists generated from the software inspection activity, which defects consist of qualitative data that should be discussed and classified. This scenario was experienced during the Readers Project, where defects lists have token long time to be analyzed, sometimes hours or days, making the decisions about defects difficult. Moreover, feedback questionnaires deserved a careful analysis, since they carried relevant information about the experimental study. Aim: Driven by the described situation this research aimed to support the qualitative analysis conduction in an information-guided way, using visualization and text mining techniques to enable it. This approach allows software inspection defects described similarly be analyzed together, due to the use of these techniques, which may allow the homogeneity of the decisions about them. The same happens in the context of feedback questionnaires. Methodology: Based on the objective, the ways that visualization and text mining could contribute to become qualitative analysis more effective and efficient were investigated and designed. Considering it, the Insight tool was developed to enable the information-guided qualitative analysis. Experimental studies were conducted to validate and evaluate the approach on different contexts. Results: Four experimental studies were conducted: (i) a feasibility study conducted with text documents which gave evidences that the use of visualization and text mining met previous expectations and was feasible to be employed; (ii) a study in the context of software inspection which, although the quantitative data did not present statistical significance, the descriptive statistics and feedback questionnaires analysis gave evidences that visualization and text mining makes the qualitative analysis effective and efficient; (iii) a study in the context of questionnaires, which results were similar to the previous study; (iv) a case study in the context of qualitative analysis of long text documents which gave evidences about the utility and ease of use of the approach. Conclusion: Under the different contexts of evaluation, the Insight, an information-guided qualitative analysis approach that is based on visualization and text mining, gave evidences about the improvements on efficiency and effectiveness. Adding to its relevance in software engineering area, this research also contributes to other scientific fields, which often claim for technological support to conduct their research. / Em geral, os estudos experimentais, que são responsáveis pela construção de evidências nas várias áreas da ciência, geram grande volume de dados qualitativos que devem ser analisados. Esse é o caso, por exemplo, de listas de defeitos derivadas de atividades de inspeção, cujos defeitos correspondem a dados qualitativos que devem ser discutidos e analisados. Esse cenário ocorreu no Projeto Readers, em que as listas de defeitos consumiam horas e dias para serem analisadas, o que dificultava a decisão sobre eles. Além disso, os questionários de feedback também mereciam análise cuidadosa, pois traziam informações relevantes sobre o estudo experimental. Objetivo: Motivado pela situação descrita, esta pesquisa teve o objetivo de apoiar a condução da técnica Coding de forma que a análise dos dados seja feita guiada pela informação, utilizando para isso visualização e mineração de texto. Isso possibilita que, no contexto de inspeção de software, relatos de defeitos semelhantes sejam tratados em um mesmo momento, em decorrência do uso dessas técnicas, fazendo que as decisões sejam homogêneas. O mesmo acontece com informações do questionário de feedback. Metodologia: Com base no objetivo estabeleceram-se as formas com que a visualização e mineração de texto poderiam contribuir para tornar a análise dos dados mais efetiva e eficiente. Com base nessas definições a ferramenta Insight foi desenvolvida para tornar viável a codificação guiada pela informação. Estudos experimentais foram conduzidos para validar e avaliar a tese em diferentes contextos. Resultados: Foram realizados quatro estudos experimentais: (i) estudo de viabilidade conduzido com documentos textuais que evidenciou que o uso de visualização e mineração de texto atendia à expectativa e era viável de ser adotado; (ii) estudo realizado no contexto de reunião de inspeção que, embora não tenha apresentado significância estatística dos resultados, evidenciou por meio das análises descritivas e análise dos questionários de feedback que o uso de visualização e mineração de texto para esta atividade a torna mais efetiva e eficiente; (iii) estudo realizado no contexto de questionários, cujos resultados foram semelhantes ao anterior; (iv) estudo de caso feito no contexto de análise qualitativa que evidenciou a utilidade e facilidade de uso da abordagem para analisar documentos textuais extensos. Conclusão: Nos diferentes contextos em que foi avaliada, a abordagem de análise qualitativa guiada pela informação, baseada em visualização e mineração de texto, evidenciou melhorias na efetividade e eficiência da atividade. Além da relevância da pesquisa para a área de Engenharia de Software, ressalta-se que ela é uma contribuição para outras áreas do conhecimento, muitas vezes carentes de suporte tecnológicos para a condução de suas pesquisas.