Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-91).

This study investigated the relationship between the laboratory environments and the learning styles of middle school technology education teachers in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Based on the assumption that a strong relationship between teaching and learning styles exists, it was hypothesized that teacher preference for one type of laboratory over another (conventional or modular) may be an issue of learning style. A random sample (n=195) was drawn from the entire population (as identified by the Virginia Department of Education in 1998) of public middle school technology education teachers (N=392). Randomly selected teachers were mailed a cover letter, demographic questionnaire, postage-paid return envelope, the Learning Type Measure (LTM) instrument, and one dollar for taking the time to complete and return the instrument. The LTM instrument, demographic questionnaire and Bernice McCarthy's research on the 4MAT System of Leadership and Instruction were used to describe the laboratory environments and the teaching and learning styles of the respondents. Data collected were compared using contingency tables and Pearson's Chi-square analysis. Eighty-three (42.5%) of the middle school teachers responded and sixty-five of the instruments (78%) were usable. The findings indicate that respondents were overwhelmingly male (94%) and had considerable teaching experience (mean = 17.4). Sixty-percent of respondents taught in a modular laboratory and forty-percent taught in a conventional laboratory. Of the four learning styles identified by the LTM (Imaginative, Analytic, Common Sense, and Dynamic), respondents overwhelmingly (69.2%) rated themselves as Common Sense learners. Common Sense learners as teachers encourage practical applications, are interested in productivity and competence, like technical things, use hands-on activities, and try to give students the skills they will need to be economically independent in life. These findings are consistent with previous research involving the personalities and learning styles of industrial arts/technology educators. The self-perceived learning styles of respondents were significantly different when compared to McCarthy's findings for secondary teachers and administrators in general. However, the learning styles of respondents in conventional laboratories were not significantly different than the learning styles of respondents in modular laboratories. Though it seems logical that learning style might explain laboratory preference, this notion was not supported by this study. / Ed. D.

Constructivist theories of mathematics learning suggest that learners personally negotiate meaning by creating different mental representations of mathematical knowledge. They may then progress towards relational understandings of mathematical ideas by making connections between the different modes of representation. Partnerships between concrete materials and computer software offer a way of enhancing the value of both approaches and have benefits in making learning more powerful by the integration of concrete, pictorial and symbolic modes of representation. This thesis investigates the use of the computer as a transition device in linking different modes of representation of mathematical knowledge. A particular software package was chosen and three teaching treatments were devised, corresponding to three different modes of representation of knowledge. Computers were used to provide a pictorial treatment, Dienes' Base 10 Arithmetic Blocks were used to provide a treatment which was predominantly concrete, and teacher exposition provided a treatment which conformed to symbolic instruction. Quantitative analysis of the data collected found no significant statistical differences in achievement outcomes of any treatment groups. The findings of this investigation do not support the contentions that the computer is a necessary link between concrete and symbolic modes of representation of knowledge, or that programs in which teaching style is matched to the preferred learning style of students lead to increased attainment by students / Master of Education (Hons)

Many research have shown that reflection is one of the important factors in the learning process. It is then recommended that teacher should adopt various prompt techniques to promote learners¡¦ reflection ability in traditional classrooms. However, there are still very few studies on how to apply this kind of teaching strategy in outdoor learning environments. Therefore, this study designed an adaptive prompts strategy by matching prompt types with learning styles to improve learners¡¦ reflection levels in an outdoor u-learning environment. We conducted an experiment using the designed and developed learning system in a butterfly ecology garden. Two classes of thirty-nine 5th grade primary school students were involved in the experiment. The result shows that the reflection levels of the learners whose learning styles matched with the appropriate prompt types were higher than that the non-matched group of learners. Therefore, it is evidenced that the designed adaptive reflection prompt system is useful in an outdoor u-learning environment.

A manager¡¦s growth can reflect the type of culture, environment, and institution of an organization. In addition, great career progresses contribute to a positive growth of both the company and the manager. In the past, most research focuses on how to build up a succession planning and some studies investigate how a manager¡¦s behavior, personnel traits, and style of leadership can influence the organization. With Narrative Inquiry, this article focuses on career development of some senior managers to investigate their learning progress to help researchers remodel (review) the managers¡¦ career experiences. This research expects to reveal the managers¡¦ roles and styles. Besides, the findings will lay bare their behavior and cognition with the organization through their own narratives. The environment and opportunities created by the organization motivate the managers to keep learning in their careers. Furthermore, the managers usually make good use of the challenges they have faced to experiment their concepts in action so as to obtain experiences for transforming their opinions and action. The managers¡¦ learning progresses, which have a great impact on their cognition and construction of the roles they play, also shows that learning behavior and construction of role will be interactive. The research purports to illustrate the forces and factors that will impact the managers in their careers in the organization and help the organization to build an appropriate environment beneficial both to the managers and the companies they work for.

No description available.

Learning style refers to the cognitive, physiological, emotional, environmental, sociological, and perceptual manner in which people learn. In order to provide students with an optimal learning environment, it is necessary to match instruction with students' learning style. To do this, student learning style must be assessed by a learning style instrument. Of the learning style instruments that are currently available, most do not have much evidence of reliability and validity. Additionally, evidence that does exist is weak. Therefore, more psychometric data are needed regarding these instruments. This study provided psychometric evidence for six popular learning styles instruments, including the Learning Style Inventory, the Productivity Environmental Preferences Survey, the Learning Styles Profile, the Grasha-Riechmann's Student Learning Style Scale, the Edmonds Learning Style Identification Exercise, and the Group Embedded Figures Test. Test-retest reliability was found to be good for the Group Embedded Figures Test and moderate for all other instruments. Internal structure validity of the instruments was good, indicating that the instruments do measure unique learning style constructs. However, convergent and discriminant validity evidence indicates that the instruments either do not measure the same constructs, or measure the learning style constructs in different ways.

This study investigated the relationship between students' age, achievement, evaluation of the instructors and the match-mismatch of students' and instructors' learning styles. Seventeen (17) business instructors and 302 business students comprised the population. The students were selected as an intact group enrolled in the participating faculty members' class. The relationship between age and learning style mismatch and evaluation and age and learning style mismatch and grade was not significant using Kolb LSI and Gregorc Style Delineator. The particular learning style of the instructor did not significantly affect grade nor evaluation using Kolb LSI and the Gregorc Style Delineator. However, submodel analysis revealed that instructors' learning style converger contributed to grade and accommodator style contributed to evaluation using Kolb LSI. Instructors' learning styles abstract sequential and concrete random contributed to grade using the Gregorc Style Delineator. The particular learning style of the student did not affect the relationship between learning style mismatch and grade and learning style mismatch and evaluation using Kolb LSI and the Gregorc Style Delineator. Submodel analyses indicated that students with learning styles accommodator and diverger who matched their instructors contributed to grade and students with learning style diverger when matched contributed to evaluation. The findings of this study were generally contrary to research. / Ed. D.

Syftet med min studie har varit att belysa två olika lärstilsmodeller Dunn & Dunns Learning Style Inventory (LSI) och Vermunts Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) för att urskilja deras olikheter. Detta arbete är en forskningskonsumerande uppsats som är baserad på tidigare forskning inom ämnet lärstilar. Vetenskapliga artiklar, översiktsgranskningar, rapporter och böcker har bearbetats och analyserats och kategorier har utformats för att jämföra och analysera lärstilsmodellerna i relation till varandra. I resultatet presenteras båda lärstilsmodellernas karaktäriserande drag vilka är lärstilsförfattarnas definition av termen ”lärstil” samt den specifika lärstilens uppkomst. Sedan behandlas centrala begrepp och kategorier som används inom lärstilen samt lärstilens pedagogiska innebörd. Därefter presenteras mätinstrumentets namn samt själva utformningen av mätinstrumentsformuläret. Efter detta berörs den empiriska evidens som framförts av lärstilsförfattarna samt “extern” evidens av lärstilen om så existerar. Avslutningsvis redogörs de synpunkter som framförts på lärstilen. Studien visar att Dunn & Dunns Learning Style Inventory (LSI) och Vermunts Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) skiljer sig avsevärt åt. Författaren av denna uppsats förespråkar Vermunts Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) och läsaren rekommenderas att först efter noga välinformerat övervägande välja den lärstilsmodell som visar på stark evidens och som överensstämmer med pedagogens egen syn på inlärning.

An instructor's personality may influence his or her teaching strategies and instructional style. Correspondingly, a student with a particular learning style may respond more readily to one teacher personality type as opposed to another. This quantitative research, guided by theories of personality and learning, examined the relationship between instructor level of extraversion and student visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learning modalities in a community college setting. A cross-sectional correlation design was implemented. Three hundred and two students from a community college in the southwestern United States were asked to select an instructor (past or present) they thought taught effectively and complete an observer-rated extraversion scale from the Big Five Inventory on the selected instructor. The students also self-reported their learning style using the Barsch Learning Style Inventory along with a demographic questionnaire. Upon establishing the dominant learning style of each student, a one-way ANOVA was conducted to analyze instructor's extraversion level with student's dominant style of learning. Pearson correlations were examined to determine relationships between instructor extraversion and auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning style scores. While findings did not indicate a positive correlation between instructors' degree of extraversion and students' visual learning style scores, it did show that visual learners rated effective instructors higher on the trait of extraversion than did auditory or kinesthetic learners. In addition, further analyses indicated that auditory and kinesthetic learning style scores negatively correlated to an instructor's level of extraversion. This study's results emphasize the importance of considering both instructors' personality traits and students' learning styles in fostering an advantageous learning environment.