The purpose of the study was to gauge Grade 4 Life Orientation educators‟ understanding of what learning style diversity entails, and to explore how they accommodate diverse learning styles during teaching and learning in inclusive Life Orientation classrooms. The study explored the educators‟ choice of teaching methods and strategies, learning activities and assessment approaches to accommodate diverse learning styles in their classrooms. The first phase of the study was characterized by a literature review, which guided the formulation of focus group interview questions as well as observation criteria. The literature review explored the notion of accommodating diverse learning style needs as an important aspect of inclusive education, as well as the teaching methods and strategies, learning activities and assessment approaches that could be employed to accommodate learning style diversity in inclusive Life Orientation classrooms. The second phase of the study comprised the empirical research. Within an interprevistic framework, qualitative research by means of focus group interviews and observations was undertaken to collect data in order to determine educators‟ understanding of learning style diversity and to explore how they accommodate diverse learning style needs in their inclusive Grade 4 Life Orientation classrooms. Focus group interviews were conducted with a convenient and purposively selected sample of Grade 4 Life Orientation educators (n=40) who teach at Township schools in the Sedibeng West District of the Gauteng Department of Education. In addition to the focus group interviews, observations were done in the classrooms of five willing educators who took part in the focus group interviews to observe how the educators accommodate diverse learning style needs in practice during their teaching. The data analysis revealed that educators do not have an adequate understanding of what diverse learning style needs imply, and do not accommodate diverse learning style needs in a balanced way in their classrooms. Both the findings from the focus group interviews and observations indicated that educators experience challenges in accommodating diverse learning style needs during the teaching of Grade 4 Life Orientation in inclusive classrooms. These challenges inter alia relate to time, workload, overcrowded classrooms and a need for guidance on how to accommodate diverse learning style needs. Based on the data obtained, examples of teaching, learning and assessment activities that could form part of a teaching and learning programme for Grade 4 Life Orientation was developed to guide educators in addressing learning style diversity during teaching. In the absence of curriculum-based teaching and learning programmes that guide educators in accommodate diverse learning styles during the teaching of Life Orientation, this study makes a valuable contribution. Key concepts: learning style diversity, learning preferences, pedagogical barriers to learning, inclusive education / PhD, Teaching and Learning, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2012

This study was designed to investigate the roles of gender and learning styles on tenth grade students&amp / #8217 / kinematics graphing skills. The study was conducted in 14 representative cities throughout seven different geographical regions over Turkey with a total of 989 tenth grade students in last four weeks of the spring semester of 2002-2003 school year. Findings of the kinematics graphing skills test indicated that general performances of the students were very low and many students have difficulties in interpreting kinematics graphs. When the data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), while controlling the effects of students&amp / #8217 / age, previous physics course grades and previous mathematics course grades, the results indicate that there was no significant difference among the kinematics graphing skills test scores of students having different learning styles. Similarly, no significant difference was found between the kinematics graphing skills test scores of female and male students. However, a significant interaction was observed between gender and learning styles on students&amp / #8217 / kinematics graphing skills test scores. The most common learning style type was assimilator for the participants of this study. Accommodator female students&amp / #8217 / kinematics graphing skills test scores were higher than that of female students having other learning styles and converger male students&amp / #8217 / kinematics graphing skills test scores were higher than that of male students having other learning styles on kinematics graphing skills test. Bivariate correlations revealed significant positive correlations between students previous physics course grades, previous mathematics course grades, and age and their kinematics graphing skills test scores.

This study aimed to explore the roles of students&amp / #8217 / motivational beliefs (self-efficacy, intrinsic value, test anxiety) and learning styles on tenth grade students&amp / #8217 / biology achievement. In this study Turkish version of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, Learning Style Inventory, and Biology Achievement Test were used as measuring instruments. Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire was adapted into Turkish and pilot tested with 238 tenth grade students from two representative schools. The main study was conducted in 11 randomly selected schools throughout the &Ccedil / ankaya and Yenimahalle districts of Ankara with a total of 980 tenth grade students in fall 2002-2003 semester. The data obtained from the administration of the measuring instruments were analyzed by using analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) and bivariate correlations. Results of the statistical analyses indicated that students&amp / #8217 / learning styles had a significant effect on their biology achievement when students&amp / #8217 / motivational beliefs were controlled. The most common learning style type was found to be assimilating for the subjects of this study. Moreover, the biology achievement test mean scores of assimilators were found to be higher than that of convergers, divergers, and accommodators. Bivariate correlations revealed low positive correlations between each of the three components of motivational belief and students&amp / #8217 / biology achievement.

The purpose of this study was to determine the learning styles of preparatory school students from Gazi University and examine the relationship between students&rsquo / learning style preferences (LSP) and faculty students will study in, gender, proficiency level of English and achievement scores on listening, reading, grammar, and writing in the English Course. The instrument, Index of Learning Styles (ILS), was administered to 367 randomly selected students. As for the data analysis, descriptive statistics portrayed the frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations, the t test was conducted to see whether students&rsquo / achievement scores differ according to their LSPs and the Crosstabs procedure was conducted to investigate whether the LSPs of the students at Gazi University differ according to faculty they will study in, gender and level of proficiency. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between students&rsquo / LSPs and faculty, gender, level and achievement scores.

O objetivo geral desta pesquisa é verificar a existência de um estilo de aprendizagem e de um estilo de liderança predominantes na gestão de mulheres empreendedoras de pequenas empresas do setor de comércio varejista da cidade de São Carlos. Nas duas últimas décadas, foi observado um aumento significativo no número de empreendedoras mulheres tanto no Brasil como em diversos países do globo. A criação e gestão de negócios, tarefas antes tipicamente masculinas, agora são exercidas cada vez mais por mulheres. Esse crescimento no número de mulheres a frente de seus negócios tem sido alvo de atenção dos pesquisadores de empreendedorismo ao redor do mundo. Este trabalho abordará o tema sob a ótica dos estilos de aprendizagem e de liderança da empreendedora, suas inter-relações e suas influências ems pequenas empresas. As mulheres possuem maneiras diferentes de empreender, traçar as estratégias e liderar seus seguidores. Elas dão ênfase maior aos relacionamentos com os empregados, os fornecedores e os clientes. As prioridades, na maioria das vezes, não se expressam em cifras monetárias ou no crescimento da empresa. Elas prezam qualidade de vida, ou seja, para elas é importante saber administrar o tempo tornando possível conciliar os compromissos profissionais com os familiares. A partir destas características, assume-se a premissa de que a identificação do estilo de aprendizagem e do estilo de liderança das mulheres, venha ajudar a compreender o desenvolvimento de habilidades gerenciais que as auxiliem em suas empresas. A pesquisa foi uma survey e identificou os estilos de aprendizagem e o estilo de liderança das mulheres empreendedoras, no contexto das pequenas empresas estudadas. Para identificar esses estilos e as principais habilidades gerenciais das mulheres, foram utilizados os questionários Learning Style Inventory LSI e Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire MLQ. Os resultados da pesquisa mostram: quais os estilos de aprendizagem e estilos de liderança são predominantes entre as mulheres estudadas, as relações encontradas entre o estilo de aprendizagem e o estilo de liderança das mulheres, e quais as suas principais habilidades gerenciais / This research objective is to study learning style and leadership style of women entrepreneurs of small businesses in the retail sector in the city of São Carlos. In last two decades, there was a significant increase in women entrepreneurs in Brazil and worldwide. Several researchers have paid attention on women. This work investigates learning and leadership styles, their interrelationships and their influence on small businesses. Women have particular ways of entrepreneurship, to outline strategies and to lead their followers. Generally, their emphasis is to relationships with employees, suppliers and customers. Their priorities, frequently, are not expressed in terms of monetary or of company\'s growth. For them, life quality is important. They manage their time and to reconcile work commitments with family tasks. To understand women learning and leadership styles helps to realize what kind of management skills could help them in their business. This research was a survey. It identified learning and leadership style of women entrepreneurs in small business context. To identify these styles and the key managerial skills of women, we used The Learning Style Inventory (LSI) and the Leadership Multifactor Questionnaire (MLQ) were used to identify learning styles, managements skills and leadership style. The survey results show: what learning styles and leadership styles are prevalent among the women studied, the relationships between learning style and leadership style of these women, and what are their main management skills

The identification of learning styles can be a vehicle to promote self-reflection between members of universities, teachers, tutors and students, necessary for the practice change. In this context, a study was conducted in order to translate and crossculturally adapt the instrument "Pharmacists' Inventory of Learning Styles" (PILS) for use in Brazilian pharmaceutical education. The process comprised five steps: (i) two independent translations, (ii) synthesis of translations, (iii) backtranslation, (iv) review by expert committee and (v) pilot study. Native translators in Portuguese and English languages conducted three first steps with liguistic rigor and solving up ambiguities or discrepancies by consensus among members and researcher. Expert committee analyzed semantic, idiomatic, conceptual and cultural equivalences between the original and the translated version. The average agreement for all stages of evaluators was 92.4% and ten items (58%) suffered some type of change. In pretest, 48 participants among pharmacy students (27,1%) and pharmacists (72,9%) – residents (17,1%) and mentors (20%) - assessed the modified version of the instrument, getting just two highlights (0.2%) related to the clarity of the items, and this version was considered applicable and understandable without the need for additional modifications. Thus, the process of cultural adaptation contributed to the development of a suitable instrument for the Brazilian context, appropriate for use as learning styles identification tool and consequent improvement of pharmacy education in this / A identificação dos estilos de aprendizagem pode ser utilizada como um veículo para promover auto-reflexão, necessária para as mudanças de prática, entre membros de universidades, professores, preceptores e estudantes. Neste contexto, foi realizado um estudo com o objetivo traduzir e adaptar transculturalmente o instrumento “Pharmacists’ Inventory of Learning Styles” (PILS) para utilização na educação farmacêutica brasileira. O processo compreendeu cinco etapas: (i) duas traduções independentes, (ii) síntese das traduções, (iii) retrotradução, (iv) revisão pelo comitê de especialistas e (v) estudo-piloto. As três primeiras etapas foram conduzidas com rigor liguístico por tradutores nativos em língua inglesa e portuguesa, solucionando-se ambiguidades ou discrepâncias por meio de consenso entre os membros e a pesquisadora. Na etapa de revisão por comitê de especialistas foram analisadas equivalências semântica, idiomática, conceitual e cultural entre a versão original e a versão traduzida. A média de concordância para todas as etapas entre os juízes foi de 92,4% e, ao final das avaliações, dez itens (58%) sofreram algum tipo de alteração. A versão pré final do instrumento foi aplicada em estudo piloto com 48 participantes, dentre estudantes de graduação em Farmácia (27,1%) e farmacêuticos (72,9%), havendo entre estes residentes (17,1%) e preceptores (20%). Com apenas dois destaques (0,2%) quanto à clareza dos itens, o instrumento foi considerado aplicável e compreensível, sem necessidade de modificações adicionais. Assim, o processo de adaptação transcultural contribuiu para o desenvolvimento de um instrumento adequado ao contexto brasileiro, apropriado para a utilização como ferramenta de identificação de estilos de aprendizagem e conseqüente aprimoramento do ensino de farmácia no país.

O presente estudo contempla o tema da aprendizagem em ambientes virtuais de ensino. O objetivo geral foi analisar o relacionamento entre o estilo de aprendizagem e a preferência dos recursos utilizados em ambientes virtuais. Ademais, este estudo visa a contribuir com os procedimentos de acompanhamento, adaptações e melhorias dos ambientes virtuais estudados, o Moodle e o LaVie (Laboratório Virtual de Estatística). O trabalho possuiu caráter exploratório e descritivo. A pesquisa exploratória foi realizada por meio de estudo de caso, visando a análise da qualidade do ambiente virtual de ensino, foco deste trabalho. A pesquisa descritiva consistiu em correlacionar o estilo de aprendizagem e uma avaliação de alunos a respeito de atividades de e-learning empregadas na disciplina de Estatística Aplicada à Administração III do curso de graduação em Administração de Empresas da Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade de Ribeirão Preto da Universidade de São Paulo (FEA-RP/ USP). Os resultados das análises indicaram a existência de relação positiva entre o estilo de aprendizagem e a preferência por alguns recursos de aprendizagem virtual, o que permitiu o desenvolvimento de um protocolo com estratégias e atividades de e-learning para favorecer e estimular os diferentes estilos de aprendizagem. A construção do protocolo de qualidade relacionado aos estilos de aprendizagem constituiu uma ferramenta de auxílio no planejamento e elaboração de programas de educação a distância. / The present study focuses on learning in virtual enviroments. The general objective was to make a correlation between learning style and the preference for some distance learning resources. Moreover, this study aims to contribute with following, adaptation and improvement procedures in the virtual enviroments that were part of this study, the Moodle and the LaViE (Laboratory of Statistics Applied to Administration). A qualitative exploratory case study was conducted for the quality analysis of learning virtual enviroments and a descritive study was conducted to asses the correlation between learning style and students evaluation of e-learning activities in University of Sao Paulo (School of Economics, Business and Accounting of Ribeirão Preto). The results showed a positive relationship between learning style and the preference for some e-learning resources, which permited a development of a protocol for distance learning programs, based on e-learning strategies and activities compatible with each learning style.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction / Diane McGrath / This naturalistic case study was designed to provide descriptive data to examine the possible role of student learning styles in their collaborative participatory behaviors in an online text-based learning environment; and whether the technology-rich environment that promotes collaborative, project-based learning can have an effect on learners’ participation behavior from the point of view of learning styles. In this study, graduate and advanced undergraduate students’ discussion posts, project reports, reflections, and archived chat records were carefully analyzed. The research results indicated that, in an online collaborative learning environment participants were observed to use the Convergent, Divergent and Accommodating learning styles more often than Assimilating learning styles. Indeed, participants with the Assimilating learning style did not show a positive attitude towards online collaboration. Moreover, students who took a leadership role had their learning style kite shape close to the Concrete Experience learning mode; others who were more supportive had their kite shape close to the Reflective Observation “watching”; and those usually took both a leadership role and a supportive role and were comfortable with a variety of learning modes had their kite shape balanced along two or more dimensions of the learning cycles. The discussion of identified themes in this study is related to Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory framework. The study provides extended implications and suggestions for future research.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2015-12-07T12:51:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 gustavohenriquedarochareis.pdf: 1407647 bytes, checksum: b94399b5bafb2e6cb8e48443f285a7c4 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2015-12-09T10:33:11Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 gustavohenriquedarochareis.pdf: 1407647 bytes, checksum: b94399b5bafb2e6cb8e48443f285a7c4 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-09T10:33:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 gustavohenriquedarochareis.pdf: 1407647 bytes, checksum: b94399b5bafb2e6cb8e48443f285a7c4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-06 / O uso de dispositivos m oveis v^em aumentando signi cativamente nos ultimos anos. Outra tend^encia e a consolida c~ao no uso Tecnologias Digitais da Informa c~ao e Comunica c~ao para ns educacionais. Estes cen arios juntos possibilitam novas formas de comunica c~ao entre professores e alunos, como, por exemplo, a recomenda c~ao de conte udos educacionais e colabora c~ao utilizando dispositivos m oveis. Este trabalho mostra uma arquitetura, chamada CALearning, que re une as principais caracter sticas para um sistema de aprendizado m ovel, como promover a colabora c~ao (recomenda c~ao e avalia c~ao de conte udos) entre os alunos e fazer a recomenda c~ao de conte udos de acordo com o estilo de aprendizagem e prefer^encias do usu ario. A arquitetura tamb em faz uso de informa c~oes de contexto para recomendar conte udos adaptados de acordo com as caracter sticas de acesso a Internet (taxa de transmiss~ao) e deslocamento do aluno durante sua intera c~ao com o aplicativo. Como prova de conceito foi desenvolvido tr^es sistemas chamados CALearningDroid, CALearningWeb e CALearningWS, baseado na arquitetura proposta / The use of mobile devices have increased signi cantly in recent years. Another trend is the consolidation in using Digital Technologies of Information and Communication for educational purposes. These scenarios together enable new forms of communication between teachers and students, for example, the recommendation of educational content and collaboration using mobile devices. This work shows an architecture called CALearning, which brings together the main features for a mobile learning system as promote collaboration (recommendation and content evaluation) among students and to do the content recommendation according to the learning style and user's preferences. The architecture also does use of context information to recommend content tailored according to the Internet access features (transmission rate) and displacement of the learner during their interaction with the application. As proof of concept, was developed three systems called CALearningDroid, CALearningWeb and CALearningWS, based in the proposed architecture.

Background: Learning preference refers to how individuals choose to approach learning situations. Computer-aided instruction (CAI) permits the adaptation of educational content to individual student learning strategies. Methods: To determine if learning preference and computer attitude influence the acquisition of knowledge using CAI materials, a prototype CAI program was developed that incorporated differing learning exercises. Students (n = 180) completed Rezler's Learning Preference Inventory (LPI) and a computer attitude survey (CAS). The LPI uses three sets of paired scales to characterize learning preference and choice of learning situation. The CAS assesses student attitudes toward computers in general (CAS-G), as well as the educational use of computers (CAS-E). After finishing the program students completed a program attitude survey (CAS-P). Immediate comprehension was assessed by pretests and posttests incorporated into the program. Retention was assessed by a repeat of the posttest 4 to 6 weeks after initial program review. Results: Scores (mean ± SEM) on the pretest, posttest, and late posttest were 38.1% ± 1.35%, 70.9% ± 1.24%, and 62.5% ± 1.44%, respectively. There was no correlation between students' learning preferences or computer attitude and test performance. Conclusions: The data indicate that CAI provides a means of delivering educational content that results in an increase in knowledge that is not correlated with computer attitudes or learning preferences.