ASCILITE 2004 Workshop

Learning styles: Supporting effective teaching and learning in a technological world

Objectives	The objective of this half day workshop session is to increase the awareness of the importance of learning styles and how a knowledge of learning styles can be used effectively, to improve teaching and learning.
Intended audience	All lecturers and tutors interested in increasing their awareness of learning styles, via inventories (LSIs) and how they can be utilised for more effective teaching and learning.
Facilitators	Lynne Fowler is a Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering and Coordinator: Women in Engineering, at Murdoch University. Initially qualifying and working as a teacher, Lynne decided to move into industry. She worked for 10 years in the software industry for national and international companies, both in UK and USA. This was at a time when there were very few females in computing, involving great challenges and some very interesting experiences! For the last 15 years she has worked in education at various educational establishments and has lectured in software engineering both in Sheffield Hallam University, UK and Murdoch University, WA. Her experiences in industry have given her an empathy and understanding for the young people and particularly women now entering engineering and computing professions. Daniel McGill is a Lecturer, School of Engineering Science. After having worked in Murdoch University's Teaching Learning Centre for several years, Daniel transferred to the School of Engineering Science. He coordinates a Foundation Unit and has responsibility for Engineering Project Management and Law units for the School. Daniel also coordinates the EngFocus bridging course for Engineering and provides academic support to staff and students.
Details of activities	This workshop is based on research into learning styles, which has been conducted at Murdoch, over the past few years (Fowler et al., 2001a), (Fowler et al., 2001b), (Fowler et al., 2002). Whilst there are numerous instruments for assessing learning styles, those advocated by Kolb, Learning Style Inventory (Kolb, 1984), and Soloman and Felder, Index of Learning Styles, (Soloman & Felder, 1999) are well known, and accepted within education theory (Montgomery, 1995). Both instruments provide an efficient way of analysing our students' learning styles, and complement each other on the information they supply. This workshop will consist of an introduction into learning styles and an in depth look specifically at these two inventories. All participants will have an opportunity to complete the two learning style inventories and analyse their own particular style. This will be performed via our online, web based inventory surveys, which have been developed within the School of Engineering Science. Immediate individual and group results will be available. Permission to use the respective inventories in this mode has been obtained. The learning style inventories evaluate the way a person learns and how they deal with day to day situations in their life. Therefore helping persons to understand how they learn, and how this may differ from someone else, enables them to take positive control over their learning processes. Students whose learning styles are compatible with the teaching style of a course instructor tend to retain information better, obtain better grades and maintain a greater interest in the course (Felder, 1993). It follows that if individuals can be aware of and address the divergences between student and staff learning styles, their learning will improve. If academic staff use this awareness when developing material and teaching in a greater variety of ways, then the learning process can be greatly improved. This is particularly important in the learning of software support tools, often an area where students struggle. Results will be presented from five years of data collected in the School of Engineering Science, showing trends in staff and students learning styles. The diversity of learning styles in our students suggests that flexibility in teaching style is of considerable importance, and exercises will be conducted to analyse the effectiveness of using a particular style of learning. The workshop will be mainly practical in nature with the participants working at times on exercises in small groups, and at other times using full group discussions.
References	Felder, R. (1993). Reaching the second tier: Learning and teaching styles in college science education. Journal of College Science Teaching, 23(5), 286-290. Fowler, L., Armarego, J. & Allen, M. (2001a). CASE tools: Constructivism and its application to learning and usability of software of engineering tools. Computer Science Education, 11(3), 261-272. http://eng.murdoch.edu.au/~lynne/cse2001.pdf Fowler, L., Armarego, J. & Allen, M. (2001b). Learner theory and its application to female learner support in engineering. Paper presented at the 10th International Women in Leadership Conference, Fremantle, Western Australia. http://eng.murdoch.edu.au/~lynne/wileadership2001.pdf Fowler, L., McGill, D., Armarego, J. & Allen, M. (2002). Quantitative learning conversations: Constructivism and its application to learning in an engineering environment. Proceedings HERDSA Conference, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia. http://www.ecu.edu.au/conferences/herdsa/main/papers/ref/pdf/Fowler.pdf Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning Experience as the Source of Learning and Development.Prentice-Hall. Montgomery, S. M. (1995). Addressing diverse learning styles through the use of multimedia. Paper presented at the Engineering Education for the 21st Century: Proceedings of the 25th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference. Soloman, B. & Felder, R. (1999). Index of Learning Styles (ILS). http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSpage.html