Student Profiling VARK Learning Preferences and Multiple Intelligences

Student Profiling VARK Learning Preferences and Multiple Intelligences at Dubai Men’s College Peter Hatherley-Greene March 2003

Beginnings • Best Practices • Student Profiling – VARK Learning Preferences – Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

VARK Learning Preferences http: //www. vark-learn. com/

VARK Learning Preferences • Developed in 1987 by Neil Fleming, Lincoln College, New Zealand • Provides users with a profile of their learning preferences • Students can do something about their preferences • Students’ awareness of their learning preference can make their learning more effective • Faculty awareness of their students’ learning preferences can make them more sensitive to diverse teaching strategies

VARK Learning Preferences • This is not a learning style eg. Kolb’s Model • VARK deals with just one dimension of the complex amalgam of preferences that make up a learning style – – the ways in which people like information to come to them – the ways in which they like to deliver their information • Inventory consists of 13 questions supported by Arabic text • Four main modal preferences and one multimodal preference

VARK - visual This preference includes the depiction of information in charts, graphs, flow charts, and all the symbolic arrows, circles, hierarchies and other devices that instructors use to represent what could have been presented in words.

VARK - aural This perceptual mode describes a preference for information that is "heard. " Students with this modality report that they learn best from lectures, tutorials, tapes, group discussion, speaking, web chat, talking things through.

VARK – read/write This preference is for information displayed as words. Not surprisingly, many academics have a strong preference for this modality. This preference emphasizes text-based input and output - reading and writing in all its forms.

VARK - kinesthetic By definition, this modality refers to the perceptual preference related to the use of experience and practice (simulated or real). The key is that the student is connected to reality, either through experience, example, practice or simulation.

VARK - multimodal Multimodal students need to process information in more than one mode in order to get effective understanding. They can be more flexible about how they take in and give out information than those with a profile that emphasizes a single preference. They tend to be able to match their preferences with whatever mode(s) are being used.

VARK – results (CD Year 1) n=276

VARK – results (Foundations) n=162

VARK – results (combined) results n=438

VARK – results (comparison to VARK database) (n=438)

VARK – multimodal breakdown multimodal

VARK – multimodal breakdown multimodal

VARK – breakdown comparisons breakdown

VARK – supporting evidence Reid investigated multiple learning styles preferences in nine ESL language groups. Arabic learning styles support multimodalism. Reid, J. (1987). The learning style preferences of ESL students. TESOL Quarterly, 21/1, 87 -111.

VARK – summary of results • Strong multimodalism (63%) indicates adult learning styles • Old myth of Arab learning preferences (aural and visual learners) appears to be debunked • No observable difference between CD and FD • Bimodal differences between DMC and VARK results • R/W learning preference strongly indicates they do have the potential ability to function in an academic arena • Other studies support findings of multimodalism

VARK – Study Strategies VARK learning preferences places the responsibility for adopting preferred Study Strategies for each modality squarely upon the learner.

VARK – Study Strategies Faculty address study strategies through one-on-one counselling with students. The study strategy for each modal preference is outlined and reinforced at various times during the semester, especially leading up to assessments.

VARK – Study Strategies However, as educators, we may also take advantage of this knowledge when planning learning activities for a particular class with diverse learning preferences.

VARK – Study Strategies For example, CD Year 1 classlists display the VARK learning preference of each student so that faculty can take a snapshot of the generalised learning preferences in the class.

VARK – Study Strategies By using these two approaches, students are made aware of their responsibilities to apply the modal study strategy and faculty are informed/reminded of the diverse nature of their students.

VARK – CEPA scores comparison • increasing percentage of multimodals with increasing CEPA score • support for Fleming's notion that multimodalism is a characteristic of scholastic adult learners • more single mode learners in CD Year 1 compared to Foundations

VARK – did it make a difference? • Too soon to tell • This year provides the baseline for comparisons • Reliability - modal changes occurred when some students were inadvertently retested • Variability in counselling by faculty

Other measures – Gardiner’s Multiple Intelligences • Naturalistic – aptitude for being with and respecting nature • Musical – aptitude for musical expression • Logical/mathematical – aptitude for math, logic, deduction • Existential – aptitude for understanding one’s purpose • Interpersonal – aptitude for working with others • Bodily/kinesthetic – aptitude for being physical • Linguistic/verbal – aptitude for the written/spoken word • Intrapersonal – aptitude for working alone • Spatial/visual – aptitude for picturing, seeing • Emotional – aptitude for identifying emotion (not assessed)

Gardiner’s Multiple Intelligences n=213

Gardiner’s Multiple Intelligences Multiple n=213

Gardiner’s Multiple Intelligences - implications • Know your students • See your students in different contexts • Vary your teaching approach • Vary your assessment approach • Keep an eye on what’s going on outside

Gardiner’s Multiple Intelligences and CEPA correlation • Does this mean that students with higher CEPA scores allowed them to more effectively read the survey and respond to more written cues? (Survey was translated into Arabic) • What is actually being tested when we run a survey such as Multiple Intelligences, reading ability or actual intelligences? • How can we sort out the "reading effect"? • Does this imply students with higher CEPA scores are more sophisticated learners and therefore, are more open to different styles or intelligences of learning?

Student profiling – summary VARK and Multiple Intelligences help us to define how our students learn and what strengths they bring to the learning process

VARK - endpiece Teach me my most difficult concepts in my preferred style. Let me explore the easiest concepts in different styles. Just don't teach me all the time in your preferred style and think I'm not capable of learning. A story and a comment from Virleen M. Carlson , Center for Learning and Teaching, Cornell University

References • Fleming, N. D. (1995), I'm different; not dumb. Modes of presentation (VARK) in the tertiary classroom, in Zelmer, A. , (Ed. ) Research and Development in Higher Education, Proceedings of the 1995 Annual Conference of the Higher Education and Research Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA), HERDSA, Volume 18, pp. 308 - 313 • Gardner, H. , & Hatch, T. (1989). Multiple intelligences go to school: Educational implications of theory of multiple intelligences. Educational Researcher, 18(8), 4 -9. • Reid, J. (1987). The learning style preferences of ESL students. TESOL Quarterly, 21/1, 87 -111. • St Hill, R. (1997), Modal Preferences In Teaching And Learning Economics, Contributed paper, Fifth Annual Teaching Economics Conference, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, 2 -4 July, 1997.

Student Profiling – school leaver type and cultural mindset School leaver type High flyers I III Passers II Failures Knowledge Industrial Agrarian Cultural mindset (Tofler)

Best Practices 2002 • Cherished teaching practices and wisdom • Moving towards e-learning scenarios • “See the students as individuals, not as a group. We classify the group rather than seeing the students as individuals. ”

Learning Style - definition “Any attribute or characteristic of learning that might affect a person’s ability to learn. ”

VARK – inventory (online and PDF) online

VARK – classlists