learning-styles

LSRC reference Section 7
page 92/93
the theoretical and conceptual development
of a rationale for focusing on approaches and strategies
for learning
refinements to the reliability and validity of a particular
inventory to measure approaches to and strategies
of learning
the implications for pedagogy
theoretical development of the inventories used
and/or their relationship to others.
Most of the studies reviewed for this report fall into
the first two categories and there appear to be no
empirical evaluations of changes to pedagogy arising
from use of the inventory.
In order to make theories of learning more credible
outside educational psychology, Entwistle and his
colleagues have related psychological concepts
to some of the wide range of variables that affect
approaches and strategies to learning. These include
the traditions and ethos of subject disciplines,
institutional structures and cultures, curriculum
organisation, and students’ past experience and
motivation. In order to persuade teachers and students
to develop sophisticated conceptions of both teaching
and learning, Entwistle (1990, 669) believes that
researchers have to recognise that ‘general theories
of human learning are only of limited value in explaining
everyday learning. It is essential for the theories to have
ecological validity, for them to apply specifically to the
context in which they are to be useful’. The ecological
validity of the inventories and an underpinning model
of learning are thought to be especially important
if lecturers are to be persuaded to take student learning
seriously and to improve their pedagogy.
Unlike other inventories reviewed in this report,
those of Entwistle and Vermunt are the only two that
attempt to develop a model of learning within the
specific context of higher education. The research
has influenced staff development programmes
in HE institutions in Australia, South Africa, Sweden
and the UK. Entwistle has written a large number
of chapters and papers for staff developers and
academics outside the discipline of education. The
overall intention of theoretical development, systematic
development of the inventories, and establishing
evidence of their validity and reliability, is to create
a convincing case that encourages lecturers to change
their pedagogy and universities to support students
in developing more effective approaches to learning.
Entwistle is currently engaged on a project as part
of the ESRC’s Teaching and Learning Research
Programme (TLRP). This focuses on enhancing teaching
and learning environments in undergraduate courses
and supports 25 UK university departments in thinking
about new ways to ‘encourage high quality learning’
(see www.tlrp.org). This work takes account of the
ways in which intensifying political pressures on quality
assurance and assessment regimes in the UK affect
learning and teaching.
The inventory that arises from Entwistle’s model
of learning is important for our review because
a significant proportion of first-level undergraduate
programmes is taught in FE colleges. Government
plans to extend higher education to a broader range
of institutions make it all the more important that
pedagogy for this area of post-16 learning is based
on sound research.
Definitions and description
The research of Entwistle and his colleagues draws
directly on a detailed analysis of tests and models
of learning styles developed by Pask, Biggs and
Marton and Säljö (see the introduction to this section).
This research derives from a number of linked concepts
that underpin Entwistle’s view of learning and it is
therefore important to note that terms in italics have
a precise technical use in Entwistle’s work.
The learner’s intentions and goals determine four
distinct educational orientations: academic, vocational,
personal and social.
These orientations relate to extrinsic and intrinsic
motivation and while discernible, these different types
of motivation fluctuate throughout a degree course.
Students hold conceptions of learning that tend
to become increasingly sophisticated as they progress
through a degree course; for example, unsophisticated
students may see learning as increasing knowledge
or acquiring facts, while more sophisticated students
recognise that learning requires the abstraction
of meaning and that understanding reality is based
on interpretation (Entwistle 1990).
Students’ orientations to, and conceptions of, learning
and the nature of knowledge both lead to and are
affected by students’ typical approaches to learning.
Students’ conceptions of learning are said to
develop over time. An influential study by Perry (1970)
delineated progression through different stages
of thinking about the nature of knowledge and evidence.
While this development takes on different forms in
different subject disciplines, there are four discernible
stages which may or may not be made explicit in
the design of the curriculum or by university teachers:
dualism (there are right and wrong answers)
multiplicity (we do not always know the answers, people
are entitled to different views and any one opinion,
including their own, is as good as another)
relativism (conclusions rest on interpretations from
objective evidence, but different conclusions can
justifiably be drawn)
commitment (a coherent individual perspective on
a discipline is needed, based on personal commitment
to the forms of interpretation that develop through
this perspective).