learning-styles

Implications for pedagogy
Riding (2002) claims that his model has important
implications for many aspects of human behaviour.
He believes that for less able learners, it is important
to achieve a match between cognitive style, the
way in which resources are structured and the teaching
approach. At the same time, he acknowledges that
many variables (especially working memory) interact
with style to determine performance. He and his
students and colleagues have carried out a large
number of correlational and predictive studies focusing
on learning outcomes, but it would be unwise to
accept unreplicated findings in view of the problems
of reliability indicated above. An instrument which is
so inadequate in terms of test–retest reliability cannot
be said to provide robust evidence for adopting
particular strategies in post-16 learning and teaching.
This point certainly holds for the CSA’s highly unreliable
verbal-imager measure, but it is possible that
meaningful group differences may exist in relation to
the holist-analytic measure, even though its reliability
is at best modest.
Perhaps the most convincing study of the pedagogical
implications of CSA scores in the post-16 sector is
the one carried out by Sadler-Smith and Riding (1999)
with 240 business studies students. Here it was found
that holists favoured collaborative learning and the use
of non-print materials such as overhead transparencies
(OHTs), slides and videos. However, it is a step too
far to move from this finding to the recommendation
that students should be given what they prefer.
Indeed, in a study of 112 GCSE Design and Technology
students in eight schools, Atkinson (1998) found that
holistic students who were taught by teachers using
a collaborative approach obtained poorer grades than
any other group.
A small-scale study of some interest is that by
Littlemore (2001), who found a significant difference
between 28 holistic and 20 analytic language students.
The holists tended to make greater use of analogy
when unable to find the correct word when naming
pictures in a second language, whereas the analysts
more often used analytic strategies, such as naming
parts, uses or the functions of the objects. However,
the differences were not large, and as all students
made use of both types of strategy, there do not seem
to be any instructional implications.
Riding et al. (2003, 167) acknowledge that in the
past, ‘studies of style effects have often not shown
clear results or have shown relatively little effect’.
They suggest that this may be because interactions
between individual difference variables have not
been widely studied. They report on interactions
between cognitive style and working memory in 206
13 year olds, finding four significant effects out
of 11 in the case of the holist-analytic dimension.
Teacher ratings of learning behaviour and subject
performance tended to be low for analytics who were
below average on a working memory test, but high
for analytics with above-average working memory
scores. For holists, working memory was less clearly
related to teacher ratings, except in mathematics.
There was no convincing evidence of a similar
interaction effect for the verbaliser-visualiser dimension,
with only one significant result out of 11 ANOVA
(analysis of variance) analyses. This study needs
replication, preferably with more reliable measures
of cognitive style and using a test of working memory
of known reliability and validity.
Positive evidence supporting the ‘matching’
hypothesis as applied to the global-analytic dimension
in a computer-based learning environment comes
from two small-scale studies by Ford (1995) and Ford
and Chen (2001). These made use of two very carefully
designed ways of teaching a classification task and
HTML programming, each believed to suit different ways
of learning. In the second experiment, it was found that,
as predicted, global learners did significantly better
with ‘breadth first’ and analytic learners did best
with ‘depth first’ instruction. The effect sizes in these
two experiments were large, and together, the findings
should be taken seriously, despite the relatively small
sample sizes (34 and 57 respectively).
With the exception of this last finding by independent
researchers, there is a dearth of well-grounded
empirical evidence to support the extensive range
of pedagogical recommendations made by Riding
(2002). The same is true of the set of profiles
for each cognitive style which Riding (1994) has
offered. These are set out in terms of:
social attitude
response to people
decision making
consistency and reliability
managing and being managed
learning and communication
team roles
response to difficulties.
The research basis for these profiles is not explained,
but some relevant correlational studies are summarised
by Riding and Rayner (1998). However, in the case
of team roles, the evidence is very slight, being based
on an unpublished study involving only 10 managers.
Despite these empirical drawbacks, it is possible
to argue that Riding’s model, rather than the CSA,
may have important implications for teaching. Although
not proven by research, it is plausible that teaching
which is biased towards any one of the extreme poles
of the model would disadvantage some learners.
If this is so, the implication is that teachers should
deal both with generalities and particulars; structure
material so that part-whole relationships are clear;
make demands on both deductive and inductive
reasoning; and make use of both visual and verbal
forms of expression.