The challenge of academic writing for Chinese students within ...

ange of disciplines and areas. The multidisciplinarity of the research of learning
styles has rendered the subject ‗fragmented‘, ‗disparate,‘ complicated and intricate‘
(Cassidy, 2004, p.419). Adding to the complexity is various interpretations of the
concept of learning style. Very often the term is used interchangeably with the term
‗cognitive style‘, and approaches to learning. In this thesis, learning styles are used
interchangeably with approaches to learning and learning strategies. Keefe (1988) has
defined learning styles as a set of cognitive, affective, and physiologic behaviours,
which serve as relatively stable indicators of how students understand, interact with
and respond to the learning environment.
Learning styles characterize how students learn, and ways students prefer to learn.
Students choose different approaches to learning depending on their individual
preferences and different learning environments. Kolb understands that learning styles
are not ‗fixed traits‘ (1981, p.291), but ‗differential preference for learning, which
changes slightly from situation to situation‘ (2000, p.8). He (2000) also claims there is
lasting stability in learning style, which, Coffield et al. (2004) points out, needs
further investigation. According to Kolb (1981, 290), learning styles stand for
‗preferences for one mode of adaptation over the others; but these preferences do not
operate to the exclusion of other adaptive modes and will vary from time to time and
situation to situation.‘ This definition emphasizes the ‗variability‘ (Kolb, 1981, p.290)
in individual approaches to learning.
From the cognitive psychologist‘s perspective, learning styles are seen as ‗generalised
habits of thought, not simply the tendency towards specific acts … but rather the
enduring structural basis for such behaviour‘ (Messick, 1984, p.61). As a result,
learning styles are associated with individuals‘ personality features, abilities, and
habitual approaches to learning (Coffield et al., 2004). For the cognitive psychologist,
learning styles are understood as ‗bipolar constructs,‘ such as field dependence and
field independence (Witkin, 1962; Witkin et al., 1977), and holist-analytic and verbalimagery
(Riding & Rayner, 1998; Riding & Cheema, 1991).
Unlike some of theorists‘ understanding of the changeability of students‘ learning
styles, a group of theorists (e.g. Dunn & Dunn, 1992) regard learning styles as
‗constitutionally based and relatively fixed‘. Dunn and Dunn define learning style as
71