The debate on the validity of teaching students how to identify their own preferred learning style is not going to go away anytime soon as evidenced by the number of articles still being written about the topic. One can find numerous research studies that say students have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to learning and retaining…

Learning styles have been widely accepted in pedagogical practice but suffer from a distinct lack of empirical support. While a diverse range of learning styles have been proposed, modality preference has received the most attention within educational research and practice. Supporters of this theory posit that each individual has a dominant sense…

The author has been asked to respond to Lodge, Hansen, and Cottrell's recent (2015) paper in this journal and they have done a very thorough and scholarly job of dissecting the weaknesses of modality preference theories. They clearly and carefully analyse the nature of the evidence for modality preference and conclude that there is little if any…

Theories of learning styles suggest that individuals think and learn best in different ways. These are not differences of ability but rather preferences for processing certain types of information or for processing information in certain types of way. If accurate, learning styles theories could have important implications for instruction because…

This article presents the results of a national study of 39 higher education institutions that collected information about their practices for faculty development for online teaching and particularly the content and training activities used during 2011-2012. An instrument of 26 items was developed based on a review of literature on faculty…

Beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, higher education was swept up in the theoretical phenomena of mastery learning, cooperative learning, and small-group learning. Professors, instructors, and teachers at the K-12 level became facilitators, guides, supervisors, counselors, and advocates for all things team and group. The thought of a…

Due to limited budgets and manpower, most elementary schools in Taiwan do not plan or provide library instruction for students. Although students can use libraries, they typically lack the knowledge needed to use library resources effectively. Consequently, students have difficulty finding the books they need and can easily become overwhelmed by…

This article provides a brief overview of the framework of nonlinear pedagogy and evidence emanating from motor learning literature that underpins a nonlinear pedagogical approach. In addition, challenges for nonlinear pedagogy and a discussion on how nonlinear pedagogy support the work of physical education (PE) teachers will be shared. Evidence…

Argues that the main area of educational research on effective learning should focus on the personal qualities of the educator. Suggests that this requires a mixture of conceptual analysis and psychological insight. Also argues that questions about different kinds of learning should be central to educational research. (DSK)

Investigates whether college students can improve their scores on cognitively based scales of the Inventory of Learning Processes (ILP) when using study techniques based on R.R. Schmeck's theory of learning styles. Finds no significant changes in terms of ILP scores for any of the groups. (PRA)

This paper examines the nature of learning cultures in English Further Education (FE), as revealed in the Transforming Learning Cultures in FE (TLC) research project. In it, we describe four characteristics of a generic FE learning culture: the significance of learning cultures in every site; the significance of the tutor in influencing site…

Investigated and confirmed is a correlation between grades awarded on the basis of students' ability to respond with higher-order cognitive processes in college biology classes and performance on Piagetian-type tasks, in which cognitive style dimension of field dependence-independence was assessed for each student. (CS)

With contemporary classrooms becoming increasingly diverse, educational authorities, teachers and school administrators are looking to teaching and learning strategies that cater for a variety of learning profiles. A paradigm that is gaining ground in many educational circles is differentiated instruction. This model proposes a rethinking of the…

Reported is a study designed to investigate the convergent validity of the cognitive preference construct and to develop new techniques for analyzing cognitive preference data. The cognitive preference construct was invented to help evaluate the science curricula of the sixties based on the assumption that a student's intellectual approach to…

This study focuses on the mental processes used during estimation. This research: (1) developed an operational definition of estimation; (2) created an instrument to identify exceptionally good estimators; (3) collected performance level data on 1187 subjects; (4) constructed interview problems and developed protocols to identify the thinking…