The Grade 9 Students' Learning Styles
and it's Effect to their
Christian Living in the Class
2013-2014
Prepared by:
Ms. Angel Tecson
Table of Contents
Abstract
2
Introduction 3
-Statement
of the Problem
4
-Review
of Related Literature 7
-Statement
of the Hypothesis
7
Method
-Participants
(N)
8
-Instrument(s) 8
-Experimental
Design
8
-Procedure
9
Results
9
Graph 9
Table 11
Discussion
12
Implications
12
References
14
Appendix (ces)
-Appendix
A- David Kolb’s Learning Style Model 16
-Appendix
B- David Kolb’s Cycle 17
-Appendix
C- Student Survey Questionnaire
Abstract
What’s
your learning style? The reason of this action research paper was to look into
the effect of identifying Grade 9 students’ Learning Styles and its effects to
their Christian Living performance in the class. Using a learning styles inventory, on an
online survey, it was found that most of the group accorded to their preferred
learning style increased. Discussion on
whether or not the increase of the student’s performance in the class should be
recognized to the David Kolb’s and other researchers is included.
Introduction
Many people distinguish that each
person prefers different learning styles and techniques. Learning styles group
common ways that people learn. Everyone has a mix of learning styles. Some
people may find that they have a dominant style of learning, with far less use
of the other styles. Others may find that they use different styles in
different circumstances. There is no right mix. Nor are your styles fixed. You
can develop ability in less dominant styles, as well as further develop styles
that you already use well.
Classroom teachers and educators are
aware that each student learns differently. Through education classes and
constant discussion, educators are aware that by identifying each student
learning style, teaching to his or her learning style and implementing
curriculum that compliments student learning can improve on-task behavior and
increase content knowledge. The thought
of identifying each student learning style may seem impossible and time
consuming. However, with the right instrument, that is quick and effective, the
process will be much more approachable.
A pressure has been placed on teachers to
increase the Grade 9 students’ Learning Styles and its effects to their
Christian Living performance in the class. We know that teaching to a students’
learning style will improve scores (Dunn & Dunn, 1992). When teachers teach
to students learning preference academic achievement increases, attitudes in
learning increases and on-task behavior improves.
Statement
of the Problem
Classroom teachers have the first hand
experience to notice and identify problems or situations that need to be
addressed to improve student learning.
It is our duty as teachers to recognize issues that are affecting
students learning and research how to implement a change. The purpose of this
Action Research Project was to investigate the Grade 9 students’ Learning Styles and its effects to
their Christian Living performance in the class.
What
is Learning Style?
Learning
style is an individual's natural or habitual pattern of acquiring and
processing information in learning situations. A core concept is that
individuals differ in how they learn. Everyone
has a learning style. Our style of learning, if accommodated, can result in
improved attitudes towards learning and an increase productivity, academic
achievement, and creativity (Griggs, 1991).
Kolb (1975) views learning as an
integrated process with each stage being mutually supportive of and feeding
into the next. It is possible to enter the cycle at any stage and follow it
through its logical sequence.
The term “learning style has many
definitions. Your learning styles have more influence than you may realize.
Your preferred styles guide the way you learn. They also change the way you
internally represent experiences, the way you recall information, and even the
words you choose. We explore more of these features in this chapter.
Research shows us that each learning style
uses different parts of the brain. By involving more of the brain during
learning, we remember more of what we learn. Researchers using brain-imaging
technologies have been able to find out the key areas of the brain responsible
for each learning style. For many years educational researchers have been
curious about how individuals learn.
Educators recognize that different students learn differently.
Researchers have learned a great deal overt the last fifty years about learning
styles and how identifying learning styles and teaching to those styles can
improve students’ test scores and increase content knowledge (Pitts, 2002).
Many researchers have their own definition of learning styles. Ausubel, Novak, & Hanesian (1978) stated
that “cognitive styles” or “learning styles” have been defined as
“self-consistent, enduring individual differences in cognitive organization and
function” (as cited in Wilson, 1998, 2). Keefe (1982) defined learning styles
as “cognitive, affective, and physiological traits that serve as relatively
stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the
learning environment” (as cited in Wilson, 1998, 2), while Gregorc (1979)
describes learning styles as “distinctive behaviors which serve as indicators of
how a person learn from and adapts to his environment” (as cited in Wilson,
1998, 2). Dunn & Dunn (1992) defines
learning style is the way in which individuals begin to concentrate on,
process, internalize and retain new and difficult academic information.
David
Kolb’s Learning Cycle
Kolb's experiential learning style
theory is typically represented by a four stage learning cycle in which the
learner 'touches all the bases':
1. Concrete Experience - (a new
experience of situation is encountered, or a reinterpretation of existing
experience).
2. Reflective Observation (of the new
experience. Of particular importance are any inconsistencies between experience
and understanding).
3. Abstract Conceptualization
(Reflection gives rise to a new idea, or a modification of an existing abstract
concept).
4. Active Experimentation (the learner
applies them to the world around them to see what results).
Effective learning is seen when a
person progresses through a cycle of four stages: of (1) having a concrete experience
followed by (2) observation of and reflection on that experience which leads to
(3) the formation of abstract concepts (analysis) and generalizations
(conclusions) which are then (4) used to test hypothesis in future situations,
resulting in new experiences.
Kolb (1975) views learning as an
integrated process with each stage being mutually supportive of and feeding
into the next. It is possible to enter the cycle at any stage and follow it
through its logical sequence.
However, effective learning only
occurs when a learner is able to execute all four stages of the model.
Therefore, no one stage of the cycle is an effective as a learning procedure on
its own.
Review
of Related Literature
The application of learning style
theory encompasses three pervasive problems: confusion in definitions, weakness
in measurement reliability and validity and identification of relevant learner
characteristics (Curry, 1990). While it seems like a good idea to match
teaching styles or methods of instruction to grade 9 student’s particular
learning style, it is obvious from the different ideas of researchers that this
could be problematic. The type of teaching method would depend on the framework
used to determine students’ learning styles. Additionally, some research has disputed
the idea that learning styles are stable personality traits. They observe that
learning style might best be described as situational, that is, depending on
the particular situation in which the learning occurs. Moreover, they argue
that many of the self-report inventories fail to differentiate between learners
("Individual differences and learning styles", 2003). Coffield (2005)
advises teachers to guard against the practice of pigeonholing students into
narrowly defined categories.
Statement
of the Hypothesis
Integrating
Grade 9 student’s preferred learning style will increase on-task behavior and
increase their Christian living performance in the class.
Method
Participants
(N)
The survey for this action research
paper was conducted with thirty four grade 9 Laboure students in Immaculate
Heart of Mary College. The students are from an intact class from a school with
middle-to-high income families. The
class is consists 10 boys and 24 girls. Of all the students 85% was paying and 15% was scholars.
Instrument(s)
The Learning Style Inventory –Intermediate
Version for student’s questionnaire in High school was used as the measuring
instrument. The eighty question are based on four stage learning cycle in which
the learner 'touches all the bases. The
content validity is good. The test
administered to measure individual students CL performance in class.
Experimental
Design
This questionnaire is designed to find
out your preferred learning style(s). Over the years you have probably
developed learning 'habits' that help you benefit more from some experiences
than from others. Since you are probably unaware of this, this questionnaire
will help you pinpoint your learning preferences so that you are in a better
position to select learning experiences that suit your style.
Procedure
The beginning of the third quarter,
November 2013, the researcher was assigned to her grade 9. With granted
permission from the school’s principal, consent where handed out to the subject
chair asking her to allow me to have my research in my class.
The research began with all 40
students taking a test, in February 21, in Christian living. Individually,
students completed a survey with the research.
The research each student 80 questions in which they pointed to a check
or a cross. From the completed surveys
the research determined if the student was an Activist, Reflector, Theorist or Pragmatist
learner.
The students were then divided into
groups according to learning style: The researcher tries to accommodate both
learners when she introduces a CL lesson.
She starts off with a book about the topic so that the active learners
can see the big picture before they get started and the researcher also did a
step-by-step modeling of the CL concepts for the reflective learners.
Results
The Action Research was designed to
determine if matching students to their preferred learning style would increase
the Grade 9 students’ Learning Styles and its effects to their Christian Living
performance in the class. The sample size was 40. Students were group as Activist,
Reflector, Theorist or Pragmatist learner.
Determined by the survey, created by
the research, based on the David Kolb Learning Style inventory, 8 students were
labeled activist, 23 students were labeled Reflectors, 6 students were labeled
Theorist and 8 students were labeled Pragmatist. Three of the students have
equal styles of learning like being activist and pragmatist.
Table 1. Result of Learning Styles of
the Grade 9 Students
Table
2. Inventory Test Result for 40 students
|
Students
|
SCORING
|
|||
|
Activist
|
Reflector
|
Theorist
|
Pragmatist
|
|
|
Students
1
|
11
|
13
|
9
|
13
|
|
Students
2
|
7
|
15
|
19
|
13
|
|
Students
3
|
11
|
12
|
10
|
10
|
|
Students
4
|
12
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
|
Students
5
|
4
|
14
|
8
|
9
|
|
Students
6
|
14
|
17
|
13
|
12
|
|
Students
7
|
12
|
10
|
13
|
7
|
|
Students
8
|
19
|
19
|
18
|
13
|
|
Students
9
|
15
|
15
|
16
|
12
|
|
Students
10
|
18
|
17
|
18
|
20
|
|
Students
11
|
15
|
12
|
16
|
13
|
|
Students
12
|
15
|
14
|
5
|
7
|
|
Students
13
|
10
|
19
|
10
|
11
|
|
Students
14
|
13
|
15
|
13
|
14
|
|
Students
15
|
15
|
14
|
11
|
11
|
|
Students
16
|
14
|
18
|
16
|
16
|
|
Students
17
|
10
|
17
|
12
|
12
|
|
Students
18
|
13
|
13
|
12
|
12
|
|
Students
19
|
16
|
17
|
16
|
18
|
|
Students
20
|
14
|
17
|
11
|
17
|
|
Students
21
|
16
|
12
|
11
|
10
|
|
Students
22
|
11
|
16
|
17
|
14
|
|
Students
23
|
9
|
11
|
12
|
8
|
|
Students
24
|
13
|
17
|
15
|
17
|
|
Students
25
|
12
|
19
|
13
|
15
|
|
Students
26
|
15
|
17
|
13
|
10
|
|
Students
27
|
17
|
12
|
14
|
16
|
|
Students
28
|
13
|
16
|
11
|
12
|
|
Students
29
|
8
|
12
|
7
|
6
|
|
Students
30
|
2
|
15
|
9
|
14
|
|
Students
31
|
11
|
9
|
8
|
7
|
|
Students
32
|
13
|
17
|
14
|
16
|
|
Students
33
|
17
|
19
|
17
|
20
|
|
Students
34
|
16
|
19
|
17
|
17
|
|
Students
35
|
17
|
20
|
17
|
18
|
|
Students
36
|
8
|
15
|
11
|
12
|
|
Students
37
|
15
|
18
|
16
|
17
|
|
Students
38
|
11
|
16
|
14
|
13
|
|
Students
39
|
18
|
16
|
16
|
18
|
|
Students
40
|
16
|
16
|
11
|
17
|
|
|
||||
|
|
Total
|
Total
|
Total
|
Total
|
|
Total Score
|
516
|
614
|
524
|
533
|
|
Result
|
8
|
23
|
6
|
8
|
|
| 15% Theorist |
| 20% Activist |
| 57.5% Reflector |
Discussion
These findings proves that the grade 9
students are Reflective students and that learners do not just receive
information only at the time it is given; they absorb information in many
different ways, often after the fact, through reflection.
It attest that only 20% of the
students are activist Activists who involve themselves fully and without bias
in new experiences. They enjoy the here and now and are happy to be dominated
by immediate experiences. 57.5% of the students are Reflectors who like to
stand back and ponder experiences and observe them from many different
perspectives. They collect data, both first hand and from others, and prefer to
think about it thoroughly before coming to any conclusion. The thorough
collection and analysis of data about experiences and events is what counts so
they tend to postpone reaching definitive conclusions for as long as possible. 15%
of the students are Theorist who prefers to adapt and integrate observations
into complex but logically sound theories. They think problems through in a
vertical, step by step, logical way. They assimilate disparate facts into
coherent theories. And 20% of the students are Pragmatists who are keen on
trying out ideas, theories and techniques to see if they work in practice. They
positively search out new ideas and take the first opportunity to experiment
with applications.
It was found out those Grade 9
students’ Learning Styles and its effects to their Christian Living performance
in the class depend on the teachers strategies in teaching used. It is in the
hand of the teachers in how she will developed students way in learning to
actively perform in the class discussion.
Implications
Although the students in the research result
are more reflector than activists, teachers are encourage to be more creative
in proving strategies for the next year as they went to grade 10. Since it was
proven that Grade 9 SY 2013-2014 are more Reflectors Learners do not just
receive information only at the time it is given; they absorb information in
many different ways, often after the fact, through reflection. Students may not
always be aware of what they are learning and experiencing. Teachers must raise
students' consciousness about underlying concepts and about their own reactions
to these concepts.
The most important reason for
conducting of this research is to help teachers select the best strategies and
techniques to engage students to do their best learning. A good teacher recognizes that it is crucial
and necessary to address the many different learners that they will encounter. Teachers, researchers and practitioners, all
agree that all students can learn but all students learn differently. The next
step is to make sure that students are taught according to their learning
style.
This study is not only for CL teachers
but other subject teacher can also used this research as their guide in
instruction.
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