Strategies for accommodating individuals' styles and preferences in flexible learning programmes

There has been a considerable growth in the use of flexible methods of delivery for workplace learning and development. However, in designing programmes of flexible learning there is often the assumption that learners will exhibit uniformity in the ways in which they process and organise information (cognitive style), in their predispositions towards particular learning formats and media (instructional preferences) and the conscious actions they employ to deal with the demands of specific learning situations (learning strategies). In adopting such a stance one runs the risk of ignoring important aspects of individual differences in styles, preferences and strategies. Our purpose in this paper will be to: (i) consider some aspects of individual difference that are pertinent to the delivery of flexible learning in the workplace; (ii) identify some of the challenges that extant differences in styles and preferences between individuals may raise for instructional designers and learning facilitators; (iii) suggest ways in which models of flexible learning design and delivery may acknowledge and accommodate individual differences in styles and preferences through the use of an appropriate range of instructional design, learning and support strategies.

[1]  Eugene Sadler-Smith,et al.  Intuition-Analysis Style and Approaches to Studying , 1999 .

[2]  A. Moran.  What Can Learning Styles Research Learn from Cognitive Psychology , 1991 .

[3]  Eugene Sadler-Smith,et al.  Learning styles: a holistic approach , 1996 .

[4]  S. Larsson,et al.  Self‐directed learning in a work context , 1995 .

[5]  Alan Richardson,et al.  Verbalizer-visualizer: A cognitive style dimension. , 1977 .

[6]  C. A. Moore,et al.  FIELD‐DEPENDENT AND FIELD‐INDEPENDENT COGNITIVE STYLES AND THEIR EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS , 1975 .

[7]  R. Riding,et al.  Cognitive Styles—an overview and integration , 1991 .

[8]  Peter J. Smith,et al.  Flexible delivery and apprentice training: preferences, problems and challenges , 2000 .

[9]  L. Curry.  A Critique of the Research on Learning Styles. , 1990 .

[10]  Marcus Powell,et al.  Open and Flexible Learning in Vocational Education and Training , 2000 .

[11]  John Hall,et al.  Psychological developments in high technology teaching and learning environments , 2000, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[12]  Dorothy Zakrajsek,et al.  Learning Styles VS. Teaching Styles—Studying The Relationship , 1985 .

[13]  Jeanne Boote,et al.  Learning to learn in vocational education and training: are students and teachers ready for it? , 1998 .

[14]  S. M. Smith,et al.  Interactive Effect of Multimedia Instruction and Learning Styles , 2000 .

[15]  E. Sadler‐Smith,et al.  Cognitive style and instructional preferences , 1999 .

[16]  Peter J. Smith.  Preparing for flexible delivery in industry : learners and their workplaces , 2000 .

[17]  Gordon Pask,et al.  Learning Strategies and Individual Competence. , 1972 .

[18]  Eugene Sadler-Smith,et al.  Learning Preferences and Cognitive Style , 2000 .

[19]  G. Pask.  STYLES AND STRATEGIES OF LEARNING , 1976 .

[20]  J. Biggs.  Individual differences in study processes and the Quality of Learning Outcomes , 1979 .

[21]  Richard J. Riding,et al.  The effect of cognitive style, age, gender and structure on the recall of prose passages , 1998 .

[22]  Robert Schulz,et al.  Can computer-aided instruction accommodate all learners equally? , 1999, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[23]  Anthony F. Grasha,et al.  A Rational Approach to Developing and Assessing the Construct Validity of a Student Learning Style Scales Instrument , 1974 .

[24]  E. Sadler‐Smith,et al.  Type of Instructional Material, Cognitive Style and Learning Performance , 1992 .

[25]  JoAnn Greco,et al.  GOING THE DISTANCE FOR MBA CANDIDATES , 1999 .

[26]  C. Pleydell-Pearce,et al.  Cognitive Style and Individual Differences in EEG Alpha During Information Processing. , 1997 .

[27]  A. Glass,et al.  EEG differences and cognitive style , 1999, Biological Psychology.

[28]  R. Sternberg,et al.  Are Cognitive Styles Still in Style , 1997 .

[29]  L. Curry.  An Organization of Learning Styles Theory and Constructs. , 1983 .

[30]  Frank Pearson,et al.  The Relationship between Cognitive Style and Intelligence , 1994 .

[31]  Noel Entwistle,et al.  Styles of learning and teaching , 1981 .

[32]  E. Sadler‐Smith,et al.  Cognitive Style and Learning Strategies: Some Implications for Training Design , 1997 .

[33]  J. Guilford,et al.  The nature of human intelligence. , 1968 .

[34]  Peter J. Smith.  Preparedness for flexible delivery among vocational learners , 2000 .

[35]  Eugene Sadler-Smith,et al.  “Modern” learning methods: rhetoric and reality , 2000 .

[36]  Christopher W. Allinson,et al.  The Implications of Learning Styles for Training and Development: A Discussion of the Matching Hypothesis , 1996 .

[37]  Castl Survey.  The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching , 1910, Nature.

[38]  Jim Butler,et al.  The Learning Context within the Workplace: As Perceived by Apprentices and Their Workplace Trainers. , 1997 .

[39]  R. Riding,et al.  Towards a Categorisation of Cognitive Styles and Learning Styles , 1997 .

[40]  Peter J. Smith.  Learners and their workplaces: towards a strategic model of flexible delivery of training in the workplace , 2001 .

[41]  R. Chartock,et al.  Identifying Local Links to the World. , 1991 .

[42]  Lia V. Brillhart.  Responsive Education Applied to Engineering Mechanics. , 1981 .

[43]  Albert A. Vicere,et al.  Ten Observations on E-Learning and Leadership Development , 2000 .

[44]  Herre van Oostendorp,et al.  Cognitive Effects of a Structural Overview in a Hypertext , 1999, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[45]  S. A. Karp,et al.  Psychological Differentiation: Studies of Development , 1963 .

[46]  Richard J. Riding,et al.  The Effect of Cognitive Style on the Preferred Format of Instructional Material , 1997 .

[47]  Pinchas Tamir,et al.  Meta‐analysis of cognitive preferences and learning , 1985 .

[48]  Jerry Lee Gray,et al.  THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COGNITIVE STYLE AND INTELLIGENCE , 1969 .

[49]  R. J. Riding,et al.  The assessment of verbal‐imagery learning styles and their effect on the recall of concrete and abstract prose passages by 11‐year‐old children , 1981 .

[50]  R. Riding,et al.  The effect of cognitive style and mode of presentation on learning performance. , 1993, The British journal of educational psychology.

[51]  R. Riding.  On the Nature of Cognitive Style , 1997 .

[52]  R. Riding,et al.  Cognitive Styles and Learning Strategies , 2013 .

[53]  Nigel Ford,et al.  Matching/mismatching revisited: an empirical study of learning and teaching styles , 2001, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[54]  John Biggs,et al.  INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP DIFFERENCES IN STUDY PROCESSES , 1978 .

[55]  Gwyneth Hughes,et al.  Use of concept mapping to integrate the different perspectives of designers and other stakeholders in the development of e-learning materials , 2001, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[56]  Christopher W. Allinson,et al.  The Cognitive Style Index: A Measure of Intuition‐Analysis For Organizational Research , 1996 .

[57]  S. Billett.  Situated learning: Bridging sociocultural and cognitive theorising , 1996 .

[58]  S. A. Karp,et al.  Differentiation: Studies of development. , 1962 .

[59]  Stephen R. Brainard,et al.  Men, Women, and Learning Styles. , 1977 .

[60]  Richard J. Riding,et al.  The relationship between extraversion and verbal-imagery learning style in twelve-year-old children , 1980 .

[61]  R. Schmeck,et al.  Development of a Self-Report Inventory for Assessing Individual Differences in Learning Processes , 1977 .

[62]  Betty Collis,et al.  Flexible learning and design of instruction , 1998, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[63]  Ian Robertson,et al.  Developing preparedness for flexible delivery of training in enterprises , 2002 .

[64]  E. Sadler‐Smith.  Does the Learning Styles Questionnaire Measure Style or Process? A Reply to Swailes and Senior (1999) , 2001 .

[65]  Insung Jung,et al.  Building a theoretical framework of web-based instruction in the context of distance education , 2001, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[66]  M. Kirton.  Adaptors and Innovators: A Description and Measure. , 1976 .

[67]  J. Kagan,et al.  INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE RESOLUTION OF RESPONSE UNCERTAINTY. , 1965, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[68]  E. Sadler‐Smith.  The relationship between learning style and cognitive style , 2001 .