Abstract
Kinesthetic, visual, auditory, and visual are four widely spread learning styles applied globally in advanced educational systems. These styles correspond to students’ abilities who are more inclined to perceive information one way or another. Teachers could use these styles in teaching practice, as they have proven to be more effective than traditional teaching. Despite this, in most cases, a tendency to follow traditions leads to conditionally new techniques not used in the modern teaching process. This research paper presents the studies that prove the learning styles system’s adequacy and discusses how learning systems are used in modern educational institutions. Attention should be paid to the practical implementation of the learning styles and the connection of this topic as an issue of applied sciences with the future profession in the educational sphere. The literature review methodology was applied to write the research paper, with the articles chosen from the free official databases.
Introduction
There are four main learning styles generally distinguished in the learning practice and theory. The first style is called visual style and it correlates with the needs of the students who show the features and signs of visual learners. Visual learners prefer to gain knowledge through images and pictures, diagrams or infographics. The visual learning style is also called spatial style because students use space, such as white paper space, to visualize information by taking notes, drawing up graphics, or drawing pictures.
Auditory learners are better able to perceive information that is accompanied by sound, or transmitted personally, by word of mouth. For such students, trust in the teacher is also very important, therefore teachers must take this factor into account and comply with the moral requirements that are imposed on them by their professional role. Auditory learners can learn very complex concepts quickly if those concepts or ideas are communicated orally, in a simple manner, with eye contact and close enough interaction. Such students perceive information directly from the person who voices it and assimilate at once all the shades of understanding that the teacher puts into the message.
Reading and writing learners perceive information best in the form of written words. They enjoy reading letters or writing essays, reading dictionaries, keeping diaries, reading articles and books, and searching the Internet for information. Kinesthetic learners learn through experience or action; they prefer to participate in events, and may be prone to theatricality. To understand ideas, these students like to articulate them and translate them through play, actions or conversations with gestures and creating roles for the participants. Such students love sports, or dancing, it is difficult for them to sit in one place for a long time, so they have to take breaks to be able to concentrate on the topic being studied.
There are four typical learning styles that correlate with students’ personal perception of information and the world around them: kinesthetic, visual, auditory, and visual types of perception. Despite the fact that each student is unique and a lot of research shows the effectiveness of an individualized approach to teaching, most often the educational system implements standardized approaches to learning during classroom activities. Interestingly, 87% of teachers recognize the effectiveness of the learning styles system, although only 33% apply it in practice (Newton & Miah, 2017). This paper aims to study the learning styles system, and how it is perceived and applied in the educational institutions. Learning styles should be applied more widely in the educational systems to improve the overall procedures of presenting knowledge in the classrooms. Do the four learning styles described, as well as, in principle, modern methods and strategies, show their effectiveness in practice, as opposed to traditional ones?
The topic under study can be attributed to applied disciplines in the pedagogical sphere and is of certain interest since it aims to work on the content of professional education. The reasons for the interest are academic and personal because this research activity enriches the profile experience and will be useful in the future. As a result of research, it is possible to develop in professional activity, the work of technologies for the presentation of educational information, the development of test tasks in the main disciplines, solution to conflicting pedagogical situations. Therefore, the significance of this study for the profession being mastered is difficult to overestimate.
Annotated Bibliography on the Applicable ways of Studying
The authors of the following article looked at learning styles and discussed approaches to explaining individual differences using knowledge from the fields of educational psychology and cognition. Scholars have addressed critical issues of learning styles, including the lack of an explanatory framework, “measurement issues, and the inability to link learning styles to achievement.” (An & Carr, 2017, p. 410). That being said, the study presents comparable approaches to learning styles, including differences in visual skills and other alternatives.
The article discusses adaptive learning systems, noting important components, in particular, adaptive learning systems address the problem of disorientation or cognitive overload and maximize learning efficiency. Given their online use, these systems can offer a wide variety of student learning systems and are suitable for students with different types of perceptions. Scientists acknowledge that existing learning systems are outdated and “lacking in adaptability.” (Bajaj & Sharma, 2018, p. 834). Therefore, scientists proposed to create artificial intelligence systems that would determine the learning styles that are suitable for students. Moreover, scientists propose to place this test program in the cloud to provide access for all students who would like to work with it in a learning environment.
The researchers conducted a study of interconnections in the cerebral cortex, which confirms the tendency of people to perceive information or the entire surrounding reality with the dominance of one particular way. Scientists also discussed existing learning styles’ models and theories, including Kolb’s learning theory, Hani and Munford’s learning models, Felder and Silverman’s learning styles and the VARK model (Dantas & Cunha, 2020). As a result, they propose integrating learning style approaches using these models.
Research examining the effectiveness of visual and verbal learning styles and advance organizer and reciprocal strategies also focuses on comparing and revealing the relationship of teaching methods. To get the results, scientists look at student reading comprehension achievements; high school students participate in an experiment. Analysis shows that the advance organizer strategy and visual style are more effective (Fitri, 2020). The author also confirms the interaction between strategies and learning styles in relation to student achievement.
The reseach studies the feasibility of making a public system available online. This system is called Remote Associates Test and allows to test students according to their inclination for learning styles (Huang, 2019). This test also asked students to complete some assignments so that scientists could discover which students performed better on the assignments. Remarkably, the scholars concluded that students with a visual style presented the best scores for solving graphic and word problems. However, such results are probably because graphic, and word problems are used as a way of teaching traditionally and everywhere. This was due to the fact that students with a visual style of learning had more opportunities to receive and process information in the past than students with other learning styles. Therefore, based on this article, we can conclude that all students should have equal opportunities in learning, regardless of their natural style of perception of information and reality.
In other words, inertia should not impede the implementation of reforms in the education system since the potential for positive change can be as high as a 75% increase in average student performance. If to assume that students with a non-visual learning style make up three-quarters of the total number of students. Scientists have also created a good tool for testing students before learning. Therefore, the RAT or another test similar to it could be implemented on a general basis, for example, under the auspices of the Ministry of Education for national use.
In the study devoted to the challenges of e-learning, the use of learning styles and related issues are discussed. Scientists have confirmed the hypothesis that adaptive learning allows students to create a flexible and dynamic environment, especially when applied online (Khamparia & Pandey, 2020). Therefore, they propose to create a theoretical basis by presenting variants of classification methods aimed at assessing the problems of e-learning.
The following article examines e-learning platforms that are enabling lessons for millions of students. At the same time, scientists draw attention to the fact that such platforms have one significant drawback – the gradual loss of student motivation (Mohammed et al., 2019). The researchers concluded that low motivation arises not from the very fact of distance learning but from the typical way of teaching information, which may not be suitable for all students. Similar to the traditional learning system that teachers present in classrooms based on writing and reading learning style, visual-auditory distance education is too unified to motivate all students. To diversify and improve the effectiveness of the online learning system, scientists have proposed using a gamification tool to increase motivation. As a result, scientists increased student motivation by 25% and reduced the dropout rate by 26%. Interestingly, this study demonstrates the diversity of online learning potential for engaging learning styles. In particular, it is possible to use educational games of different content, taking into account the types of learning styles, which will increase teachers’ overall academic performance and efficiency.
In an article presenting a scientific discussion of learning styles, the authors support the concept of dividing learners by type of information perception. The scientists recognize that teaching students in accordance with styles leads to an improvement in the quality of teaching, as well as memorization and understanding of information by students (Newton & Miah, 2017). It is noted that the learning styles’ concept has been recognized for a long time and is now also widely accepted in the educational sphere.
Despite this, only 33% of teachers say they are willing to use this concept to organize classroom activities. Newton also finds that “overall belief in the use of learning styles was high (58%), but lower than in similar previous studies, continuing an overall downward trend in recent years.” (Newton & Miah, 2017, p. 444) Notably, 33% of respondents say they would continue to use learning techniques in class. Moreover, 32% of respondents ignore the lack of a theoretical evidence base for the theory, noting their continued use anyway. Therefore, the scientists focus on creating an evidence base confirming the benefits of learning styles to increase the number of teachers who would be willing to apply these techniques in practice.
A Research Paper
It is clear from the above scientific articles that modern techniques and strategies are effective at work. It is necessary to find an approach to the audience to get a great return and result. The four learning styles are also relevant and helpful to understanding how a person perceives information. Understanding makes it possible to understand how it will be better to adjust the educational process to help the student master it as efficiently as possible. Interestingly, visual learners may need additional time to understand information, as visual learners interpret it creatively and need space to interpret. Therefore, the more freedom for the interpretation of information is given to such students, the better they can assimilate it.
Auditory learners can also enjoy listening to video lectures or watching documentaries where the audio presentation is accompanied by imagery. These students have a habit of expressing new concepts or ideas out loud, or reading aloud to themselves. They remain calm when speaking in front of the class and are happy to express and communicate ideas they have learned and are able to explain new concepts.
For reading and writing learners to study well, they need to be given the opportunity to express their thoughts on paper, and to allow them to carefully read long texts so that they can assimilate the material. It is noteworthy that the traditional education system usually uses reading and writing styles of learning, despite the fact that it is acceptable only for a small percentage of students. Kinesthetic students are very happy when teachers allow them to move during class. For example, the teacher might ask the students to act out a scene with dialogues in order to better assimilate the material. Another example is games where students move around the classroom and write on the board. Kinesthetic learners need movement, play, and contact experiences with other people in order to understand abstract ideas.
The issue under study refers to the pedagogical discipline of applied status and solves certain theoretical and practical problems. It has integrative nature since it is at the junction of philosophy, pedagogy, psychology, sociology, and cultural studies and therefore presents a certain complexity and versatility (Nkhata et al., 2019). Its directions are related to the methods of teaching and upbringing; issues of the formation of professional competencies, the content of professional education; problems of training teachers of certain directions and profiles. The subject of applied pedagogical disciplines is more limited and aimed at a practical result, which is of a certain value, given the information on the issue under study. Teaching methods and styles contain specific guidelines and are a logical continuation of fundamental pedagogical disciplines. In some cases of the presented literature review, the provided knowledge is an intermediate link connecting science and practice, fundamental research, and methodological development.
The connection of substantial applied knowledge with future professional activities aimed at mastering the specialty of Middle and Secondary Education is updated in a set of methods. Here, methods of transferring, assimilating, and applying educational information are considered with an active position of teachers and students. Based on research, the transfer of the fundamental to the applied plane can go in several directions: the construction of empirical research programs and their implementation, which requires the involvement of fundamental and applied knowledge. Considering the applied orientation of the question, the problem posed to students can be of the most diverse nature: introduction to a new topic or solution of the problem in a new effective way.
The topic’s subject in applied sciences is the mechanisms, laws, patterns, and principles of an individual’s professional development. The methodology of these disciplines is based on the concept of harmonious personality development, the theory of professional self-determination, professional development (Sivarajah et al., 2019). The main tasks of implementing applied pedagogical sciences within the framework of the above topic are actualizing the professional and psychological potential of the student’s personality (Mukhamedov et al., 2020). Considering the issue, no doubt remains in connection with the issues concerning the professional future in education.
Thus, the applied pedagogical disciplines in the structure of the system of higher professional education, within the framework of which this research can be carried out, are of a certain value. They contribute to forming a competence-based attitude towards the chosen profession among bachelors, making it possible to determine a personality-oriented meaning in professional activity, and assessing their abilities and capabilities. The most important goal of applied disciplines in the pedagogical direction is to assist students in finding their place in the structure of future professional activities, understanding the correct choice of a profession. The effectiveness of implementing these disciplines is determined by the teacher’s professional, methodological, and special training. Students’ degree of understanding and acceptance of the importance of these subjects, a variety of organizational forms of classes are also important guidance (Numonjonov, 2020). The issue under study in the framework of applied disciplines is relevant, taking into account future professional activities. It will be possible to apply knowledge in practice and provide more effective learning and interaction with students.
Conclusion
In getting professional education, without applying your knowledge in practice, the theoretical basis makes little sense. Thus, applied sciences in the pedagogical sphere are of particular value. The issue considered in the study acquires significance in the ability to extrapolate knowledge to real interaction with wards. Traditional teaching methods are gradually losing their relevance in modern realities; they are being replaced by new teaching methods that meet the requirements of new generations. Research in this area makes it possible to adopt important aspects for work in an educational environment, namely, different ways of perceiving information.
Given the arguments presented in the studies, most scholars agree that learning styles are an adequate alternative to existing traditional approaches to the educational process. The reason for this judgment is the many factors that influence student success when faced with the application of learning styles. In particular, matching types and ways of perception to learning styles will ensure higher achievement of students and better fulfillment of the teacher’s role. Therefore, scientists need to continue research to develop an adequate theoretical basis for learning styles. This will make it possible to improve the learning process and involve the applied side of the issue.
References
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