Major Points of Each Learning Theory and Submit Personal Learning Style Analysis With Examples

Learning Styles

Malcolm Knowles andragogy is a learning style that fits certain personalities like a 'T', and one that calls into play an individual who enjoys collaborating and cooperating with other individuals who are also interested in learning as much as possible from a wide and diverse participation pool. Knowles set about creating learning environments that called for mutual planning, diagnosis of needs, interests and desires of individual learners, and then an ever-evolving method to meet those needs and interests with knowledge and experience.

Malcolm's objective was to develop activities that would be sequentially mannered and would provide the materials and resources needed to accomplish the learner's and facilitator's objectives in conjunction with self-directed problem solving. Knowles believed that he (and the instructors) were the facilitators and managers of the educational process. He espoused the idea that "teaching is a process of guided interaction between the teacher, the student and the materials instruction" (Knowles, 2005).

The theory of andragogy as presented by Knowles was a process that required ongoing relationships that were fluid in nature. He wanted the students, teachers and interested individuals to work together.

He also wanted all the stakeholders to participate in ongoing assessments and using a wide variety of resources to stimulate the learning process. Malcolm practiced what he believed by avoiding professional teachers who used traditional lecture styles that did not care about the student's interests, instead he employed ever adaptive instructors who "played with ideas." He wanted instructors who had the learner's interests at heart rather than presenting what they thought the students desired.

It is interesting that Malcolm enjoyed teachers who were not 'locked into an academic teaching stance' instead he would much rather have teachers who were relaxed, straightforward in manner who 'avoided the didacticism of many professional teachers'.

Transformative learning has some similarities to self-directed and problem-based learning. Jack Mezirow believed that learners were not only supposed to learn the facts and figures supplied by teachers and instructors but were also to take information and change from who they are to someone new through critical reflection and deep thinking.

He believed that learning resulted from degrees of change within the individual learner and that each student should strive to become a new and improved person with each intellectual moment.

Jack wished to see a transformation in the learner considering who that person was initially, and who they were to become. He desired that adult education would directly affect ongoing changes in the individual at personal levels. Mezirow wanted critical personal reflection to take place concerning the student's assumptions, beliefs and values.

Other transformative thinkers believed in the same way, as exampled by Grabove who wrote in 1997 that 'learners are encouraged to challenge, defend and explain their beliefs, to assess evidence and reasons for these beliefs, and to judge arguments" (Grabove, 1997, p. 91).

While many educators believe that Mezirow added something significant to the field of education by fostering critical thinking skills, there are still many that don't agree with the idea that internal change has to take place within the individual as they become more and more educated. This could be entirely incorrect since many students don't really want to change their internal and external relationships just because they have acquired a higher educational level.

The thought that Mezirow wished to promote concerning students who will function as 'more autonomous, socially responsible thinkers' does not necessarily relate to every student. Some just wish to pass the course!

This article seems to present a number of different styles of learning not necessarily a methodology. Many of the statements made by Richard Felder and Barbara Soloman are strategies of thinking and studying rather than beliefs in methodologies. Together they write about the different styles of learning such as active vs. reflective, visual vs. verbal, sensing and intuitive, and sequential and global learners. They espouse ways to cope with situations in learning and studying, stating the everyone has certain aspects of all the listed learning styles and can incorporate the styles based on the situation.

For instance, the differences between active and reflective thinkers are that the active learner may jump right into a project, while the reflective thinker would sit back and contemplate how to best go about accomplishing the project. They state that reflective workers work best on their own, while active learners would rather work with groups. They also believe that active learners would rather try out a method, while a reflective learner would think through a method before attempting it.

Soloman and Felder also wrote about the differences between visual and verbal learners. They wrote that verbal learners can learn best when encountering written and spoken words, while visual learners would rather see pictures, graphs or charts. Verbal learners would likely do better in a lecture style classroom, while a visual might do better than the verbal by having instructors who use flowcharts, maps, pictures or graphics.Felder and Soloman also explained the difference between sensing and intuitive learners by say that sensors will normally follow well established methods, while intuitives will resent being tested on material that had not been covered in the classroom.

The most interesting aspect of the Felder and Soloman strategies is that certain parts of the learning styles can be found in almost every individual. Determining which style works best for the individual would be beneficial in almost any educational scenario.

Pedagogical and andragogical learning oftentimes will go hand in hand with each other, using one to complement the other. Some of the differences between the two learning theories are often helpful in employing techniques in the classroom that will assist the students in acquiring greater and more comprehensive knowledge.

The pedagogical student will depend on teacher knowledge and instruction while the andragogical student will be much more dependent on his or her own learning. The andragogical directs him or herself while the pedagogical will be directed by the instructor. One of the key differences between the two methods of learning is that the teacher will be pedagogically responsible for evaluating the student's learning while the andragogcically oriented student will be responsible for evaluating his or her own learning. Some of the characteristics of a pedagogical student is one that is motivated by external pressures, while andragogical students are pressured by internal motivators.