Learning Styles and Climate Change Writing Assignments
This paper examines how a writing-to-learn assignment centered on climate change can be designed to accommodate multiple student learning styles. Drawing on data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Gallup polling, the instructor delivers a lecture on climate science and public opinion, then asks students to complete a timed free-write exercise. The paper explains how the assignment aligns with three major learning style frameworks: Kolb's Learning Styles, Fleming and Mills's Sensory-Based Learning Style, and Felder and Silverman's Index of Learning Styles. The discussion concludes that instructors should embrace a variety of strategies throughout a course to engage all learners effectively.
- Introduction: Rationale for addressing diverse student learning styles
- The Lecture: Climate Change and Public Opinion: IPCC findings and Gallup polling on climate skepticism
- The Writing-to-Learn Assignment: Timed free-write activity design and instructions
- Compatibility with Kolb's Learning Styles: Assignment supports concrete experience and reflective observation
- Compatibility with Fleming and Mills's Style: Auditory and logical learning supported by lecture format
- Compatibility with Felder and Silverman's Index: Sequential and verbal-visual learning dimensions addressed
- Discussion: Instructors should vary strategies to reach all learners
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds an abstract pedagogical discussion in a concrete, timely topic — climate change — making the argument immediately relatable to both instructors and students.
- It systematically maps a single assignment to three distinct learning style frameworks, demonstrating that one well-designed activity can serve diverse learners without requiring separate lesson plans.
- The inclusion of Gallup and IPCC data adds empirical credibility to the lecture content described, showing how real-world evidence can motivate critical thinking exercises.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses parallel structure as its central analytical technique: each learning style framework receives its own dedicated section with a consistent format — name the framework, explain its relevant principle, then show how the assignment satisfies it. This parallel organization makes complex theoretical comparisons easy to follow and demonstrates clear academic argumentation at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a rationale for addressing diverse learning styles, then presents the lecture content (climate science and polling data) that serves as the assignment stimulus. It next describes the free-write activity in procedural detail, followed by three analytical sections — one per framework — explaining compatibility. A brief discussion section synthesizes the argument and urges instructors to vary strategies across sessions. References follow in MLA/APA hybrid style.
Introduction
A university instructor who seeks to interest and motivate students through a lecture is sometimes on thin ice when it comes to keeping students' attention. It is therefore incumbent on the alert contemporary instructor to present highly relevant material in a way that engages students, while at the same time recognizing that there are vastly different learning styles in any given classroom.
The job of the instructor is to present information that helps students develop critical thinking skills and learn to solve problems. There are many aspects to the vitally important environmental issue of climate change, and all of them cry out for clarity. An instructor can create a worthy activity — one that informs while it stimulates — from the various approaches to this topic. This paper examines how a writing-to-learn assignment built around climate change is relevant to Kolb's Learning Styles, Fleming and Mills's Sensory-Based Learning Style, and Felder and Silverman's Index of Learning Styles.
The Lecture: Climate Change and Public Opinion
The most respected and thoroughly scientific data surrounding the issue of climate change is researched and reported empirically by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In its Fifth Assessment Report, the panel explains that, in addition to the vast volumes of evidence gathered over the past sixty years, there is new evidence of climate change. This new evidence allows the Working Group — comprising hundreds of scientists — to state without equivocation that the climate is warming and that, since the 1950s, the recorded changes in global temperatures are unprecedented.
The atmosphere and the ocean are warming; snow, ice, and glaciers are being diminished; sea levels are rising; and all of this is happening concurrent with the rise in concentrations of greenhouse gases (IPCC, 2013). While many people agree that the climate is warming, a significant number of those polled by Gallup and other polling organizations do not believe that humans are responsible for these changes.
A Gallup poll published in April 2014 showed that one person in four is skeptical that climate change is taking place (Saad, 2014). That poll indicates that approximately 39% of participants believe global warming is real, is caused by humans, and warrants concern. Another 36% of those polled believe that media reports on global warming are exaggerated and are not worried about the threats from rising temperatures. About 25% of participants simply doubt that climate change is anything to worry about and do not believe it is caused by humans (Saad, 2014).
Research published in the journal Public Opinion Quarterly reflects the fact that 33% of Americans are not aware of any evidence that the climate is actually warming (Schuldt, 2011). Schuldt drew on data from a Pew poll from 2009, and also reports that conservatives tend to use the term global warming while liberals prefer climate change. The reason for these differences is that climate change has caused wildly fluctuating weather conditions, and not all of those changes result in warmer air in any given region. For example, a conservative talk show host noting that New York City had its coldest day on record in January 2013 might use that fact to challenge the notion that global warming is real. It is therefore important to note that climate change is not about weather per se; it is about the climate and its changing influence and impact on the planet and its people.
The Writing-to-Learn Assignment
Following the lecture, students are given seven minutes to write down, in bullet points, the most important information they can recall. Because they were not asked to take notes during the lecture, they must rely on recollection skills. In a second timed window of eight minutes, students are to write a short essay explaining their own previously held position and/or offering a summation of why some people believe in climate change while others do not. Students may also propose a solution to convince the one-in-four doubters that climate change is real. Only pencil and paper are needed for this exercise.
Compatibility with Kolb's Learning Styles
Students are allowed to express their feelings about a concrete experience — the lecture and its central challenge — in a personal way, without being judged right or wrong. This aligns with Kolb's learning style framework because it allows for open-minded and intuitive responses to the material presented (Nilson, 2010). The assignment also fits Kolb's model because it challenges students to observe a dilemma reflectively; differing points of view must be critiqued, and objectivity is essential — both hallmarks of Kolb's approach to learning.
References
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2013). Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis / The Fifth Assessment Report. Retrieved October 18, 2014, from
Nilson, L. B. (2010). Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Saad, L. (2014). One in four in U.S. are solidly skeptical of global warming. Gallup. Retrieved October 18, 2014, from http://www.gallup.com.
Schuldt, J. P., Konrath, S. H., & Schwarz, N. (2011). "Global warming" or "climate change"? Whether the planet is warming depends on question wording. Public Opinion Quarterly, 75(1), 115–124.
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