FINAL RESEARCH PAPER

Research Project- Learning Styles

5/10/12

Jill Arnold

Introduction:

I have always wondered the ways that someones learning styles can affect the way they learn. Especially as an aspiring teacher, it will be extremely important to examine the learning styles of the students in my classroom and to try to cater to them. Considering everyone learns in different ways, it is important to see what helps students and what doesn’t. Therefore, I will perform an interview on my mother to see how learning styles affect the way we learn throughout our schooling process.

“One concept in particular which has provided some valuable insights into learning in both academic and other settings is learning style.” (Cassidy, 420). This quote explains that discussing learning styles and the way people learn has been extremely relevant lately. The article also discusses that a learning style can impact the outcome of students performance in assessments. As I interview my mother, I will inquire as to how her learning style affected the way she learned to read and write and how teachers adjusted to learning styles 40 years back as opposed to how they do now. 

Discussing learning styles and how they affect our students today has been extremely helpful to teachers and the like. Years ago, teachers were not as worried about integrating all different types of learning styles as to reach out to every student in the class. Now, teachers are learning that there are so many different ways that children learn. Learning styles is something that will affect the way I teach my students one day. Simply being aware that there are difference approaches to teaching and learning can make a difference (Cassidy, 420). 

Since my mother was born in 1951, I thought she would be a great subject to interview because I want to understand some of the differences between being a learner in the 60s-70s and now. I have looked up to my mother my entire life. Not only because she is my mother, but also because she is one of the most intelligent women I know. Another benefit of interviewing my mother is that I know she will be honest with me, as opposed to interviewing a stranger or acquaintance. As I begin to interview my mother, I get the feeling that things have changed throughout the school system as the years have gone on. Also, the way that parents are involved within children’s schooling has changed drastically as well. One of the things my mother points out to me is how much more involved she is in my schooling process than her parents were in hers. 

Furthermore, throughout my study I will use the interview method and discourse analysis to find out information on my mothers learning style and the way it affected her throughout her schooling process. Interviewing is a part of everyday life and some even regard it as an extension of what humans “naturally” do (Griffin, 175). By using this method, I will be able to use the knowledge that I have learned about my mother in the past twenty-two years of my life and also doing a formal interview to answer specific questions as well. Discourse analysis will be used to interpret what is being said in the interview. 

Body:

First, I explain to my mother that we will be talking about learning styles and the way they affected the way she learned to read and write. Since my mother is in her 60s, it will be interesting to examine the difference between the way teachers adapted to teaching styles back then as opposed to the way they do now. Since her siblings are 10 and 16 years younger than her, a lot of her schooling process, it was just her and her parents. All of her schooling through high school was done in Lodi, New Jersey where she grew up. When she graduated high school, she went to Hackensack Hospital School of Nursing. She explains that they did all of their nursing classes at the hospital then took college courses at Farleigh Dickinson. 

As we get into her schooling experience, she explains to me that she always did well in school, for the most part. Math was a struggle for her as she got older, but that seems to lend hand-in-hand with her learning style, which we will get to later. Reading and writing were always her strongest subjects. She explains to me that she was always the spelling bee champion in her classes. In high school, she was in honors english throughout her four years. 

I began asking my mother more about her learning styles. Even though I believe I already know what type of learning style she is, I was curious to find out the way she thought she learned best. When I first asked my mother about her learning styles, I had to explain to her a little bit about it because I could tell by the confused look on her face that she was a little confused about what I was talking about. It is interesting to point out that she was unclear of what learning styles were before I explained them to her. Like I said before, I don’t believe learning styles were as relevant as they are today. As we got more into learning styles, she began to understand better what I was talking about. I asked her how she thought the best way she learned was and she explained to me that she thought she learned best by doing something, watching someone else do it, or seeing it in writing. She explained to me that she could not easily do something by simply hearing instructions of what to do. As soon as she said this, it brought me back to some memories I have had with my mother. When I lived at home with her, I would call her and ask her to pick things up from the store for me if she was out. She would always ask me to “text” the list to her because she knew she wouldn’t remember what I needed from just hearing me ask. Now that my mother and I seem to agree about her learning style, I am interested to see what the survey says. 

I had my mother take a survey (What’s Your learning Style?) to determine what type of learner she is. It wound up that she was 100% for linguistic learning. Interpersonal was her second highest at 89%. When I asked her about her results, she explained to me that she was not surprised at all and that this is what she was expecting. She explained “Linguistic is totally me. Talk, talk, talk. Anything with written or spoken word totally relates to me. I think it pretty much sums up the way I learn. My brain has an affinity for that I guess”. 

Linguistics is defined as the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broken down into three categories: language form, language meaning, and language in context. Since my mother scored highest on this type of learning style, it would make that sense that she would excel in this area. She scored second highest in interpersonal learning. Interpersonal learning means that you can communicate well with people and that you are usually social. This also made complete sense to me. As long as I’ve known my mother, she has always surrounded herself around friends and family. Her motto has always been “the more the merrier!”.

After we discussed her learning styles, we examined some of the major literacy events in her life. She explained to me that when she was in elementary and middle school, she basically lived at the local library. She explained how she was always reading and how she could not get her hands on enough books. Incidentally, she became close with the librarian. She explained how the librarian would show her books that he thought she would enjoy and would have books ready for her when she got there. Whenever she talked about reading, a true joy came upon her face. It is easy to tell that this is truly one of her loves. 

As we discussed more literacy events, she explained to me how the biggest influence in her life was her english composition teacher her senior year in high school. She explained to me how he taught her how to write a term paper and how much he had prepared his students for college. She explained a few times how much of an influence he had on her and how grateful he was for the knowledge he instilled in her. 

When we started to discuss college, she explained to me that one of her favorite classes was a course at Farleigh Dickinson. This class was also an english class. As she explains to me all of her remembered literacy events from her schooling years, it seems as though there is a recurring theme. All of her best memories from her schooling years have to do with reading, writing, english, and important interactions with people, which correlates exactly to her learning styles. Since interpersonal learning style is one of her highest traits, it is extremely believable that all of her remembered literacy events are interactions with people. 

When my mother explained to me her interactions with these important people in her life, she never really explained anything in particular that they did. She simply explained that they either had things in common or that the teachers brought things to life. Since my mom scored so high in the interpersonally, maybe she didn’t need them to cater to her other learning style needs, she just needed people to communicate and interact with her. 

My mother also discussed with me her affinity for reading. We discussed the possibilities of how she got her love for the written word. She explained to me that her mother (my grandmother) was in the quill and scroll club in high school and also loved to read. Her mother never pressured her to read a lot, but it was simply something that came natural to her. Therefore, I believe that her learning style, the positive influences in her life, and genetics has helped her to excel in the areas of reading and writing. 

Also, my mother explains to me that her learning style has also spilled into her life as an adult as well. She is a registered nurse and she explains to me that if it wasn’t for her linguistic and interpersonal skills, she might not be as successful of a nurse as she is. She explains how she is constantly talking to people and getting information from them. 

Conclusion:

Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that understanding someones learning style can really affect the way they learn to read and write. Luckily for my mother, it seems like a lot of her teachers may have catered to her learning style, without even knowing it, by just being social with her. Research has shown that catering to children’s learning styles will help them to learn better. I believe that is why I have had to take classes here at Kean that specifically talk about understanding children's learning styles. These classes explain that you need to read students and figure out their needs according to their learning style. I don’t believe it was that way 40 years ago, and I think my mother was one of the lucky ones in the way that her high interpersonal intelligence allowed for her to be communicative with teachers. 

Furthermore, I believe that by examining my mother through interview and discourse analysis, I can determine that her learning style has positively influenced the way she learned to read and write. It also affected her in her personal life as well. Even before my mother took the survey, she and I were both aware of the areas that she was strong in and when she took the learning styles survey it only confirmed what we had already assumed.

References 

Cassidy, S. (n.d.). Learning Styles: An overview of theories, models, and measures. In Educational Psychology (4th ed., Vol. 24, pp. 419-441). (Original work published 2004)

Griffin, G. (n.d.). Research Methods for English Studies. Edinburgh University Press.

What’s your learning style? [Survey]. (n.d.). Retrieved from Edutopia website: http://www.eudtopia.org/multiple-intelligences-learning-styles-quiz