By Tanya Sorenson Burnside

The Model Demonstration Project, C178, Diverse Learning Styles, was completed October 1999. This three-year grant project was created to assist students with disabilities in the community college by helping them identify and capitalize upon their personal learning styles. At the close of the project, the experiences and the data collected during the life of the grant strongly suggest some conclusions for implementation in other community colleges as well as potential for further research.

Conclusion #1: students with disabilities frequently have learning styles that differ from students without disabilities. At Columbia Basin College, approximately 2,000 students were tested for their learning style preferences on the Barsch’s Learning Style Inventory [see Appendix A]. Other tools were also used. Barsch’s is a tool designed to indicate a student’s sensory modal intake preference (e.g., see, hear, touch, do). Interestingly, although the normal population of students (roughly 1,900) have high visual or high visual combined with other modes (i.e., visual/kinesthetic), the average student with a disability (slightly more than 100 students tested) has a stronger preference for auditory or auditory/tactile and a much lower preference for visual.

Using research and information published from the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and other sources, we discovered that it is known that students do better when learning in their preferred style(s) (Dunn & Dunn, 1988, et al.). It is also known that students who are allowed to receive information in their preferred sensory mode will tend to remember better (e.g., high test scores) and remember longer (higher retention test scores over time) (Caine & Caine, 1997; et al.). Studies among teachers conclude that most teachers are high visual or high visual/auditory, with a relatively small percentage of teachers showing high kinesthetic or high tactile, or both (Butler, 1985; et al.).

Instructors at CBC tend to follow this trend. If it follows that instructors will tend to teach to their own learning style (Guild, 1997), then it may logically be concluded that instructors at CBC, although well-qualified, are not, in general, teaching to the learning styles of students with disabilities. Specifically, homework assignments are always visual. This puts students with disabilities at a disadvantage because they are lower than average visual (it is important to note here that the vast majority of students with disabilities have learning disabilities, not visual impairments) and higher than average auditory. Therefore, the project concentrated on assisting students with their homework tactics and techniques.

Another point resulting from the data collected during this model demonstration project was the high incidence of kinesthetic (body movement) learners among academic majors. It might be worth further study to determine whether these figures are replicated at the baccalaureate institutions. Perhaps academic students who choose the community college system have a higher incidence of kinesthetic preference.

This dichotomy between instructor styles, general student learning styles, and students with disabilities learning styles could partially account for the lower success and retention rates of students with disabilities than their non-disabled counterparts. The question of whether changing the instructor’s teaching style has an impact on students with disabilities is considered in the next conclusion.

Conclusion #2: instructors trained in learning styles and who revised their teaching style to accommodate a wider variety of students, increased the success of their students with disabilities.

The Project was very pleased to have eight instructors on stipend, all of whom stayed with the project to its end. The specialties of the instructors who volunteered for the project varied widely:

• Criminal justice
• Business math
• Developmental math
• Developmental reading
• Calculus
• Economics
• Health (stress management)

During the life of the Project, too few students with disabilities took the criminal justice, business math, calculus, economics, and health courses to have any statistical significance. However, the instructors reported increased participation and critical thinking in their classrooms, higher quality of homework, some improvement in test scores, more questions asked both in and out of class, more satisfaction with teaching, more appreciation of the diversity of their students, increased willingness to work with the Disabled Student Services office, and a genuine increase in their belief in the students’ ability to pass.

Further, the Project was allowed by the college to conduct inservices on assessment, instructional design, and instructional strategies over the life of the Project. It is highly recommended that the director of similar projects have a solid background in instructional design/education theory and method. Because of this, the Project worked with and influenced over 100 instructors on campus.

At CBC, instructors are able to obtain a step raise for every 10 college credits/credit equivalents of professional development completed. The Learning Styles Project tapped into this program successfully by offering the inservices, workshops, and additional projects for credit. It was very heartening to see instructors, many of them of 20 or more years tenure, begin to examine their philosophies of lecture/homework and begin observing, participating in, and experimenting with new instructional strategies, whose very design will automatically include a wider variety of learning styles.

Most students with learning disabilities take the developmental courses in math and English. Therefore, it is encouraging to report that in comparison of fall 1998 and spring 1999, students in the revised developmental courses had a higher grade point average of nearly 1.0, which is very statistically significant. Using the data collected on the courses revised by the two tenured faculty on the project who teach those courses, we discovered that the gross number of students passing went up slightly, the gross number of failures stayed the same, and the gross number of withdrawals stayed roughly the same. But more importantly, we must look at the students with disabilities, despite their small numbers, to determine whether the project made a difference with the students.

The pertinent factor here is whether students with disabilities who received instruction in accommodating their learning style preferences did better than students with disabilities who did not receive such accommodation.

Which leads us to the next conclusion.

Conclusion #3: students with disabilities who received training in accommodating their learning style preferences did better than students with disabilities who did not receive such training.

The Barsch’s Learning Style Inventory was not the only learning style tool used in this project. For Columbia Basin College, the project created a homework environmental preference worksheet [see Appendix A], used an inventory for Gardner’s multiple intelligences (MI) preferences, as well as certain other diagnostic tools in individual consultations.

Both the homework worksheet and the MI inventory allowed students with disabilities a better chance to see what works for them. The high tactile preference among students with disabilities, along with high interpersonal preferences on the MI, suggested that students with disabilities needed alternate methods of receiving, processing, and storing information for best retention and retrieval.

Because the numbers of students with disabilities who chose to take both the workshop and a revised course are so small, the statistical implications are unavailable. This project would have been better served by being a five-year project, rather than a three-year project. Instructors simply needed more time to learn and apply learning styles techniques in their classrooms, as well as to become proficient using them. The Education Access Office of CBC cooperated fully and is commended for their constant publicity, referrals, and recommendations for students to use the Learning Styles Project.

What is statistically significant about the students who chose to take the training, however, is the much, much higher incidence of passing, the much lower incidence of withdrawal, and the increased self-esteem of the students. The key difference was not whether the students took the one-hour workshop, helpful as it may have been. The critical factor was very obviously whether the students worked individually with the Learning Styles Staff.

The students who worked with us individually came to us in various states of despair. They were taking a math class for the second, or third, time, hoping to pass this time. They were failing a course. They were failing a course for the second time. They were about to drop out. They were about to fail. They were doing an entire grade point lower in a certain class than other classes. They were frightened of tests in a certain class. They were about to fail for not being able to do the homework. They were having trouble, most commonly, with math. Occasionally, we would work individually with students who were just starting their tenure at CBC. Mostly, we worked with the students described above.

The students who came to us carrying the baggage of past failures were the very ones we were the most successful with. On the spring 1999 roster of a development math/reading instructor, I recognized every single student with a disability who passed. I did not recognize any of the names of students with disabilities who did not pass. They had not been in our offices.

What did we do in our offices that so increased the rates of retention and success for students with disabilities who saw themselves as failures, or near failures? We worked in a variety of ways, all of them, in our opinion, equally important:

• We showed them that their methods of learning are unique and just as good as anyone else’s.

Students with disabilities repeatedly reported to us that they had always felt "stupid," or "second rate," because they couldn’t seem to learn like other people. This mostly applied to homework.

• We showed them that learning differently means using different methods.

Students with disabilities, because of their higher auditory and tactile preferences, were loaned tape recorders for taping class lecture, for reading key text points into the recorders during homework time. We taught them to capitalize on their high tactile preferences by making and using flashcards and retyping their lecture notes nightly. We showed them ways to feel successful in their homework.

• We showed them ways to increase memory and retention.

Many students had high kinesthetic (bodily movement) preferences. Those students were overjoyed to be told that it is perfectly natural and acceptable to spend 10-15 minutes doing homework, then take a one-minute stretch break, and continue. We handed out koosh balls by the handsful to allow tactile and kinesthetic something to hold and manipulate during class and homework time. We taught students that their preferences were also their best paths to memory (example, a high auditory student will remember more quickly what they hear, rather than what they see).

• We showed them things to do to increase their ability to take tests.

Many students suffered from test apprehension to anxiety to paralysis. We showed them the results of all of the recent brain research, including the importance of deep breathing and adequate water intake on test taking ability. We also discovered that many students with disabilities seem to have significantly reduced test-taking skills [see Appendix B] . It is strongly recommended that further study be done on improving the ability of students with disabilities to look for test developer errors (for example, the answer to one question in another question). We found that some students did not know some relatively simple test taking strategies, such as doing the easier questions first, or giving more time to the questions that have higher point values.

• We showed them a different way to do their math homework.

This strategy, developed by this Project, seemed to be one of the most effective methods for increased success. Talking with instructors and students, we discovered that most students fail their math tests and homework because they skipped steps and did not show their work. The technique we created was enthusiastically received and reportedly tremendously successful with the students, both on homework and in tests [see Appendix C].

Conclusion #4: students with disabilities responded more favorably to self-esteem enhancers regarding learning than students without disabilities.

Because we did not capture any data regarding this, our observations in this area are strong, but anecdotal nonetheless. It cannot be over emphasized how highly interested the students were in discovering facets of themselves regarding learning styles. It cannot be over emphasized how often the students stayed in school because someone was actively taking an interest in their success. It cannot be over emphasized how often the students on the verge of failing responded to informal counseling (i.e., listening) and general life help. Among the dozens of examples available, we can highlight a student who did not know that it was appropriate to spend time doing other things than studying if he was awake. We helped him to discover that he learns best in the afternoon, so he began doing his homework every afternoon, and, at our suggestion, created a schedule that allowed him time to watch television moderately and socialize, also moderately. Because of this, for the first time in three quarters, he did not drop out, nor did he burn out. Another example that repeatedly occurred, were students coming in, fresh from a mid-life divorce, needing smiles, encouragement, and hugs on a daily basis. These students repeatedly called, dropped by, or wrote notes to thank us, indicating they would never have completed, nor have passed, had it not been for the care given by this office.

Conclusion #5: the legacy of the Project will be the change in the instructors as well as the students.

Although CBC has chosen not to fund the Learning Styles Project, the Project has found a variety of pathways in which it will continue.

1. The Project has trained coordinators and staff in other Student Services departments to watch for, test, and counsel their own students regarding possible learning style diversity needs. Also, the Disabled Student Services department is adding a half-time position whose duties will include giving learning styles diagnostics to their clientele.
2. Instructors, both from the Project and not, have specifically requested training and materials in order to continue providing the workshops to students.
3. Teachers at high schools, elementary schools, and middle schools around the area have been trained and provided with learning styles materials to use in their schools. These schools will encourage students with disabilities to come to CBC after graduating.
4. Over 70 instructors at CBC have taken one- and two-day inservices provided by the Learning Styles Project. These inservices increased in those instructors the instructional abilities to serve a broader student population.
5. The Project leaves a lending library of materials, as well as a host of donated materials to specific instructors, departments, and divisions.
6. The Project funded student mentors who were trained in learning styles. The director of the student mentor program will continue to include learning styles training and awareness to the student mentors.
7. The ESL program and the tutor programs have both received training to help their instructors, and student tutors, to be more effective with their student populations.

Conclusions:

The Learning Styles Project at Columbia Basin College must be labeled a success. Two thousand students were served, approximately 100 instructors were served, the local school districts, the local prison, and the community were served, and dozens and dozens of students with disabilities report increased academic success and increased self-esteem thanks to the Project. The Project wishes to thank the Department of Education for its funding and help, Tom Grayson, and the faculty and staff of CBC for being so supportive.

The following page is a mock examination created in gibberish from Lewis Carroll’s "Jabberwocky." Without knowing how to speak "Jabberwocky," it is not difficult to answer all questions correctly on the following page. The purpose is to show how much of an advantage the good test taker has in a test not written to avoid this. Students with learning disabilities are rarely good test takers, probably because they spend so much effort concentrating on individual questions that they cannot see the exam as a whole.

Here is the answer key for the following page:

Question #1: The correct answer is "A." The skilled test taker would notice that the word "cluss" is in the stem and in answer "A."

Questions #2: The correct answer is "B." The skilled test taker would notice that the singulararticle "an" at the end of the question fits only with "B." Also, the stem of Question #6 states the correct answer to Question #2.

Questions #3: The correct answer is "C." The skilled test taker would notice that the word "frequently" in the stem fits best with the word "usually" in "C."

Questions #4: The correct answer is "D." The skilled test taker would notice that the stem asks for plural "conditions" and "D" is the only choice with two conditions. Also, the skilled test taker should be noticing the pattern of answers by now.

Questions #5: The correct answer is "A." The skilled test taker would notice that the plural "causes" matches only "A," which has plural causes.

1. What is the primary purpose of the cluss in frumpaling?

1. to remove the cluss-prangs
2. to patch tremans
3. to loosen cloughs
4. to repair plumots

1. The fribbled breg will minter best with an

1. mors
2. ignu
3. derst
4. sortar

1. Why does the sigla frequently overfest the treslum?

1. all siglas are mellious
2. siglas are always votial
3. the trelsum is usually tarious
4. no trelsa are directly feskable

1. Trassig normally occurs under which of the following conditions?

1. when the dissels fruli
2. when the lusp trasses the vom
3. when the balgo lisks easily
4. when the viskal flans, if the viskal is zortil

1. What probable causes are indicated when tristal dos occurs in a compots?

1. the sabs foped and the doths timzed
2. the kredges roted with the rots
3. the rakogs were not accepted in the sluth
4. the polats were thonced in the sluth

1. The mintering function of the ignu is most frequently performed in connection with the

To help students use commonly noted high kinesthetic preferences, both on tests and in daily homework, we had the students used multi-colored strips of paper created by the CBC print shop. These were bundles of paper strips, 8 ½ "x1." The print shop used at least five colors of paper, so the student received a two-inch bundle with perhaps seven colors, approximately 25 strips of each color. A student was instructed to select five of the colors and arrange them according to their personal color preferences (i.e., blue, then green, then yellow, then pink, etc.). They were told that this order would be theirs permanently. To use the strips, students write the steps for a math problem, in words they understand, one step per strip, always using the color order they had selected (i.e., in the above example, step one on blue, step two on green, step three on yellow, step four on pink). The students then use another set of strips in the same color order to work out the problem, completing the step on the correct colored strip. This solves four problems for the struggling math student:

• Translating the steps written in their text into words the student understands solves the initial terminology confusion.
• Writing the steps in words the student understands helps the student more easily make the transition from thinking verbally (words) to thinking symbolically (numbers).
• Solving the problem on strips of paper allows the student to manipulate the strips—offering a kinesthetic learning device, so often missing in math.
• Solving the problem one step per strip helps the student to avoid skipping steps and failing to show their work—two of the most common reasons students fail math tests.
• Using a color code provides a memory cue for students during tests (i.e., what was the blue step?).

I study best in the

• morning
• afternoon
• evening

With the radio or tv

With

• snacks
• without snacks

Sitting

• in a firm upright chair
• on a soft chair, bed, couch, the floor

In a lit room.

• brightly
• dimly

In a room.

• warm
• cool (note: this is the only answer where the student’s choice is not the best answer for that student. The highest neural net activity of the brain in all humans occurs at 68F.)

I prefer to learn using

• sight
• sound
• touch
• movement

I read best by