PEOPLES PERCEPTION OF THEIR OWN LEARNING STYLE(S)

Aja Williams ROCKDALE MAGNET SCHOOL 930 Rowland RoadConyers, GA 30012

Table of Contents
Section Heading
Abstract Introduction Literature Review Methodology Data Analysis Conclusion Citations Appendices
o A- Experimental Design Diagram

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Abstract
Many students do now know their learning styles, and when most students are taught about their learning style, they are only taught the basics. There is much more to learning styles than the basics: Visual, Auditory, and Physical. The logical and verbal learning styles are just as important. In some cases, they describe a person's learning style better than the basic learning styles. If these five learning styles: visual, aural, physical, logical, and verbal, are tested; then students would be able to find study methods that suit them better. Teachers could also use teaching methods that reached these other learning styles, and possibly have better results. Contrary to previous studies, I believe that visual learning is not always the most common learning style. I believe that if more learning styles are added, physical or aural learning could possibly be more common among students. Surveys were distributed to various schools for students in grades 6 through 12. The survey contained a learning style inventory that tested for visual, aural, logical, physical, and verbal learning. 21.71% of students were aural learners 20.51% of students were physical learners 18.86% of students were logical learners 17.14% of students were visual learners 12% of students had multiple learning styles 9.71% of students were verbal learners

These results show that there are other learning styles that are more common than the most commonly recognized learning styles.

Introduction
Students often do not know what their learning styles are. This is a problem because if they knew what their learning styles were, it would help them improve their study habits and their school performance. This project is going to see how often people know what their learning style is. It will also help to see which learning styles are most common, as well as which learning styles people tend to think they have. The goal of this project is to potentially gather information that will prove that teachers should encourage their students to know what their learning style is. It is important that students know what their learning styles are because it will give them insight into the ways they learn. Once students know their learning styles, it will be easier for them to find ways to study and prepare for school. It can also help them unlock study methods that are uncommon like recording their teachers lessons during class. The hypotheses for this experiment are that the largest percentage of people will not know their learning styles and the largest percentage of people will think they are visual learners. The largest percentage of people will be physical learners and the smallest percentage of people will have multiple learning styles. Finally, if more learning styles are included in the learning styles test, the statistics will change

Literature Review
For this experiment the dependent variables were the learning styles. These learning styles included: Aural (auditory), Visual, Logical (mathematical), Verbal (linguistic), Physical (hands on), Solitary (individual), and Social (with others). Auditory learning is a learning style in which a person learns through listening. Today this learning style appeals to individuals who are able to encounter and retain information that is delivered in some type of verbal presentation. Students with this learning style benefit form verbal instruction, group discussions, verbal reinforcement, group activities, reading aloud, and putting information into a rhythmic pattern such as rap, poem, or song. Visual learning is a learning style in which ideas, concepts, data, and other information are associated with images and techniques. Today, visual learning is one of the most common learning styles. Students with this learning style benefit from graphic organizers, Venn diagrams, and pie charts. Logical learning is a learning style in which a person uses basic logic systems such as math and numbers. Students with this learning typically excel in trigonometry and algebra. Verbal learning is a learning style in which both written and spoken word is used to learn. Students with this learning style benefit from techniques that involve speaking and writing. They would also benefit from scripting, songs, or jingles. The independent variables for this experiment were the grade levels of the students taking the survey. This was because the project tested to see which learning styles were most common within these grade levels. The grade levels that were tested were sixth through twelfth grade. A
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similar study used seventh graders up to age fourteen. I chose to use grades 6th through twelve because it would give me more data. The more data I received, the more likely it was that the results were accurate. I noticed a few inconsistencies within the similar literature on this topic. One inconsistency was that many studies didnt list the learning styles that they used in their experiments. My study used specific learning styles for each of the grade levels. I think that this was important information because the learning styles were an important part of the experiment. Another thing that I noticed was that most studies didnt test the same thing. Some studies tested how gender determined learning style, while others tested different things like how race affected learning styles. The studies that I looked at were all very different. If these experiments were redone, some of the results may have turned out differently. I also noticed that not very many learning styles were tested. I tested 5 specific learning styles. Other studies tested three learning styles. The tested learning styles tended to be auditory, physical, and visual. If more learning styles were tested, the results would have been different. Most previous research says that visual learning is the most common learning style. Auditory tends to be the second most common learning style. Previous studies vary on whether or not gender affects learning styles. The rationale for this project was that there was no literature for this experiment. There were many research papers that studied similar topics, but none of the ones that I read were exactly the same as my experiment. One difference between this experiment and other experiments was that other experiments such as The Relationships between Pupils' Learning Styles and Their Performance in Mini Science Projects used different learning styles. It is
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important for this topic to be studied because it could lead to future research that could be used to help teachers determine better teaching methods. My project also helped to make the results more accurate by using more learning styles. The use of different grade levels also helped determine which learning style was the most common among different grade levels and gender. This could possibly lead to different grade levels being taught to benefit the most common learning styles or classes could even be divided by learning style in the future to ensure that everyone benefits from the class.

Methodology
The options for the independent variable of this experiment were the ages or the grade levels of the students that were participating in the experiment. The dependent variables for this experiment were the learning styles that the students were being tested for. These learning styles included: Aural (auditory), Verbal (linguistic), Physical, Logical (mathematical), and Visual. These learning styles were measured using the percentages of students that think each style is the way they learn and how often each style is actually the way they learn. Procedures To conduct this experiment, first, a survey was created. The survey contained questions that helped to get a general understanding of what the students thought their learning styles were. The survey also included a learning style test so that their actual learning style could be determined to decide whether or not the students chose the correct learning style. After the survey was created, permission was needed from schools to give the survey to the students at their schools. An informed consent statement was included in the survey to get consent from the students. Electronic copies of the survey were then distributed so that the survey could be taken by the students. After the students had taken the survey, the data was be collected from the surveys. After this, the percentages were calculated to see how often students knew their learning styles, which learning styles were most commonly found, and on how well the student would work alone or with others. After all data had been collected, all information was recorded for future use. Sampling

To determine the people to take the survey, two schools were chosen (a middle school and a high school). After taking the survey, students were categorized based on age, grade level, and gender. Informed Consent The survey could not have be taken by any students that have not agreed to the informed consent statement. No personal information was collected except for the age or grade level of the students and the students genders. Experimental Design Title: Peoples Perception of Their Own Learning Style(s) Hypothesis: A majority of the students would not know what their learning style was A majority of the students participating would be physical learners. A small percentage of students would have multiple learning styles Most people would think that they were visual learners

Independent Variables: Ages/ Grade levels Levels of the Independent Variable: Grade Trials 6th 16 7th 70 8th 22 9th 24 10th 11 11th 4 12th 28

Dependent Variables: Learning styles (Aural, Verbal, Physical, Logical, and Visual)

Constants: Survey Method of the survey Learning styles being used

Control: N/A

Materials Calculator Computer

Data Analysis
Out of 175 participants, 50 people knew their learning style, and 125 students did not know their learning style. This supports the hypothesis that most students would not know their learning style. Of the 50 students that knew their learning style, 8 students had 2 learning styles, and 3 students had 3 learning styles.

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Conclusion
The first hypothesis, most people would not know their learning style, was supported. More than half of the students did not know their learning style. The second hypothesis, most people would be physical learners was partially correct. Physical learning was the second most common learning style. The third hypothesis, most people would think that they were visual learners, was correct. The fourth hypothesis, some students would have multiple learning styles, was correct. More students had multiple learning styles that the students that were verbal learners. The original goal of the project was to show that other learning styles were more common than the original three: visual, physical, and aural. This was shown. The results show that the other learning styles are important and some students would benefit more from this knowledge. Previous research showed that visual and aural learning were the most common learning styles. My research proved that when more learning styles are added, in this case logical and verbal, the date changes. Aural and Physical were the most common in this case. This projects results varied from other research projects. Previous studies show that visual learning in the most common learning style. Those previous studies only studied visual, aural, and physical learning. However, this study shows that aural learning is the most common learning style. In fact, visual learning was the fourth most common learning style out of five learning styles. There were a few errors with this project. There were few respondents for some of the grade levels and it took a long time for each of the grade levels to take the survey. For future research I recommend asking research questions like: Do the students with multiple learning

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styles use their learning styles at the same time or with specific subjects? or What would be the results if naturalistic learning was included in the research? A change to the project could be to use more grade levels to see if there is greater change when college students, or elementary students are included. These are just some suggestions for future research to further study this topic.

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Bibliography
Alaoutinen, S. (2012). Evaluating the Effect of Learning Style and Student Backround on Self Assessment Accuracy. Computer Science Education, 175-198.
Farooq, M., & Regnier, J. (2011). Role of Learning Styles in the Quality Learning at Different Levels. Informatica Economia, 15(3), 28-45

Hung, Y. (2012). The Effect of Teaching Methods and Learning Style on Learning Program Design in Web Based Education Systems. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 409-427.
Ku, D. & Chang C. (2011) The Effect of Academic Discipline and Gender Difference on Taiwanese College Students' Learning Styles and Strategies in Web-Based Learning Environments. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology-TOJET, 10(3), 265-272

Kurshid, F., & Mahmood, N. (2012). Learning Styles of Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities Students at Graduate Level. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 672-678.
Li, M., Mobley, W. (2013). When Do People Learn Best to Develop Cultural Intelligence? An Investigation of the Moderating Role of Experimental Learning Style. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 12(1), 32-50

O'Leary, C., & Stewart, J. (2013). The Interaction of Learning Styles and Teaching Methodologies in Accounting Ethical Instruction. Journal of Business Ethics, 225-241. Samms, C. & Friendel, C. (2012). Relationship Between Dissimilar Cognitive Styles and Use of Learning Strategies in Undergraduate Students.Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 113-130 Sengodan, V., & Iksan, Z. (2012). Students' Learning Style and Intrinsic Motivation in Learning Mathematics. Asian Social Science, 17-23. Weng, P. (2012). The Effect of Learning Strategy Use by EFL Learners. Journal of Social Sciences, 230-234.

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Appendix A
Title: People(s Perception of Their Own Learning Style(s) Hypotheses: Most people will not know their learning styles. Most people will be physical learners. Most people will think that they are visual learners. A few people will have multiple learning styles.

Independent Variable: Grade Levels Levels of Independent Variable: Grade: # of Trials 6th 16 7th 70 8th 22 9th 24 10th 11 11th 4 12th 28

Dependent Variable: Learning Styles (Visual, Physical, Aural, Logical, Verbal) Constants: Survey method and learning styles Control: N/A

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