Practical Approaches to Using Learning Styles in Higher Education

by Rita Dunn, Shirley A. Griggs

Overview

Dunn and Griggs challenge the traditional instructional process of lecture/discussion in college classroom and describe the theory, practice, and research that support a wider variety of approaches to better accommodate the learning-style preferences of each student. Twenty-five practitioners from varied backgrounds and disciplines, representing 14 colleges and universities, outline alternative strategies they use with diverse students in their institutions of higher education. Some of these practitioners have been using learning-style for decades. Others have conducted research to test the various tenets of the Dunn and Dunn Learning- Style Model, and a few, only for the past five years, have begun providing instructional strategies that are congruent with their students' preferences.

A road map is provided for college faculty to assist them in moving toward accommodating students' learning-style strengths by comparing the major theories of learning styles that range from uni- to multi-dimensional in scope. Strategies include: identifying and administering valid and reliable instruments for assessing college students' learning styles, interpreting assessment results so that each student becomes aware of his/her own strengths and is provided a computer-generated prescription for improving their study skills and successfully completing assignments, designing instruction to respond to both global and analytic students' processing styles, developing course content and materials to accommodate the learning-style preferences of college students, and evaluating the impact of learning-styles-based instruction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780897897037
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/30/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

RITA DUNN is Professor of Instructional Leadership and Director of the Center for the Study of Learning and Teaching Styles at St. John's University. She is the author of 22 titles including Improved Test Scores, Attitudes, and Behaviors in America's Schools (with DeBello, Bergin & Garvey, 1999).

SHIRLEY A. GRIGGS is Professor of Counselor Education at St. John's University and is co-author of Multiculturalism and Learning Style (with Rita Dunn) (Praeger, 1998).

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction to Learning Styles in Higher Education
Capitalizing on College Students' Learning Styles: Theory, Practice, and Research by Rita Dunn and Shirley A. Griggs
Practical Approaches to Using Learning Styles in Higher Education: The How-To Steps by Rita Dunn
Applications in Education
Learning Styles in Graduate Education Classes: The River of No Returban by Sue Ellen Read
Educating Secondary Teachers to Work with Students' Diverse Styles by Nancy Montgomery
One Texas University's Approach to Integrating Learning Styles in Teacher Education: Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk by Janet Whitley and Pam Littleton
Hannibal "Lecture" Changes His Oral Menu by Kenneth Dunn
Distance Education: Reaching Beyond the Walls by Jody Taylor
Learning Styles in a Suburban College by Bernadyn Kim Suh
A Paradigm Shift: Learning-Styles Implementation and Preservice Teachers by Karen Burke
Learning Styles and College Teaching: My Experiences with Education Majors by Ann C. Braio
Tactual Learning at the Doctoral Level: A Risk Worth Taking by Barbara Given and Edward P. Tyler
Divergent Styles, Common Goals: Implications for Counselors by Shirley A. Griggs
Teacher Training in Progress: Giving It Our Best Shot by Katy Lux
Project Learn: A University-Initiated Consortium of Science Educators and Practitioners by Barbara S. Thomson
Teaching Graduate Students with a Learning- Styles Approach: Adding Zest to the Course Ingredients by Laura Shea Doolan
Applications in Health-Related Professions
Incorporating Learning Styles into the Curricula of Two Programs in a College of Health-Related Professions by Joyce A. Miller and Rose F. Lefkowitz
Applications in Schools of Law, Engineering, and Liberal Arts
Bringing Learning Style Instructional Strategies to Law Schools: You Be the Judge! by Robing A. Boyle
Meeting the Academic Challenges of an Undergraduate Engineering Curriculum by Joanne Ingham
The Writing Portfolio as a Learning-Styles Tool in a College English-as-a-Second-Language Course by Herbert D. Pierson
Applications in Colleges of Business
Contract Activity Packages in Higher Education: The Flexible Flier of Pedagogy by Heather Pfleger Dunham and Barbara-Jayne Lewthwaite
How I Found Pedagogical Nirvana: Beware of the Law of Unintended Consequences! by E. L. Deckinger
Global Teaching in an Analytic Environment: Is There Madness in the Method? by Ralph A. Terregrossa and Valerie Englander
Epilogue
Bibliography
Appendices
Author Index
Subject Index