Learning Styles: An Overview of the Felder-Silverman’s Model and Measure
Abstract
Individual differences are of particular concern for educators in the teaching-learning process. Besides physical and social facets, it includes interest, motivation, aptitude, attitude etc. One of the recently focused such facet is learning style. Learning style denotes an individual’s instinctive pattern of acquiring knowledge and processing information. Learning styles are significant to education and curriculum. There are various models and measures of learning styles like Kolb (1984), Honey and Mumford (1982), Sousa’s (1995) Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic (VAK), Fleming’s (1995) Visual, Auditory, Read-Write and Kinesthetic (VARK) and Felder and Silverman’s Model (1988). One of the most comprehensive and widely used conceptions is Felder-Silverman’s model of learning styles. The dimensions of this model consist of four continuums known as sensing-intuitive, active-reflective, visual-verbal and sequential-global. Also, the facets of this model are analogous to the facets of other conceptions of learning styles. The learning style dimensions of this model are determined through a scale known as Index of Learning Styles (ILS). This tool has shown ample validity and reliability. In Pakistan, research on learning styles is scarce. Also, there was no evidence of using this model in any research inquiry in the local context. The aim of this paper was to give a detailed description of Felder-Silverman Model and Measure. Similarly, it was planned to report the psychometric features of the ILS. Furthermore, it was also intended to persuade the researchers to use this tool for research.
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