Summarize the Video and a Possible Application of Kolb's Learning Style Inventory - Term Paper Example

The Implementation of Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory on Teaching The video is about the learning system from three perspectives. The first perspective shows two university students, Susan and Robert, who are both 23 years old, majoring in Computer Science and both are enrolled in the Semantics class. However, the learning goals of each student vary from one another, each student has a different perspective of learning. Susan, basically teaches herself and shows some enthusiasm for learning that she cannot prevent herself from it and always reaches to the highest level of understanding.

On the other hand, Robert does not achieve understanding and does not care about learning. Actually, all that matters to him is to be granted a piece of paper, to pass his exams and to get a job, so he always inserts his minimum effort. The conclusion of these differences implies that Susan is characterized with deep learning and Robert is characterized with surface learning. Before analyzing this problem, the Robert’s way of learning, it is vital to look at it from a Teacher’s perspective whom simply claims that Susan does well in her classes because she is a good student and Robert is bad and that nothing could be done about it.

Professor John Biggs categorizes this perspective into three levels. Level One Teacher is concerned with what students are as explained earlier and that an exam is just a tool in sorting out the good students from the bad ones. The Level Two Teacher focuses on the teacher and what the teacher does in classrooms, in other words, this level is concerned with the ‘blame the teacher’ technique and that it is the teacher’s job to engage the students and activate their passivities. Finally, the Level Three Teacher disagrees with the Level Two that activation is not enough and that more involvement should be from the students before and after teaching and the learning outcomes of a teacher.

In order to achieve the activation process with knowledge it is important to understand the ‘understanding’ concept in the Knowledge perspective. In an interview with Torben Jensen, he analyzes that the new information is placed above the old information of learning, which acts as a transmission system and that students do not learn that way. In other words, he states that activation is not efficient and that students need the understanding perspective. Therefore, to activate passive students like Robert, Jensen further emphasizes the teacher’s acknowledgement of Biggs’ Solo Taxonomy, the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes.

The first level is the lowest level where a student has no understanding, gives irrelevant information and misses out points. Levels two and three, respectively the uni-structural and the multi structural levels, apply to students with surface understanding and finally levels four and five, respectively the relational and the extended abstract levels, apply to students with deep understanding. Another educationalist, David Kolb, adopts the theory of the Learning Style Inventory (LSI), which revolves around the four learning styles, the style of: diverging (feeling and watching), assimilating (watching and thinking), converging (doing and thinking) and accomodating (doing and feeling).

All four learning styles technically exist in every student because everyone does feel, think, do and watch. But in order to achieve Biggs’ deep understanding levels as with the experimented student, Susan, it is necessary to motor Kolb’s four cycles: the Concrete Experience (CE – to have the bility to reflect on and observe learning experiences from many perspectives), the Abstract Conceptualiztion (AC – the ability to use the learning theories to make decisions and solve problems), the Active Experimentation (AE – the ability to involve oneself openly in new experiences) and the Reflective Observation (RO – the ability to create concepts that integrate one’s observations into logically sound theories as with the question from the video about the Cow) for the full activation and perception of all levels of students.

However, the four LSI obviously exists in students like Susan, but she is not the teacher’s concern, Robert is. As seen in the video, Susan is able to generate, apply, practice and relate ideas easily, on the other hand Robert has a lack of confidence in creating or generating ideas. Therefore, in order to adapt the four LSI in Robert’s learning system, it is critical to stick with the Level Three Teacher theory since Susan’s style of learning, whom is the assimilator, the converger, the accommodator and the diverger, is endangered to extinction.

To activate and to make students to learn what teachers want them to, Biggs stretches his theory of learning by emphasizing on the solution called the ‘Constructive Alignment’, in which a teacher must clearly state what are the course objectives, choose appropriate learning activities and to measure the students’s abilities by applying the aligned course of teaching. This course focuses on the balance between what are the teacher’s intentions such as the terms explaining, relating, proving, applying and so on and the exam’s assessment.

The exam must measure the teacher’s intentions, for example, if a teacher intends to use the term ‘explanation’, then terms like ‘memorization’ and/or ‘description’ should not exist in an exam, otherwise a student will focus on the exam’s requirements disregarding the teacher’s intentions and would achieve low grades. Therefore, in summary and inaacordance with Biggs, the Level Three Teacher has the student in full focus and is the highest level of teaching. Works Cited Atherton, J S (2011) Learning and Teaching; SOLO taxonomy [On-line: UK] Web.

28 August 2011th http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/solo.htm “Kolb Learning Styles”. David Kolb’s learning styles model and experiential learning theory (ELT). n.d., Web. 28 August 2011th http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.com