LEARNING STYLES AND HIGH SCHOOL

Learning styles and high school

Learning styles and high school

Table of contents

Chapter III3

The Study3

Purpose6

Procedures7

Personal Motivation9

Chapter IV10

Results10

Findings10

Discriminant Analysis14

Cognitive style versus learning style19

Kolb's model of experiential learning and learning styles21

Fleming and Mills' Sensory-Based Learning Style Typology24

The Learning Style Model25

Challenges of managing learning styles26

Chapter V30

Discussion30

Attending to Diversity33

Teaching strategies to manage learning styles35

Conlusion and reflection38

Impact of the study41

Implications44

Limitations44

Summary and final thoughts46

Conclusion47

References49

Appendix51

Chapter III

The Study

This teacher action research was conducted at Nativity Blessed Virgin Mary High School in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Pottsville is located in Schuylkill County, As the largest and only chartered city in the county, it also serves as the county seat. Based on the last official census in 2000, Pottsville supported a population of just under 16,000.

The city, built on seven hills, housed approximately 6,400 households, but only 20,5% had school age children, The racial complexity of the city is approximately 95% Caucasian, 2% African American, and 3% for other ethnicities (2000 Census, DPI). At the time of the study, and certainly throughout history, the community is the religious and parochial school system was a significant part of the community, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was a Catholic Christian High School dedicated to meeting and enriching the needs of its individual students, The focus was on quality academics, spiritual direction, service to the community, social responsibility and athletic development. The school was originally founded in 1927, but in September of 1955 under the growing demands for Catholic education, the primary grades were located to a new facility and the High School was renamed Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Nativity BMV).

As the newly appointed principal in 2008, it became quickly apparent to me that the evaluation of both teacher and student performance had been ignored for far too long. I validated that lesson plans were not updated based on the needs of the students, I also noted that every day the teaching style was the same and only the material changed. In my review of the student scores, I noted that over the past two quarters student scores had continued to fall. This was an ideal subject for a teacher action research project.

It was a way to bring variety and student interest back in to the classroom and it provided assistance to the teacher that allowed him to more consciously address the needs of his students. This teacher action research project was completed in just over fourteen weeks, It involved two separate units of instruction that were presented. Both units were planned based on the feedback from February 2009 to May of2009 and also from several fact gathering sources. All students in the xxxxxx class were given the same learning styles inventory to identify their primary learning style. Based on the results, three female and three male students were selected -- one male and one female from each of the three basic learning styles. Individual interviews. As part of both units, each selected student was observed during classroom ...