LaQuita Anderson-Renfroe
8/20/2011
Prof. Jeanette Horner-Smith
BUS 407

Learning Styles, Motivation, and On the Job Training
Compare and contrast the four differences in learning styles. Propose ways a trainer can help each type of learners. People perceive, analyze, reflect upon, visualize, internalize, and transform information in various ways. Individual differences exist in the way that people learn. There are many different learning styles and different dimensions of learner preferences. The four different dimensions of learner styles that we focus on come from the Felder-Silverman model that describes how different trainee learning styles can influence the effectiveness of the training. Felder and Silverman (Felder, 1993; Felder and Silverman, 1988) propose four dimensions of student learning styles, each of which relates to trainer’s preferred modes for receiving information, including 1) the type of information they receive (sensory or intuitive), 2) the modality in which they receive it (visual or verbal), 3) the process by which they receive it (actively or reflectively), and 4) the order in which they receive it (sequentially or globally). These dimensions are useful in considering the diversity of learning styles and how teaching strategies do or do not regularly provide access to learning for these different types of trainees. There are a few common similarities and differences that each learning style possesses.
Visual and verbal learning Visual” information clearly includes pictures, diagrams, charts, plots, animations, etc., and “auditory” information clearly includes spoken words and other sounds. The one medium of information transmission that is not clear is written prose. It is perceived visually and so obviously cannot be categorized as auditory, but it is also a