Psychology Research Assignment
Effective Learning styles
Date: 16 April 2012
Class: Psychology 3AB

Introduction
Russell L. Ackoff was an academic, a scientist and a researcher who suggested that in the 21st Century, rather than content, the most significant contribution to education was acquiring the capability to learn with the motivation to do so throughout our lives. Learning styles pose a great influence over an individual and helps to guide their learning. Visual teaching is a particular learning style which incorporates ideas and concepts that are associated with images and certain techniques. It is a proven learning technique focusing on improving a person’s academic performance. When considering high school students, images such as plots and graphs, allow them to break up concepts into individual components, enabling them to analyse results quickly and efficiently. Carbo, Dunn, and Dunn (1986, p.13) approximated that 20 to 30 percent of school students remember what they heard in class, while 40 percent recall what they had seen or read. There are three main learning styles: auditory, visual and kinesthetic. Auditory learners are taught with a traditional teaching style, where the lecturer/teacher uses and presents information verbally, while changing their tone of voice and showing confident body language to capture the attention of their students. While visual learners benefit from diagrams, pictures, films, and written instructions, kinesthetic learners benefit while participating in and personally experiencing material. Carbo et al. (1986, p.13) found that most kindergarten/primary students enter education as kinesthetic learners, with the need to explore, touch and move material to learn. Around year two, three and four these students become visual learners, eventually moving onto auditory learners in higher year levels. Other styles of learning include logical, social and solitary. Logical learners prefer to use their brain for logical reasoning which helps the individual to perceive connections and find patterns in material easily, enabling them to classify group information, therefore helping them to understand it. A logical learner can work out complex mathematics as they work in systematic ways. A social or interpersonal learner prefers to work in group situations to learn and understand material, where they communicate with others verbally and non-verbally. Mentoring and assisting others plays a big role for social learners. They may also have the tendency to ‘social loaf’ on others in the group, where there is a reduction in responsibility and they rely on others to find solutions. Finally, solitary or intrapersonal learners are more introverted and private about sharing with others and prefer to work alone. Many find this a useful and productive way of learning as they are aware of their own thoughts and feelings. As independent thinkers, they tend to retreat to isolated areas away from crowds, to understand and learn material. It is evident that there are many different and intricate learning styles. However, each individual person has a primary learning style and once this is identified, that person is able to maximize this in order to improve their academic performance. This study aims to decipher whether a class of high school students benefit more from a visual or audible perspective and also if this is affected by knowing the purpose of the study.
Operational Hypothesis
It is hypothesised that there will be a higher number of students who find it easier to learn visually than from an oral perspective. The control group will be not informed about the purpose of the study whereas the experimental group will. The experimental group is put in place to challenge the study and figure out whether or not knowing the purpose, affects both styles for these particular students. The dependent or measured variable is the student’s learning capability and how much information they are able to absorb from the different techniques. This will be observed by analysing the questionnaires previously filled out by the participants. The independent variable is the changing of the techniques from visual to auditory.

Participants
From one high school, a volunteering class of twenty high school students are required for the experiment. It must be a mixed class with a fairly even number of males and females. All participants should be of a similar age group as to not confuse the final results with the extra experience some may have. This group is the control group, they will not be told the true purpose of the study until after the experiment has concluded.
From a second high school in the same area, another group of twenty volunteering students will be selected to participate. This group is the experimental group, therefore they will be told the true purpose of the experiment. This may affect and challenge the results because the attitude of the students, who are aware of the subject of the study, may differ and change as they pay more attention to the tests.
Materials
* Permission letter - A form that requires the signature of willing participants. This will also inform the participants of their ethical rights during the course of the study. Participants under the age of 18 years require a signature from a parent/guardian, giving permission for their child to attend the experiment. (See appendix One). * Written speech – A speech about a particular subject matter (i.e. World War One). This will be read to each class by the experimenter, who uses engaging body language and facial expression. No images, books, pictures or articles are needed for this part of the study. * Video/DVD - An informative visual representation of the same subject matter as the previous speech (i.e. World War One), to be shown to each class by the experimenter. * Questionnaires – Before the experiment commences, each student will receive two sets of the same five questions. They are then required to complete one set of questions after the oral speech, then complete the second set after the video. (See appendix two).
Method
After the participants have volunteered to take part in the study, a permission form must be given to each individual to be signed by either themselves or a parent/guardian. The participants are required to feel that they are in a normal class setting. The experimenter must tell the experimental group the purpose of the study. For the control group, the experimenter must not inform the participants about any part of the study. The Experimenter must then commence with the first test.
TEST ONE: The experimenter starts the speech about a particular subject matter, while engaging the participants with use of body language, changing tone of voice and gestures. After the speech has concluded, the experimenter will give each student a piece of paper with five questions about what they had learned. The participants are not required to put their name but must fill out any questions they can. Finally the experimenter must then collect the questionnaires.
TEST TWO: The experimenter is required to start the video of the same subject matter without any speech. The video is informative and includes pictures and images to engage the students. When the video has concluded, the experimenter must repeat the process of giving out the questionnaires to the students. After the participants have completed the questionnaires, the experimenter must collect the anonymous question sheets. The experimenter must then debrief the students to remind them of the true purpose of the study. The entire process must be repeated for the second class in the other high school. After this step, the experimenter would have collected all questionnaires and must analyse them.