TUGAS 9

Judul :  Learning And Teaching Styles In Engineering Education

                         Penulis :  Richard M. Felder

Teaching methods also vary. Some instructors lecture, others demonstrate or discuss; some focus on principles and others on applications; some emphasize memory and others understanding. How much a given student learns in a class is governed in part by that student’s native ability and prior preparation but also by the compatibility of his or her learning style and the instructor’s teaching style.

Dimensions of Learning Style

The processing step may involve simple memorization or inductive or deductive reasoning, reflection or action, and introspection or interaction with others. The outcome is that the material is either “learned” in one sense or another or not learned.

Models of Learning

& Teaching

A student’s learning style may be defined in large part by the answers tofive questions:

1)      What type of information does the student preferentially perceive:sensory (external) sights, sounds, physical sensations, or intuitive (intern al)possibilities, insights, hunches.

2)      What type of information does the student preferentially perceive:sensory (external) sights, sounds, physical sensations, or intuitive (intern al)possibilities, insights, hunches.

3)      Through which sensory channel is external information most effectivelyperceived: visual pictures, diagrams, graphs, demonstrations, or auditory words, sounds (Other sensory channels touch, taste, and smell are relatively unimportant in most educational environments and will not be considered here.

4)      With which organization of information is the student most comfortable: inductive facts and observations are given, underlying principles are inferred, or deductive principles are given, consequences and applications are deduced.

5)      How does the student prefer to process information: actively through engagement in physical activity or discussion, or reflectively through Introspection.

6)      How does the student progress toward understanding: sequentially—in continual steps, or globally—in large jumps, holistically.

Teaching style may also be defined in terms of the answers to five

Questions :

1.      What type of information is emphasized by the instructor: concrete factual, or abstract conceptual, theoretical.

2.      What mode of presentation is stressed: visual—pictures, diagrams,films,demonstrations, or verbal lectures, readings, discussions.

3.      How is the presentation organized: inductively—phenomena leading toprinciples, or deductively principles leading to phenomena.

4.      What mode of student participation is facilitated by the presentation: active students talk, move, reflect, or passive students watch and listen.

5.      What type of perspective is provided on the information presented: sequential step-by-step.

Inductive and Deductive

Learners

Induction is a reasoning progression that proceeds from particulars (observations, measurements, data) togeneralities (governing rules, laws, theories).

Induction is the natural human learning style. Babies do not come into life with a set of general principles but rather observe the world around them and draw inferences: “If I throw my bottle and scream loudly, someone eventually shows up.”

much in situations that requirethem to be passive, and reflective

learners do not learn much insituations that provide no opportunity to think about the

information being presented.

Perhaps most important, some homework problems should be assigned that present phenomena and ask for the underlying rules. Such problems play to the inductive learners strength and they also help deductive learners develop facility with their lesspreferred learning mode. Several such exercises have been suggested for different branches of engineering.

Active and Reflective Learners

The complex mental processes by which perceived information is converted into knowledge can be conveniently grouped into two categories: active experimentation and reflective observation. 3 Active experimentation involves doing something in the external world with the information discussing it or explaining it or testing it in some way and reflective observation involves examining and manipulating the information introspectively.

Learning styles of most engineering students and teaching styles of most engineering professors are incompatible in several dimensions.