I'm currently writing a dissertation for a BA (Hons) Degree: my hypothesis include:
i) Do learning styles influence e-learning take up? Using the work of Honey & Mumford
ii) In the same way is gender an influencing factor? Belbin's 'Managing Without Power' source of reference
Has anyone undertaken a similar project? I would be very interested in the results please!!
Helen Mawson
One Response
Gender & Learning Styles
i. Possibly, but they are not the only determning factor. A piece of eLearning may contain learning activities that appeal to all four of Kolb’s styles, yet still not appeal a variety of learners. Some work I’ve done suggests that certain motivations may affect take up more significantly, along with subject domain, time and other “difficult-to-pinpoint” factors.
Plus learning style inventories are 2-dimensional tools which have been created to do certain tasks. They are flat and shallow tools which do not allow us to view learners “as whole people”.
ii. Probably not, although there is some work that suggests that people who are exposed to technologies early on may be more likely to embrace them later on. As boys have generally tended to be interested in things like computers (and computer games), they may be more likely to embrace eLearning. But there are plenty of males who did (and hate eLearning) and plenty who didn’t (and emrace eLearning). Ditto females.
My current theory is that everyone is significantly individual, and therefore very difficult to compartmentalise.
David