Niall watts ucd_measures of learning style in the evaluation of blogs as reflective learning tools_elsin_2013
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Niall watts ucd_measures of learning style in the evaluation of blogs as reflective learning tools_elsin_2013
- 1. Seírbhísí TF UCDUCD IT Services Measures of Learning Style in the Evaluation of Blogs as Reflective Learning Tools Niall Watts Educational Technology Officer Niall.watts@ucd.ie ELSIN, Billund, June 2013
- 2. Research Background • Working as an Educational Technologist – Open University student – Hype about new technologies – Reflection and Collaboration – Quality of educational research – Methods criticism – student evaluations
- 3. Aims of Research • Investigate blogging as a tool for learning – Cycle of Experiential Learning (Kolb) • Active (doing) or Reflective (watching) • Individual (thinking) or Collaborative (feeling) – Blogs promote reflective learning?
- 4. Why Blog? • Storytelling • Improve writing & media skills • Opportunity to engage and reflect • Simple technology
- 5. Research Participants “Unrestrained by class rules” No assessment Lecturer well-known blogger
- 6. What is Reflection (Reflective Learning)? • Reflection describes the processes where learners explore their experiences to gain a better understanding and appreciation of their learning (Boud, 1985). • Many students find reflective learning difficult and initially resist it… Properly implemented blogs can help bring about reflective learning (Bartlett- Bragg, 2003).
- 7. Kolb’s Cycle of Experiential Learning
- 8. Kolb’s Learning Styles • Preferred learning style • Teaching to match style • Not fixed Approach Emotional Response Active Experimentation AE - Doing Reflective Observation RO - Watching Concrete Experience CE - Feeling Accommodating (CE/AE) Diverging (CE/RO) Abstract Conceptualisation AC - Thinking Converging (AE/AC) Assimilating (RO/AC)
- 9. Kolb’s Learning Styles • Based on Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory – Accommodating: intuition, people – Assimilating: logic, theory – Converging: practice, technology – Diverging: imaginative, group work Which would you expect to: Be reflective/collaborative ? Use hypermedia? Reflection • Assimilating • Diverging Collaboration • Accommodating • Diverging
- 10. Kolb Cycle Modified for Blogging • Dron – ‘Reflective Observations’ on ‘Concrete Experience ‘ – Comments – Theorise to explain reflective observations – Test theory in ‘Active Experimentation’
- 11. Methodology – KLSI 3.1 • Quantitative - standardised • Literature • Reflection, Hypermedia, Blogging • Benefits • Free • Short (12x4) • Bias
- 12. Methods – Learning Style • Student Consent • Ranked themselves on 12 questions – Students calculated own Learning Style – Results plotted on graph – Discussion • Reliability & validity • Critiques
- 13. Results – Learning Style Converging Learning Style dominant among bloggers: – Four keenest bloggers – One non-blogger N=10
- 14. Methods – Text Analysis • Blog posts coded for reflection using heuristics (Hatton & Smith) • Risk of subjectivity • Writing categorised as reflective (or not): – “In one class we were asked how much time do we spend actually away from technology. I for one know that I can spend 5 hours online and most of that the tv is also on (I like to multi task) and that doesn't even include college. I don't think I can remember a week where I haven't been online every day at some time or another. I am away to a hotel for weekend and I know my laptop will be with me, not to mention my mobile with wifi function”.
- 15. Results – Blog Analysis • One third of posts reflective • One third of comments reflective • 1 comment for 3 posts suggests collaboration BLOG POSTS COMMENTS MADE RECEIVED Total Total Refl. Total Refl. Total Refl. 6 92 33 31 12 69 14
- 16. Converging Learning Style • 4 Bloggers with Converging LS – 75% of all posts – 81% of reflective posts – 100% reflective comments (made & received) – All “Somewhat reflective” – 2 Mature – 2 Male. 2 Female.
- 17. Methods – Triangulation • Kember’s Questionnaire on Reflection – Agree/disagree 16 questions on their learning - Most students highly or somewhat reflective - All bloggers highly or somewhat reflective • Blogging habits questionnaire (10 questions) – Do you enjoy blogging? – Does it help you to learn? – Do you/read comment on your classmates blogs?
- 18. Conclusions • Bloggers reflective & collaborative learners • Unexpected Result – Converging Learning Style – Not associated with Reflection or Collaboration – Skills with Hypermedia (Kolb) – Practical, hands-on • Privacy? • Matched perceptions – Sample bias? – Students existing community – Teaching & learning practices – Lecturer well-known blogger
Editor's Notes
- 20 mins + 10 mins discussion 9:45-10:15 Thurs
- Salmon, Selwyn and others – critical of educational research esp ed tech research
- 1.2 Research Objectives The objectives of this research project were: 1. To determine whether bloggers are reflective and collaborative learners by measuring their learning style using Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory (KLSI) 2. To determine whether bloggers are reflective learners by measuring reflection in their blogs using heuristics based on Hatton and Smith (1995) 3. To determine whether bloggers are reflective learners by measuring reflection using a questionnaire by Kember et al. (2000) 4. To determine whether bloggers are collaborative learners by counting the number of comments and links between their blogs (Kumar et al, 2004)
- Storytelling – Huffaker Improve writing skills – Bernie. Own voice - Williams & Jacobs Digital Natives – ‘Facebook Generation’ Technology Empower end-users Minimum technical skills ‘ Form with two fields’ A blog is an online journal and the blogger’s personal publishing space on the web. Journals and diaries are generally considered to be private but blogs are accessible to everyone on the web (Mackay, 2007). Huffaker (2005) describes the blogging process as being both individual and collaborative while Downes (2004a) sees blogging as “essentially an individual activity”. Huffaker (2005) describes how blogs can be used for storytelling and hence to improve literacy and creative writing skills . Blogging gives students the opportunity to write on an issue over time, engage readers and reflect on their own writing (Richardson, 2004). Blogging helps students to develop their own voice as it enables them to formulate and stand by their opinions (Williams and Jacobs, 2004). This empowers them and encourages them to be critical and analytical thinkers who understand how others interpret their views (Williams and Jacobs, 2004). This is a description of reflection as in Boud (1985) and Moon (1999a) and of Kolb’s diverging learners (Kolb and Kolb, 2005). Assigned exercises in blogs are not blogging (Richardson, 2004). The only audience is the teacher. Using blogging software does not constitute blogging per se (Downes, 2004b). Downes (2006) thinks that true blogging only starts when bloggers are unrestrained by the class rules. Blogging is for ‘thinking out loud’ and should not be assessed (Downes, 2006). Churchill (2009), however, assesses blogs for class work in third level education.
- True Blogging Downes Multimedia & Communications – 31 students. 6 3 rd year with blogs 1.3 Research Participants The research was carried out at a third-level institute where blogs had been used for several years. 31 students on the Bachelor of Science degree in Multimedia and Communications participated. Of these, 6 third year students kept blogs suitable for analysis. The aim of blogging was to improve their writing skills. Students were encouraged to read and comment on each other’s blogs. Their work was not assessed. The Communications lecturer on this course is a well-known blogger. He shares the views of Williams and Jacobs (2004) who see blogging as a way of developing critical thinking, writing and information literacy skills. Reliability & Validity This research was conducted on a small population, which may not be representative of a larger group. This population are all studying the same course in the same institute. Their communications lecturer is a well-known blogger who encourages his students to blog (Churchill, 2009). The third year students have studied and socialised together and will have had similar learning experiences in the institute. For these reasons, the ecological and population validity of the research cannot be assumed and the results may not be generalisable.
- Reflection occurs at the Reflective Observation stage of Kolb’s cycle and is associated with the assimilating and diverging learning styles. Boud (1985) has described reflection as the processes where learners explore their experiences to gain a better understanding and appreciation of their learning. Some learners have a naturally reflective learning style, while others prefer to learn more actively (Kolb, 1984). Blogs can help bring about reflective learning (Dron, 2003). In their research on medical students, Fischer et al (2011) found no significant difference in levels of reflective writing between blogs and traditional essays.
- Kolb’s (1984) cycle is based on experiential learning theory (Dewey, Lewin (action research, group dynamics, Piaget), which considers learning to be a continuous process where knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Experiential learning is learning through reflection on doing, which is often contrasted with rote or didactic learning. Learners prefer feeling or thinking and doing or watching (Kolb, 1984). The combination of these preferences gives rise to Kolb’s four learning styles Learning style is not fixed; it arises from consistent patterns of interaction with the environment and can change with maturity.
- Cycle Most learners have a preferred learning style and learn best when teaching and learning activities match this styl e (Kolb, 1984). The style is a combination of their approach and their emotional response to learning. Some learners prefer to learn through experimenting and personal interaction while others learn best by thinking and reflecting. Learners prefer feeling or thinking and doing or watching (Kolb, 1984). The combination of these preferences gives rise to Kolb’s four learning styles as in the table below. Converging Learning Style tend to be practical, problem- solvers who prefer technical tasks to interpersonal issues Diverging Learning Style tend to be open-minded, imaginative and prefer to work in groups . Assimilating Learning Style tend to be logical thinkers who prefer theoretical models to practical problems Accommodating Learning Style tend to use intuition to solve problems and prefer to deal with people rather than concepts Learning style is not fixed; it arises from consistent patterns of interaction with the environment and can change with maturity. People learn best when learning is oriented towards their preferred learning style (Kolb, 1984). Kolb warns that the over-simplification of the application of learning styles, can lead to the stereotyping of students. Kolb and Kolb (2005) found that students with assimilating and diverging LS perform better in hypermedia environments. Blogs could be considered a hypermedia environment.
- According to Kolb’s (1984, 2005) learning styles, the degree of reflection and collaboration varies according to the student’s preferred learning style (LS). Applying this to bloggers, those with a (n): • Diverging LS would learn from blogging due to their disposition to reflection and interest in people. These learners should write reflective postings in their own and reflective comments on their classmates’ blogs. It can be postulated that divergers will be the most collaborative and reflective bloggers. • Accommodating LS would write short, descriptive blog entries and comment extensively but superficially on their classmates’ blogs due to their orientation towards active learning and communication. If they were the most frequent bloggers, it would suggest that collaboration is more important than reflection in blogging. • Assimilating LS would write deep, reflective postings but communicate little. They would make few, if any, comments, as they are less socially oriented. However, any comments they made would probably be reflective. If these students blog the most, it would suggest that, while reflection is important, collaboration does not play a major part in the learning process while blogging. • Converging LS would write factual, descriptive blog entries and probably comment very little due to their tendency towards active and abstract learning. If they were the most frequent bloggers, it would suggest that bloggers are not particularly strong on reflection or collaboration but are practical types who like to experiment with new technologies.
- Dron (2003) has adapted Kolb’s cycle of experiential learning to model learning on his postgraduate course on Reflective Use of Communication Technologies (RUOCT). In his course, the students post reflections on their ‘concrete’ learning experiences in their blogs. They make ‘reflective observations’ by commenting. There is a collaborative evaluation of the blogs, which further aids reflection. This reflection leads to Kolb’s ‘abstract conceptualisation’, where they create a theory to explain their reflections. This theory is tested by ‘active experimentation’. This focus would suggest diverging learning style. Of the seventy-one models of learning styles identified by Coffield et al. (2004), Kolb’s Learning Style is the only style identified by the author as being cited in the literature on reflective learning in blogs
- As the sample size was small and the participants could be interviewed in one place, it was decided to conduct the research as an interview in the Institute. This would help to maximise the number of participants and give the researcher the opportunity to explain the instruments. The KLSI is a paper-based questionnaire consisting of twelve sentence sets, that is, statements with four options each. According to Kolb and Kolb (2005), KLSI is widely used and has a sound basis in educational theory. Its norms are based on a diverse sample of 6,977 users (Kolb and Kolb, 2005). In the technical specifications, the Kolbs demonstrate that reliability and both internal and external validity have been proven for the KLSI. Coffield et al. (2004) have questioned the validity of the KLSI. Its use of forced choices obliges respondents to rank all four options in order. Each option corresponds to one of the four phases of the learning cycle. It is not possible to rank options equally or to omit any of the options. They also question whether Kolb has managed to make all four options equally socially desirable. Also Pashler lack of independent evidence The use of standardised test instruments reduces the possibility of unintentional bias in the operationalisation and interpretation of research. It is difficult to predict the eventual outcome of choices on Kolb’s LSI (1993) due to its design. This makes it unlikely that the Hawthorne effect would arise (Sharp et al., 2007). Conducting all the fieldwork in the same place and on the same day should also reduce bias. 3.7 Field Work Arrangements to conduct the research at the institute were made with the class lecturer. Consent was approved in advance. As good research should benefit the subjects (Rugg and Petre, 2006) and knowledge of one’s learning style helps in the achievement of academic success (Kolb and Kolb, 2005), the researcher decided that the students should discover their own learning style. To do this the students would score their own learning style inventory and reflection questionnaire.
- The KLSI is a paper-based questionnaire consisting of twelve sentence sets, that is, statements with four options each. According to Kolb and Kolb (2005), KLSI is widely used and has a sound basis in educational theory. Its norms are based on a diverse sample of 6,977 users (Kolb and Kolb, 2005). In the technical specifications, the Kolbs demonstrate that reliability and both internal and external validity have been proven for the KLSI. Coffield et al. (2004) have questioned the validity of the KLSI. Its use of forced choices obliges respondents to rank all four options in order. Each option corresponds to one of the four phases of the learning cycle. It is not possible to rank options equally or to omit any of the options. They also question whether Kolb has managed to make all four options equally socially desirable.
- Reflection in posts and comments in the students’ blogs was measured using the simplified version of Hatton and Smith’s (1995) heuristics described previously. Of the six bloggers, the four most prolific wrote 75% of the total posts. These four bloggers all showed a preference for a converging learning style as measured by the KLSI. Three of these four bloggers wrote 74% of the reflective posts. They also made and received all of the reflective comments.
- Researchers use discourse analysis to interpret the meaning of a text. Such interpretation is subjective and may be biased by the researcher (Sharp et al., 2007). Hatton and Smith (1995) developed heuristics to distinguish between descriptive writing, descriptive reflection, dialogic reflection and critical reflection in student journals. In this research project, reflection was taken as a combined measure of these three types of reflection. This simplifies the use of heuristics (Moon, 1999b). Blog posts and comments were coded as either reflective or non-reflective.
- Reflection in posts and comments in the students’ blogs was measured using the simplified version of Hatton and Smith’s (1995) heuristics described previously. Of the six bloggers, the four most prolific wrote 75% of the total posts. These four bloggers all showed a preference for a converging learning style as measured by the KLSI. Three of these four bloggers wrote 74% of the reflective posts. They also made and received all of the reflective comments.
- Reflection in posts and comments in the students’ blogs was measured using the simplified version of Hatton and Smith’s (1995) heuristics described previously. Of the six bloggers, the four most prolific wrote 75% of the total posts. These four bloggers all showed a preference for a converging learning style as measured by the KLSI. Three of these four bloggers wrote 74% of the reflective posts. They also made and received all of the reflective comments. These four bloggers with the converging learning style were found to be ‘somewhat reflective’ based on the categories derived from Kember’s questionnaire.
- Kember et al. (2000) have devised a test instrument for measuring reflection, which was used to triangulate the measure of reflective learning found by text analysis of the blogs. It consists of sixteen statements measuring four items ‘habitual action’, ‘understanding’, ‘reflection’ and ‘critical reflection’. The participants have to choose one of the options ‘definitely agree’, ‘agree with reservation’, ‘no opinion’, ‘disagree with reservation’ or ‘definitely disagree’ in response to each statement. Categories were combined to simplify this research (Moon, 1999b). Kember’s test instrument has been tested on a population of 303 health science students in Hong Kong in several iterations. Kember et al. (2000) report that it is statistically reliable and that it is valid as it is derived from the literature. As the questions are not domain specific, they believe that the questionnaire is suitable for use in other academic disciplines. The score for reflection was calculated based on the students’ responses to Kember’s questionnaire. A grouped distribution for all students showed that these scores were normally distributed.