What Difference Can Learning Style Make?

This month, we’re beginning a two-part article that focuses first on the concept of learning style. Next month, we will explore learning style as it relates to space. Many thanks to Susan Rundle for the information she has shared about learning style and the Dunn and Dunn Model. This model has been chosen because it is one of the most comprehensive in use today. As a result, it provides us with an opportunity to link learning and classroom design. By understanding learning style at the pre-planning phase of a project, you have an opportunity to plan for optimal learner-centered classrooms that foster improved attitudes, behavior, and achievement.


Learning Style: What is It?


In recent years, the concept of learning styles has become widely accepted and is used by researchers and educators because of the emphasis it places on identifying and understanding students’ individual learning preferences, needs, and strengths, and the modes of individualized instruction that can be subsequently created. Learning style has numerous definitions and understandings, many of which depend on who is doing the actual research. For example, some researchers have specified learning styles as distinctive behaviors that provide clues to the mind of individual learners and how they perceive and order patterns in the world. Others have defined learning styles as unique behaviors expressed when individuals search for meaning. Still others have considered learning styles as perceptual modalities, experiential learning, or cultural dimensions. These are just a few of the many models in use today. We add to the list the Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model, which incorporates 26 elements that either hinder or stimulate the way in which each individual begins to concentrate on, process, internalize, and retain new and difficult information.


We begin by introducing you to Building Excellence. Based on the original Dunn and Dunn (1993) learning-styles model, Dunn and Rundle created an updated version in which minor changes are used to better reflect the complex nature of the perceptual and psychological domain (see Figure 1). The“perceptual domain” identifies auditory, visual text, visual picture, tactual, kinesthetic, and verbal kinesthetic perceptual strengths for remembering new and difficult information. The“psychological domain” focuses on global-versus-analytic and impulsive-versus-reflective processing. The “environmental domain” focuses on preferences for sound, light, temperature, and seating, while concentrating on new and difficult information. The “physiological domain” identifies time-of-day energy patterns, the need for mobility versus passivity, and/or intake. The “emotional domain” examines levels of motivation, persistence, responsibility (conformity versus nonconformity), and need for structure. The “sociological domain” addresses preferences for learning alone, in pairs, in small groups, in large groups, with authority figures present or not, and in a variety of patterns or routines.


Two critical factors distinguish the Dunn and Dunn Model — the brain-behavior relationships (biologically imposed characteristics) that stimulate or hinder learning, and the developmental process (previous learning experiences). Richard M. Restak, M.D. author of The New Brain, and Armin Thies, Ph.D., Yale University Medical School, confirmed the importance of these factors. Both Restak and Thies ascertained that at least three-fifths of learning style is derived biologically.


Follow up with us next month to see how classrooms can be planned and designed to support various learning styles.


Featured

  • EPA to Provide $26M in Grants to Protect School, Child Care Drinking Water

    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced that it will award $26 million in grant funding to test and fix lead-contaminated water at U.S. schools and childcare centers, according to local news.

  • Gretna East High School

    Gretna East High School

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. Gretna East High School has been recognized with an EDS 2025 Project of Distinction award in the category of New Construction.

  • University of Connecticut Upgrades Basketball Facility’s AV Systems

    The University of Connecticut recently partnered with Metinteractive to upgrade the AV systems of the Gampel Pavilion basketball facility on its campus in Mansfield, Conn., according to a news release.

  • K–12 Safety Trends Report Reveals Reliance on Training, Technology

    Wearable safety technology provider CENTEGIX recently released its 2025 School Safety Trends Report, according to a news release. The report is based on more than 265,000 incidents during the 2024–25 school year as reported through the CENTEGIX Safety Platform, used by more than 800 school districts across the U.S.

Digital Edition