LISSA GO T WALS FOR THE CHRONICLE
Linda Dunham supervises courses at Central Piedmont Community College that try to hone the study skills of new students. Above, she helps Jeanette Martinez, one of her students.
“I learned I was
an extrovert. That
fit with a career
in substance-abuse
counseling, which is
what I want to do.”
It includes statements like “You enjoy
being unpredictable and doing things
without planning ahead” and “You often
tell people how they should behave to-
ward other people.” Immediately after
finishing, students are given several
charts showing whether they are more
introverted or extroverted, more think-
ing or feeling, and other characteristics.
“I learned I was an extrovert,” says Mr.
Graham. “That fit with a career in sub-
stance-abuse counseling, which is what
I want to do, and I’m taking classes in
human services and counseling.”
The learning-style assessment consists
of about 30 questions like “Do you pay
close attention to teachers’ expressions
on their face or their body language?”
and “Are you good at making graphs,
charts, and other visual displays?” The
results rate students on three dimen-
sions: auditory, visual, and movement-
oriented, or kinesthetic.
Mr. Jones says he remembers using
this test with a student on academic
probation. “She said, ‘I’m doing every-
thing I know how to do,’” he says. “I
encouraged her to take the test, and she
came up as heavily kinesthetic. I said
she could get up and walk around while
studying, or listen to music, or squeeze
Silly Putty. For a kinesthetic, there is
a connection between movement and
memory. But this really went against
her preconceptions of what a good stu-
dent did, which was to hunch over a
book and take notes.” The student tried
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the new approaches, and improved her
grades so much the next semester that
she was taken off probation. “It would
be a stretch for me to say it was because
we did these things, but they did provide
the opportunity to talk about studying
strategies,” Mr. Jones says.
Linda Dunham, the chair for the col-
lege-success courses, says her conversa-
tions with students often go like this:
“‘So your learning style is auditory. How
can you make that work for you?’ And
then we talk about what could work.”
One danger of this kind of test is
if instructors try to match teaching
style to learning styles. The portal al-
lows instructors to see what the mix or
predominant style is in a classroom.
But research has shown that attempts
to match learning styles do not im-
prove results for students, says Richard
E. Mayer, a professor of psychology at
the University of California at Santa
Barbara. “I don’t think the evidence is
there yet,” he says. He would prefer to
see the discussion shifted from pinning
particular styles on students to getting
students to think about how they learn
most effectively.
Mr. McElroy, the retention dean at
Central Piedmont, says that’s exactly
what goes on at his college. “We don’t
want instructors to teach differently. It’s
really a reminder to vary what they do.”
Another benefit of the portal is that it
breaks down walls that separate coun-
selors and instructors. “I am much more
inclined to sit down after class and pop
open the Web site and send a student a
note if I’ve noticed she’s been absent a
lot, or to send counselors an early alert,”
Ms. Dunham says. “If I had to get up
and walk to the counseling offices, even
though they are right downstairs, I’d be
much less likely to do it.”
The online repository of alerts and
notes is a particular boon to adjunct
instructors. “About 70 percent of our
instructors are adjuncts, and this really
helps them,” says Ms. Olesiuk of Ashe-
ville-Buncombe. Their hours are less
regular, but “the online system lets them
check on students from home, and con-
tact the counseling service more easily.
Before it was much harder because they
weren’t in the same place.” (The site al-
lows only senders and recipients to view
the contents of these notes; others can
simply see that action was requested and
taken, but for privacy reasons they can-
not see details.)
