Learning Styles: From History to Future Reasearch Implications for Distance Learning

The literature on learning styles offers a wide and confusing array of concepts. Despite that, experimental studies confirm their influence on learners’ attitudes, values, degree of social interaction, and way of processing information, affecting academic performance. In consequence, learning styles research has, increasingly, been used as the theoretical foundation for the development of learning materials and Distance Learning Environments. The field, however, would benefit from both the systematization of the concepts available, and from their further investigation, since, from the plethora of models available for categorizing learning styles, only a few have been well validated. This paper reviews the literature on learning styles, systematizing the findings, pointing at the major unsolved problems and giving suggestions for future research.


Introduction
Human beings were born to learn, it is a natural instinct.Foreign language, math, science, it does not matter: all, except those with severe brain damage, are able to learn the various subjects, including learning-disabled persons.However, even though every student within a group can learn, they do not, necessarily, learn in the same way.
An enduring and fundamental question within the educational research field relates to the effect of individual differences on the efficacy and efficiency of learning.Some of the aspects that have been explored largely refer to differences in learning styles.Research has shown, for example, that the quality of learning material is improved if it is designed to take into account differences in learning styles (McLoughlin, 1999;Rasmussen, 1998;Riding & Grimley, 1999).
And regarding distance learning, the rule is the same.Whenever information is presented in ways that are congruent with the students preferred styles, their academic achievements are increased and more positive attitudes toward learning are developed.In this way, the challenge for designers of Virtual and Adaptive Learning Environments, as well as on-line courses, goes beyond catering for diversity.It refers to the acquisition of knowledge regarding individuals' different learning needs, and the integration and connection of that with the design process.
This paper is divided into five main sections, including this introduction: literature review, conclusion, references, and acknowledgements.The following section reviews the literature on learning styles.

Literature Review
The word review means to go over again.This section is both a compilation and a critical review of the literature on learning styles, and it is divided into four sub-sections: Learning Styles -A bit of history, Learning Styles -Influence on learning performance, Learning Styles -Definitions and terminology, and Learning Styles -Conflicts and Strategies.

Learning Styles: A Bit of History
So, all students can learn.In reality, students can learn from many different modes and types of exposure.What is different from one individual to another, nevertheless, is how each prefers to learn, understanding learning as a change, whether in relation to behavior, attitudes, values or competencies (Pinto, 1992).
The idea that people learn differently, though, is not at all new.Its origin probably dates back to the ancient Greeks (Wratcher, Morrison, Riley & Scheirton, 1997;Diaz & Cartnal, 1999).
Experimental studies in differential psychology have shown that individual differences play an important role in learning and instruction (Jonassen & Grabowski, 1993).For many years, educators have noticed that some students prefer certain methods of learning to others.These dispositions form a student's unique learning preferences, and are referred to as learning styles (Kemp, Morrison & Ross, 1998).
The research on learning styles started in the first half of the 20 th century.But the term style was probably first used by the Greek physician Hippocrates, who identified different types of personalities. In 1945, a distinction between visual and haptic types was reported by Lowenfeld, referring to individuals who experience the world primarily through vision or touch (Guild & Garger, 1998).In 1960, Kolb introduced the term learning styles to educational vocabulary.
Even today, however, there is no overall theory, only a plethora of models and instruments for Revista Brasileira de Aprendizagem Aberta e a Distância, São Paulo, Dez. 2007 categorizing learning styles, ranging from brain dominance to types of cognitive styles.Thus, the vast learning styles literature remains an unreliable source.As Vincent & Ross (2001) and Suskie (2002) note, professional educators are unable to form consensus regarding the establishment of a single set of accepted principles.Additionally, critics point out that for a learning style theory to be valid and useful, it must prove that students learn more effectively when their learning styles are accommodated. Bonham (1988), Kavale & Forness (1987), and Rayner & Riding (1997) consider that the usefulness or validity of learning style models and instruments has not been definitively established.A particular concern is that most learning style theories label students into a few discrete, quantitative, and often dichotomous categories, instead of recognizing that individuals develop and practice a qualitative mixture of learning styles, which changes over time and varies according to discipline (Grasha, 1990;Stellwagen, 2001;Silver, Strong & Perini, 1997;Suskie, 2002).Another issue refers to the effect of cultural differences in learning styles (Swanson, 1995).
In conclusion, the field of learners' differences is disorganized, the research has declined in recent years (Schunk, 2004), and terms are often poorly defined.All that makes attempts to draw conclusions difficult.

Learning Styles: Influence on Learning Performance
Despite all that has been stated, based on empirical research, there is evidence that individual differences in learning styles can affect performance in learning settings, signaling that learning styles can hinder or enhance academic performance (Riding & Grimley, 1999;Richardson, 1994).Rumetshofer & Wöß (2003) affirm that it influences attitudes, values, degree of social interaction, and the way a person processes information.A meta-analysis of forty-two experimental studies conducted with the Dunn and Dunn model between 1980 and 1990 by thirteen different institutions of higher education revealed that students whose characteristics Revista Brasileira de Aprendizagem Aberta e a Distância, São Paulo, Dez. 2007 were accommodated by educational interventions responsive to their learning styles could be expected to achieve 75 percent of a standard deviation higher than students whose styles were not accommodated (Dunn, Griggs, Olson, Gorman, & Beasly, 1995).According to Piombo, Batatia and Ayache (2003), matching instruction to learning style allows the student to retain information longer and apply it more effectively.Cognitive strategies, once embedded inside the learning program, not only allow students to perform better than those without learning strategies, but also to retain these strategies after two months (Thornburg & Pea, 1991).And in relation to the quality of learning material, according to McLoughlin (1999), Rasmussen (1998), andRiding &Grimley (1999), research supports that it is improved if designed to take into account differences in learning styles.Schunk (2004) considers that the amount of research on the field is sufficient to guide future efforts and attempts to apply findings to improve students' adaptive functioning.
According to Curry (1987), learning styles make intuitive sense.For instance, it is apparent that some students prefer reading books rather than listening to them on tape and vice versa, or that some students prefer working alone rather than working with others and vice versa.Indeed, some learning preferences, like the preference for a quiet background, seem so self evident that a validated instrument may not be necessary to access them (Suskie, 2002).
Styles are inferred from consistent individual differences in organizing and processing information on different tasks, to the extent that styles affect cognition and behavior, and help link cognitive, affective and social functioning.In return, stylistic differences are associated with differences in learning, as well as receptivity to various forms of instruction (Messick, 1984(Messick, ,1994)).Differences in learning styles are a result of such things as past and present life experiences, genetic make-up, educational experiences, and the demands of the present environment (Manner, 2001;Kolb, 1984;Dunn, 1990Dunn, , 1993)).
Care should be taken in selecting literature on learning styles, for research has focused on different aspects of this complex.In this way, while affirming that learning styles can improve academic performance, one should verify which types of learning styles are under discussion.A number of styles have been investigated in more depth, and there is more research evidence on their importance.On the other hand, some of the identified styles are not backed up with scientific data, or are found in the literature labelled in a confusing way.For example, the concepts of field-dependence and field-independence have been thoroughly investigated.Witkin began his work on perception in the late 1940s and continued it until his death in 1979 (Guild & Garger, 1998).Together with Moore, Goodenough and Cox, Herman A. Witkin (1977) proposed the existence of different perceptual tendencies in persons depending on how they view and use their surroundings.They developed tests designed to determine reliance on cues received from the background field.Those perceptual distinctions, known as field-dependence and fieldindependence, refer to the ability to distinguish key elements from a distracting or confusing background.
On the other hand, some of the cognitive preference concepts -such as holistic, i.e. individuals tending to see a situation as a whole -are sometimes named differently, like synthetic.And many times, they do not even mean the exact same thing.Other terms, like analytical for example, are used by different authors with different meanings.In this way, learning styles literature can be very informative or confusing, depending on the sources selected.

Learning Styles: Definitions and Terminology
Definitions of learning styles vary.A commonly used one was proposed by Keefe (1979): "Learning Styles are characteristic cognitive, affective, and physiological behaviors that serve as relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with and respond to the learning environment" (p.4).Another usual definition explains learning style as a consistent or habitual mode of acquiring or imparting knowledge through study, experience or teaching (Beishuizen & Stoutjesdijk, 1999).Messick (1994) defines learning styles as "modes of perceiving, remembering, thinking, problem solving, and decision making, reflective of informationprocessing regularities that develop in congenial ways around underlying personality trends" (p.122).
As mentioned earlier, many terms in the learning styles literature are, sometimes, used interchangeably, like learning styles and cognitive styles.In order to try to distinguish concepts that are similar and yet quite distinctive, McLoughlin (1999), Curry (1991), and Riding & Cheema (1991), organized the main concepts according to the degree to which they can be observed and articulated, providing a group of definitions and classifications (Table 1).
In the Learning Styles literature, there appears to be two major threads of research (Leaver, 1997;Dorwick, 2004).The descriptive approach notes that both teachers and students learn things in different ways and focus on providing information about learner differences, not on preformatted lessons plans.The prescriptive thread, on the other hand, not only notes the differences, but also recommends that teachers overtly design their teaching activities to address one or other dimension of the various criteria for differing styles, and, in this way, dictate classroom practices.Within these two traditions, a variety of labels are found, relating to distinct dimensions of leaning styles.According to Dunn (1993), learning modes have different characteristics; nevertheless, they tend to overlap in many respects.Felder and Silverman (1988) explain learning styles in reference to input preference (sensory/intuitive), sensory modality (visual/verbal), information organization (inductive/deductive), information processing (actively/reflectively), and understanding progress (sequential/global).
Revista Brasileira de Aprendizagem Aberta e a Distância, São Paulo, Dez. 2007 Table 1:  the way they process information and the way they represent information during recall.They describe the different aspects of cognitive styles as a continuum, in opposition to dichotomous categories, and as independent of the other.Gregorc (1985a) and Butler (1988) use a theory that identifies learning style in terms of the following modes: concrete, abstract, sequential and random.Sousa (1995Sousa ( , 1997Sousa ( , 1999) ) identifies three primary differences in learning styles: auditory, visual and kinesthetic.Fleming (1995b) has further modified these three sensory preferences, specially the visual sense, by disaggregating its components into visual information presented as text -a read/write preference, from pictures such as diagrams and video, a visual preference.Leaver (1997) has clustered learning differences into four overarching categories (Table 2): sensorial modalities, cognitive styles, personality types and environmental preferences, making easier the task of understanding the various existing systems, once they are grouped by type.
These four categories are subdivided further and explained on Tables 3a, 3b (Leaver, 1997;Jensen, 1998), 3c (Leaver, 1997;Myers & Briggs, 1976) and 3d (Leaver, 1997;Jensen, 1998).Sensorial modalities are related to the different physical channels through which students perceive and take in new information.According to Leaver (1997), most individuals have a primary modality and a secondary modality through which they learn.Some even have a tertiary modality, but that is more rare.A few individuals have no preference -all modalities work for them.Fleming (1995a) proposes that individuals can either be uni-modal, bi-modal, tri-modal or multi-modal.
The ways in which people perceive and process information effects how they learn.Cognitive styles concern the thinking processes, a complex set of actions that takes place in the mind.In order to think, intake or recall of information must first occur, followed by processing, storage and reconstruction of that information, as well as generation of unique thought.Cognitive styles bear on the how, on the manner in which behavior occurs, with emphasis upon process.

2.a. Auditory Aural
They learn by listening to others.
Information that is auditory is processed and stored in the temporal lobes on the sides of the brain.

2.b. Auditory Oral
They learn by talking and hearing themselves.

3.a. Motor Kinesthetic
They learn through the use of gross motor muscles.
speed and direction.
Motor information is stored at the top of the brain in the motor cortex until permanently learned; then it is stored in the cerebellum, the area below the occipital lobe.Personality Types involve the ways in which learners relate to other people and to the physical and intellectual world around them, and the influence of that on their learning.
Environmental Preference regards the aspects of the physical surroundings and physiological conditions that have an influence on students' learning process.

Learning Styles: Conflicts and Strategies
Difficulties in learning arise when a student has a strong preference in one modality and is required to learn through a different one.Visual learners, for example, often have poor performance on oral tests due to a difficulty in converting their visual memory of the facts into auditory memory.Aural learners need auditory input; when they read instructions, they often become lost.Oral learners, on the other hand, need auditory output; as children, they, often, cannot keep quiet and tell whatever is going on their minds.
According to Dunn (1993) and Fleming (1995aFleming ( , 1995b)), preferences for learning styles change over time.However, during the period in which an individual has strong style preferences, that person will achieve most easily when taught with strategies and resources that complement those preferences.
Student-teacher or student-peer style incompatibilities or conflicts, known as style conflicts, can bring unfortunate effects to learning.Gregorc (1985aGregorc ( , 1985b) ) advises the consideration of both style match and clash between teacher and learners.Felder & Henriques (1995), Godleski (1984), Oxford, Ehrman &Lavine (1991), andSchemeck (1988) affirm that students, in those Revista Brasileira de Aprendizagem Aberta e a Distância, São Paulo, Dez. 2007 situations, tend to: be bored and inattentive in class, perform poorly on tests, get discouraged about the course and, perhaps, conclude that they are no good at the subject and give up.
Developing style flexibility in students seems the most empowering path, and making them style aware too (Zapalska & Dabb, 2002;Leaver, 1997).Learning style versatility can be achieved by exposing students to a variety of learning experiences.In this way, they can be better prepared for the real world and life-learning process.The methods used to help students understand how they learn should, however, be kept brief and simple, so they are not distracted from the goals and objectives of the class.Together with the identification of their learning styles, learning strategies can be examined within the context of their learning experiences and the extent to which each can succeed or fail in aiding them in their learning process.
Learning strategies are cognitive plans oriented toward successful task performance (Shunk, 2004;Pressley, Woloshyn, Lysynchuck, Martin, Wood & Willoughby, 1990;Weinstein & Mayer, 1986).According to Leaver (1997), they are specific techniques used to acquire new information.Schunk (2004) affirms that strategies include activities such as selecting and organizing information, rehearsing material to be learned, relating new material to information in memory, and enhancing meaningfulness of material.Also included are techniques that create and maintain a positive learning climate.The four-category system for grouping learning strategies (Oxford, 1990;Poulisse, 1989;Poulisse, Bongaerts & Kellerman, 1984;Leaver, 1997)

Conclusion
The research on learning styles started in the first half of the 20 th century and, until today, attracted the attention of scientists from different fields, receiving more or less status in different time periods.The variety of concepts found on learning styles literature makes it, nevertheless, difficult to build a unified framework.The best effort to systematize learning differences was provided by Leaver (1997), who clustered the major concepts into four overarching categories: sensorial modalities, cognitive styles, personality types and environmental preferences, making it easier to understand the various existing systems.In relation to problems regarding poor definition of terms, sometimes used interchangeably, McLoughlin (1999), Curry (1991), and Riding & Cheema (1991), provided the most clear and organized classification of the main concepts, such as learning preferences, learning style and cognitive style, differentiated according to the degree to which they can be observed and articulated.
Literature on style differences should be selected with care, since research has focused on different aspects of learning styles.A number of learning styles have been investigated in more depth, while others are not backed up with scientific data.
Based on empirical research, there is actual evidence that individual differences in learning styles can affect performance in learning settings.Further research, however, needs to be done in order to better understand different aspects of this complex and to build a cohesive theoretical base.Schunk (2004) considers, however, that the amount of research on the field is sufficient to guide future investigations, and to apply findings to improve students' adaptive functioning.
Efforts should be directed towards learners' empowerment through the development of style flexibility and awareness, as well as use of a set of learning strategies, aiming at successful task performance.
Definition of Learning Styles related terms.(1991) affirm that learners differ in terms of two fundamental dimensions: the use of fine motor muscles .Ex.: A motor learner is someone who learns telephone numbers by dialing them.Often, motor learners cannot tell someone else the number without picking up an imaginary phone and pretending to dial.
was adopted here.It includes metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies (including memorization and coping strategies), social strategies and affective strategies.Metacognitive strategies are associated with thinking about one's own learning process, and include: advanced organization, monitoring, homework planning, selective attention, evaluation, setting goals, self-awareness, anticipation and selecting tasks.Cognitive strategies are associated with the details of the thinking process.The list is vast, and includes, among many other variables: elaboration, context

Table 2 :
Definition of the main categories related to Learning Styles

Table 3a :
Learning Styles Subcategories explained SENSORIAL MODALITIES Revista Brasileira de Aprendizagem Aberta e a Distância, São Paulo, Dez.Ex.: If they want to remember the French word for sun, they will associate it with an image of the sun.