This study examines how students’ cognitive styles are correlated with their attitudes toward online education and learning behaviors in online learning environments. The Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) and the attitude survey toward online instruction were administered to 104 students enrolled in various online courses at the University of Tennessee. The study findings revealed that students’ cognitive styles were not significantly correlated with their attitudes and preference for instructional delivery modes while other factors such as previous online learning experience and computer competency were significantly correlated with students’ learning outcomes and attitudes toward online instruction. Recent advances in educational technology have improved educational environments by providing many enabling tools satisfying learners’ diverse needs. Advanced network systems especially brought about a revolutionary phase in education by allowing alternative “anytime and anywhere” learning delivery methods for online learners around the world. This kind of advancement in educational technology has produced many benefits for both individual learners and organizations in several ways. Individual learners take advantage of self-paced learning environments in which they have control over their pace of learning, information flow, selection of learning activities, and time management (Jung, 2001). Organizations increase return on investment (ROI) by saving time and cost for employee training through online learning solutions and performance supporting tools. As more and more individual learners and organizations choose online instruction as their alternative learning delivery option, e-learning markets become the world’s potentially largest information industry (Adam, Awerbuch, Slonim, Wegner, & Yesha 1997). In a recent survey of e-learning within business organizations in North America, about 43% of the organizations were in the process of utilizing e-learning for performance improvement in 2001, and 33% were planning to implement e-learning within the next three years (Sofres, 2001). A report by Screen Digest estimated the corporate market of e-learning in the U.S. at $3.5 billion in 2002 (Levis, 2002). As these

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Cross Relationships between Cognitive Styles and Learner Variables in Online Learning Environment.

Educators require a variety of delivery methods to maintain students’ motivation and attention, and to address different learning styles (Born & Miller, 1999). Vehicles that can reinforce cognitive knowledge and provide students the opportunity to put theory into practice include simulations, role-play, and games. Alessi and Trollip (1991) provide five major types of computer-based instructional programs: tutorials, drills, simulations, instructional games, and tests. Computer-based multimedia gives instructional designers the tools of animation, video, and sound to provide learners with working models that convey complex concepts. The purpose of this study was to ascertain if the use of an asynchronously delivered simulation activity to teach leadership styles and ethics theory would improve learning. The study employed a quasiexperimental design with a non-equivalent control group. Comparison of student performance on selected examination questions revealed that the treatment group (N=83) answered 9% more questions correctly than did the control group (N=113). In addition, students in the treatment group performed significantly better on examination questions written at the knowledge, comprehension, and analysis levels based on Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Objectives: Cognitive Domain (Bloom, 1956). Students in the treatment group performed equally well, regardless of learning preference (visual, aural, kinesthetic or multi-modal). It was concluded that computer-based simulations have the ability to improve student learning of leadership concepts at higher cognitive levels while allowing students to apply theory to real world situations.

https://www.shsu.edu/~law001/601_port/Boyd%20Murphrey%20(2002)%20EVALUATION%20OF%20A%20COMPUTER-BASED,%20ASYNCHRONOUS%20activity%20on%20student%20learning%20of%20leadership%20concept.pdf

Evaluation of a Computer-Based, Asynchronous Activity on Student Learning of Leadership Concepts.

In recent years a growing body of evidence has implicated deficits in the automaticity of fundamental facts such as word and number recognition in a range of disorders: including ADHD, Dyslexia, Apraxia and Autism. Variously described as habits, fluency, chunking and over learning, automatic processes are best understood in terms of their distinctive properties. While typically identified as fast, parallel, attention free processes, a commonly agreed definition of automaticity continues to elude theorists investigating this concept. Most theorists would, however, agree that since attentional resources are finite, automaticity of basic facts serves to free sufficient mental resources for a learner to focus their attention on the novel or more complex aspects of a task. Yet despite the importance of automaticity to the learner, the term remains largely unfamiliar to most educationalists and early years practitioners. In order to address this issue, the present paper seeks to review several influential theories of automaticity, to describe the problems associated with defining a process as automatic and to draw from relevant research to demonstrate how the early years environment can be organised to promote automaticity in the young learner. INTRODUCTION Throughout the last decade a growing body of research has investigated the relationship between automaticity and a wide range of learning disabilities including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dysgraphia, and dyscalculia (AASU, 2001; Warshaw, 2002). Evidence from these studies suggests an association between deficits in automaticity and difficulties in reading, reading comprehension, reading fluency, writing, numeracy, spelling, memory, speed, hearing, vision and balance (Gray, 1999; Nicolson & Fawcett, 1999). Similarly deficits in automatic word recognition have been shown to underpin dyslexia, while other research suggests that children with apraxia of speech (a difficulty in sequencing the motor movements necessary for volitional speech) have failed to automatise the basic components of speech (Vellerman, 2001). 128 OMEPint2004fin:OMEPint2004fin 24/02/2010 14:09 Page 128

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Transformations: Theory and Practice in Early Education: Proceedings of the Conference held in University College Cork, Saturday, 5th April, 2003

The purposes of this study were (1) to determine if the culture of the student's first language was a significant variable in field-dependent-independent cognitive learning style, and (2) if a student's second language achievement has a significant relationship to variables of grade level, sex, time in an English as a second language (ESL) program, second language proficiency level or cognitive learning style. It was hypothesized that (1) there are significant positive correlations between field-independence and the variables of achievement, proficiency level, and grade level, (2) there are significant positive correlations between second language achievement and proficiency level, grade level and time in an ESL program, (3) there are no significant differences in field-dependence between the sexes or the four cultures of Laotian, Spanish, Tongan, and Vietnamese, and (4) there is no significant difference in the mean achievement score between the sexes.

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The Interaction of Cognitive Learning Style and Achievement of Selected Students of English as a Second Language

Maternal, child and family health nursing

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Charles F. Eiszler

Papers

Perceptual Preferences as an Aspect of Adolescent Learning Styles.