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One of my earlier posts was on 'Reflective Learning', where I discussed the Learning Styles Questionnaire by Peter Honey. Yesterday I had the chance to take the questionnaire which aims to ascertain your individual learning style in order to become a more balanced and well rounded learner. Honey suggests there are four styles of learning; Activists, Reflectors, Theorists and Pragmatists. The aim of the questionnaire is to determine which styles you utilise the most and those you use the least, in order to make you are more well balanced learner.
Continuing personal development is a core part of the information profession. In order to train users to use new technology and systems your individual skills must be up to date and it helps to have a wide overview of your profession and the different needs and options available to your library users. CILIP emphasises this on their website in the criteria for those wishing to work towards chartership;
" Candidates must demonstrate:
- an ability to reflect critically on personal performance and evaluate service performance
- active commitment to continuing professional development
- an ability to analyse personal and professional development and progression with reference to experiential and developmental activities
- breadth of professional knowledge and understanding of the wider professional context"
Honey suggests that 'Learning styles are malleable, not fixed.'(1) We may have a preference to the way we like to learn, but the most successful learners are those who work on utilising the areas they feel least comfortable with. So I went about completing the questionnaire, with some preconceptions about my preferred learning styles and waited in interest to work out my result.
Before discussing my result and how I plan to use it to further my own development, I will briefly outline the different learning styles as provided by Honey; (2)
Activists
'Activists like to take direct action. They are enthusiastic and welcome new challenges and experiences'
Reflectors
'Reflectors like to think about things in detail before taking action. They take a thoughtful approach.'
Theorists
'Theorists like to see how things fit in to an overall pattern. They are logical and objective systems people who prefer a sequential approach to problems.'
Pragmatists
'Pragmatists like to see how things work in practice. They enjoy experimenting with new ideas.'My results determined that I was almost a 50/50 Reflector/Theorist who utilises very little Activist and Pragmatist styles. For me that suggests that I have a lot of room for development, as it shows that I tend to play it safe and lack spontaneity with my learning. The workbook then provides a more detailed summary of the learning styles and what you can do to encourage your less utilised styles. For me this may be actively seeking out new experiences, doing less planning in advance and responding more flexibly, being more direct and straightforward in my approaches and becoming more hands-on and seeing whether things work, in practice.(3)
Over the coming weeks I will be discussing with my manager ways to actively utilise more Activist/Pragmatist styles and to try and incorporate this awareness in to the future projects I undertake.
(1)Honey, Peter,The Learning Styles Questionnaire, 80-item version, Peter Honey Publications Ltd
(2) The Learning Styles Questionnaire, p.19-20
(3)The Learning Styles Questionnaire, p.30-56
Having thought about it, I think I did actually do this in this century, just…! It’s very interesting that you ended up with that outcome. My result was broadly similar – predominantly Theorist/Reflector, although I did have flashes of Pragmatism… I am very much the step-by-step, get to grips with the detail man rather than the panoramic sweep, ‘Let’s do the show right here!” type… I tend to describe myself as a ‘Constructive Eeyore’… Which essentially means in practice that, for instance, Eric and I sit down and come up with ideas, and then I think of all the things that might stop them working properly, and then we try to work out what will work, and then Eric goes and does it… ;-)
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea that it can benefit us to develop the ability to learn and act in different ways, and that by trying new approaches you may find that some of them work for you too. Bear in mind, though, that a test like this can never give a precise result, and is always going to be indicative; personally, I think most people vary in approach more than they realise, and, perhaps subconsciously as much as consciously, they do change between tasks and will adapt to circumstances. I’d argue that there’s no ‘perfect balanced state’ to aim at; for me the key element is that you learn best when you’re using approaches that come more naturally to you. If someone told me they were 25% of each style, I’d worry rather than be impressed…!
Something to think about: Do you think this sort of questionnaire, or other ‘personality’ or related tests, have a validity outside of ‘self-diagnosis’, say in recruitment? Psychometric testing and suchlike seem to be pretty widespread in certain commercial sectors… If you were in a position where you were recruiting a new member of staff for the Library, do you think it would help if you had the results of their Mumford/Honey questionnaires in terms of helping you ascertain how they may do their job, how you could maximise meeting their training needs, how they might fit into the team?
Thinking about it this way is really interesting. I think as a method of reflection and personal development these tests can be helpful, but from a recruitment perspective I think they perhaps convey a rather rigid framework which does not allow for much fluidity. Employers may develop an idea of how a candidate may or may not react to a situation without evidential or contextual proof, so in that situation I think they may prove more of a hindrance than a help.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts before taking the test were that I would have the result of Theorist/Activist, although in many senses these two are rather conflicting! I have been in situations and roles where I have had to be more active and spontaneous in my decision making and by taking calculated risks so context does matter, I do however feel much comfortable knowing all the information before making my decisions, so the theorist preference does seem to ring true. My journey in to CPD and reflection begins!
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