COGNITIVE LEARNING STYLES

9. Cognitive Learning Styles

Cognitive learning styles refer to the way in which information is gathered, represented and transformed into knowledge. Cognitive learning styles are also concerned with how memory is stored and eventually used to develop behavior and gain further knowledge. Most learning theories are concerned with the general ways that learning takes place, implying that all learners learn in the manner specified by the theory. Cognitive learning styles suggest that individuals learn in different ways and differently in different situations. The emphasis is on discovering the style of the individual and finding ways to address that style.

Cognitive learning styles, as a learning theory, has developed in contemporary times as the result of the work done by educators like Howard Gardner and Robert Sternberg. Work done by Harry Harlow, a psychologist working with monkeys, suggested that there were different ways that individuals could learn to learn.

Further work done by J.P. Guilford suggested that individuals learn in different ways. Guilford suggested there were 8 ways that people learned and Gardner has successfully convinced the educational world that there be even more learning styles.

Gordon Allport, Henry Murray, and Robert White have also contributed to the development of the concept of different learning styles. Allport, in the 1930's did seminal work in the area of personality traits. This work expressed a new view that the individual functioned and interacted as a whole, and the biological, psychological and social factors of an individual contributed to its learning styles. Individuals are unique and have unique traits that determine the way a person behaves, learns, exists and so on.