YOU ARE REQUIRED TO SHOW HOW LEARNING THEORIES CAN FULFIL THE NEEDS OF

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND STUDENT LEARNING STYLES IN THE TEACHING AND

LEARNING PROCESS.

Academic Writing
Nur Farah Ain Binti Nordin
930923-12-5794
L3 PISMP June Intake

Abstract
A basic issue in the study of learning concerns about the process whereby learning
occurs and the product of learning (Schunk, 2004).But the most tough issue pertains to
learning theories is how the implication of the learning theories can fulfil the needs of
individual differences and student learning styles in the teaching and learning process.
Many theories argue on how the right way the learning process occurs. As time goes by
and the involvement of technology infiltrate in education context, the learning theories
develop from the behaviourist approach to constructivist approach to cater the needs of
individual differences and student learning styles in classroom context. This paper will
cover on how the learning theories (behaviour approach, cognitive approach and
constructive approach) meet the needs of individual differences and student learning
styles in the teaching and learning process.
1.0 Introduction
As a teacher, one should be aware that every student has different ways of learning.
Some of the disciplines that need to be considered, in terms of their influence on
learning, are questions of personality differences, perceptual factors and the nature of
memory from psychology, environmental influences from the sociological perspective,
together with the concerns of the educational practitioner. Hence, by conducting an
eclectic approach in the classroom, it giving the teacher the chance to address the
individual differences of the students and identify the variety of student learning styles.
The existence of learning theories helps the teacher to understand how their pupils

learn, which allows them to apply it to the teaching and learning process so that the
students can achieve the effective learning result.
2.0 Learning Theories
The study of human learning focuses on how individuals acquire and modify their
knowledge, skills, strategies, beliefs and behaviors (Schunk, 2004). Learning represent
an enduring change in behavior or in the capacity to behave in a given stimuli, which
results from practice or other experiences. This definition excludes temporary changes
in behavior due to illness, fatigue, or drugs, as well as behaviors reflecting genetic and
maturational factors. Theories of learning differ in how they address critical issues.
Some of the more important issue

concerns how learning occurs, which factors

influence learning, what the role of memory is, what the role of environment is, how
transfer occur s, which processes are involved in learning, and what the theory
implications for instructions are.
Learning theories often viewed as distinct, but in fact they should complement one
another. Neither is sufficient to ensure good teaching and learning. Theory alone may
not fully capture the importance of experience in learning. Practical experience without
theory is situational specific and does not accord to any guideline in order to organize
knowledge of teaching and learning. Mok Soon Sang (2008) stated on this book,
Learner and Learning Environment, at the present time, learning theories can be
classifies into five main theoretical perspectives, namely: behavioral, cognitive, social,
humanistic and constructivism.
2.1 Behaviorism
Behaviorism is a worldview that assumes a learner is essentially passive, responding to
environmental stimuli. The learner starts off as a clean slate (i.e. tabula rasa) and
behavior is shaped through positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement. Both
positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement increase the probability that the
antecedent behavior will happen again. In contrast, punishment (both positive and
negative) decreases the likelihood that the antecedent behavior will happen again.

Positive indicates the application of a stimulus; Negative indicates the withholding of a

stimulus. Learning is therefore defined as a change in behavior in the learner. Lots of
(early) behaviorist work was done with animals (e.g. Pavlovs dogs) and generalized to
humans.
2.2 Cognitivism
Cognitivism focuses on the inner mental activities. Opening the black box of the
human mind is valuable and necessary for understanding how people learn. Mental
processes such as thinking, memory, knowing, and problem-solving need to be
explored. Knowledge can be seen as schema or symbolic mental constructions.
Learning is defined as change in a learners schemata.
2.3 Social
Social perspective suggested that learning should integrate behaviorism and cognitive
perspective in learning (Sang, 2008). Thus, social learning theory contends that people
learn from their social environment. Bandura, a prominent social psychologist from
Canada, asserted that learning should go through the process of modeling; a learning
through observation and imitation process. In Banduras theory, human functioning is
viewed as a series of reciprocal interactions among personal factors, behaviors, and
environmental events. Learning occurs enactively through actual performances and
vicariously by observing models, by listening to instructions, and by engaging with print
or electronic material.
2.4 Humanistics
Based on humanistic perspective, in teaching and learning strategy, they proposed that
individuals need should be related with emotional development. Learning motivation is
taken into account to develop pupilss overall personality. Learning contents should be
planned to meet individuals need. In this interaction, pupil-centred strategy and
individual method ought to be used frequently, so as to achieve the objective of
developing the individuals overall potentials.

2.5 Constructivism
A reaction to didactic approaches such as behaviorism and programmed instruction,
constructivism states that learning is an active, contextualized process of constructing
knowledge rather than acquiring it. Knowledge is constructed based on personal
experiences and hypotheses of the environment. Learners continuously test these
hypotheses through social negotiation. Each person has a different interpretation and
construction of knowledge process. The learner is not a blank slate (tabula rasa) but
brings past experiences and cultural factors to a situation.
3.0 Individual Differences
Individual differences in educational field are strongly related to differences in
intelligence, a major focus of individual-differences research. Intelligence has multiple
meanings. Lurking within this diversity of meaning, however, are important facts that
pose serious explanatory challenges to any approach to psychology that aspires to
encompass the field's most basic learners nature. According to Mok Soon Sang (2008),
human possess a distinct varied feature from born. This is due genetic influence and
environment influence. By the time an individual develops his sensory and cognitive
skills, they will discover they own human potential, an individuals hidden capability and
ability. According to Gardner, individuals possess eight types of intelligences, namely:
a) Logical-mathematical, someone who had the capacity to discern, logical and
numerical patterns.
b) Linguistic, someone who are sensitive to the sounds, rhythms, and meaning of
words.
c) Musicals, someone who had the ability to produce and appreciate rhythm.
d) Spatial, someone who had the capacity to perceive the visual-spatial world
accurately and able to perform transformation on ones initial perceptions.
e) Bodily-kinesthetics, someone who had the ability to control ones body
movement.
f) Interpersonal, someone who had the capacity to discern and respond
appropriately to the moods, temperaments, motivations, and desires of other
people.
g) Intrapersonal, someone who had the access to ones own feeling and the ability
to discriminate among them, and draw upon them to guide behavior.

h) Naturalistics, someone who are possess keen observations skills and able to
appreciate the beauty of environment.
4.0 Student Learning Styles
In the context of educational psychologist, learning style is a pupils typical manner to
attend, process and acquire information, knowledge or new experience. (Sang, 2008)
Learning styles are important because they are the education-relevant expressions of
the uniqueness of the individuals (Bruce Joyce, 2009). Individual differences are to be
prized because they are the expressions of the uniqueness of personalities. Individually,
each configuration give us an individuals personal identities, together, they also
exemplify the richness of our cultures.
According to Murnford and Honey (1986), learning style can be categorized into four
main types, namely:
a) Activist, someone who likes to be involved in new experiences and are
enthusiastic about new ideas. They enjoy doing things and tend to act first and
consider the implications afterwards. They are unlikely to prepare for the learning
experience or review their learning afterwards,
b) Reflectivist, someone who like to view the situation from different perspectives.
They like to collect data, review and think carefully before coming to any
conclusions. They enjoy observing others and will listen to their views before
offering their own,
c) Theorist, someone who like to adapt and integrate observations into complex and
logically sound theories. They think problems through step- by-step. They tend to
be perfectionists who like to fit things into a rational scheme,
d) Pragmatist, someone who are eager to try things out. They like concepts that can
be applied to their job. They tend to be impatient with lengthy discussions and
are practical and down to earth.
According to Slavin (1994), learning style can be grouped into two main categories,
namely;

a) Dependent learning style. Dependent students show little intellectual curiosity

and who learn only what is required. View teacher and peers as sources of
structure and support and look to authority figures for specific guidelines on what
to do.
b) Independent learning style. Students who like to think for themselves and are
confident in their learning abilities. Prefer to learn the content that they feel is
important and would prefer to work alone on course projects than with other
students.
Other than that, Felder-Silverman Learning Styles Tapology (1993) categorized five
main categories of IT learning styles, namely:
a) Sensory or intuitive learner. Sensory learner are someone who are oriented
towards facts and using systematic, concrete, practical approach to solve
problem, while intuitive learner are someone who are oriented towards theories
and meaning in enquiring new concepts and abstractions.
b) Visual or verbal learner. Visual learner is someone who prefers learning materials
with visual presentations, while verbal learner is someone who prefers the written
or spoken explanations.
c) Inductive or deductive learner. Inductive learner is someone who prefer
presentations from specific to general, while deductive learner is someone who
prefer presentations from general to specific.
d) Action or reflective learner. Action learner is someone who prefers to retain and
understand information through activity, while reflective learner is someone who
prefers to learn by reflective thinking individually.
e) Sequential or global learner. Sequential learner is someone who prefer to learn
logically step by step, while global learner is someone who learn in a holistic
manner and randomly without seeing any systematic connections
To ensure that all students acquire the required knowledge and skills, every teacher
should make a thorough preparation because in every classroom there is no equal
thinking ability group as what explained in individual difference and student learning

styles. Therefore, the teacher should review the differences of its students and
determine the following approaches in accordance with the level of students, namely;
5.0 The implication of behaviourist approach to individual differences and student
learning style;
According to Pavlovs Classical Conditioning theory, conditioned response can be
fostered through the process of teaching and learning activities. In order to teach
effectively, the teacher ought to relate practical experience (conditioned stimulus) with
the learning task (unconditioned stimulus) so as to produce satisfactory conditioned
learning response through satisfactory learning activities (Sang, 2008). For an individual
who possess intelligence any other intelligence accept logical mathematics, a teacher
should guide the pupils to use the skill discrimination, for example to ascertain the
different specific characteristics of acute triangle and regular triangle. The principle of
discrimination in operant conditioning happen when the pupils would not respond the
same way as the original stimulus when encounters new stimuli that are similar and in
this case, the same shape (two types of triangle). This also can be applied to verbal
learners. Verbal learner preferred text and recorded voice rather than use pictures,
drawing and diagrams. A teacher should guide them using the principle discrimination
in order to teach them how to visualise or learn using demonstrations, pictures, drawing
and diagrams. The principle of readiness also needs to be taken into account. A teacher
should identify which pupils who are lack of logical mathematical intelligence and the
pupils who are verbal learners. Then, the teacher should allocate sufficient exercises for
these pupils to strengthen the application of conditioned stimulus and conditioned
response. For example, give related exercises regularly to solve mathematical
problems. For remedial purpose on the pupils who are lack of mathematical reasoning
intelligence and the verbal learners, use a secondary reinforcement to sustain
conditioned response to avoid process of extinction. For instance, use new, similar
stimulus as conditioned stimulus to motivate pupils for their subsequent learning
activities.
6.0 The implication of cognitive approach to individual differences and student
learning style;

Cognitive learning theories explain learning in terms of changes in cognitive processes

(Schunk, 2004). Elements of information processing apply to basic forms of learning of
learning but the greater significance is put on complex learning. In a simple word,
cognitive approach for learning emphasizes the importance of cognitive for human
development and behaviour. Based on Kohlers Learning theory, an individual solve
their problem by rational action based on the perception of the relationship between
stimuli. This implication can be applied on the pupils who are bodily kinesthetic
intelligence and the global learners. Bodily-kinesthetics intelligence tends to use their
own body into practice while global learners prefer to learn in large leaps and
holistically. Unlike logical mathematical intelligences pupil, they able to think rationally
based on their own learning style. For implementation, a teacher should provide the
pupils with metaphorical representations. For instance in an English class, a concrete
analogical passage (for example, story book which involve the movements of body
parts) given to the pupils prior to an instructional passage (the study of body parts). This
is to facilitate learning from the target passage and to gained insight to what is about to
learn.

7.0 The implication of constructivism approach to individual differences and

student learning style;
Constructivism is a practical perspective contending that individuals form or construct
much of what they learn and understand (Brunning, Schraw, & Ronning, 1995). It
highlights the interactions of persons and situations in the acquisition and refinement of
skills and knowledge. A basic assumption of constructivism is that pupils are active
learners and must construct knowledge for themselves. To understand material well,
learners must rediscover for themselves the basic concept. Independent learners
applied constructivism on their learning. They able to manage their own learning,
possess critical and creative thinking skills as well as learn on their own initiative. Thus,
constructivism is a student-centred approach which required the learner to be actively
involved in their own learning. A dependent learner and logical-mathematical
intelligences pupils should be considered important in constructivism approach.

Dependent learners learn by extrinsic motivation and need to be led by the expert.
While, logical-mathematical intelligences learner sometimes unable to applied the same
theory into practice. In a class, a constructivism teacher must use facilitating technique
to guide them to learn. Facilitate them while doing an activity is a good start to imply
constructivism approach. A constructivism teacher should also consider the appropriate
learning materials as well as teaching method should be based on pupils cognitive
development and their level of thinking. From the identification of learning style and
intelligence, for example; dependent learner and logical-mathematical intelligence, a
teacher can imply the stated step to approach the target group.

8.0 The implication of social approach to individual differences and student

learning style;
In social learning theory, the main learning elements to be considered are observation
and imitation. The models behaviour can be learned from language, idioms and
proverbs. Based on social approach, the learning process covers learning technique like
observation, thinking, memorizing and imitation from suitable behaviour or response,
and finally ended with positive reinforcement. The social learning theory is ones basic
principle applied by musical intelligence and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. They
required a role model to copy the action or skills. As for implications, the teachers
presentation should be skillful and interesting so as to become a role model for the
pupils to follow. In an English class, a teacher can also invite pupils who perform well in
a role play to become role models to repeat the demonstrations inside and outside the
classroom. Visual and verbal learner are given advantages in this sense because they
able to imitate whether action or verbal from the role model. This is however an
disadvantage to intrapersonal intelligences pupil because the learner does not possess
observation skills in others. A social approachs teacher therefore need to take the
stated procedures to cater the need of different learning style and intelligence.

9.0 The implication of humanism approach to individual differences and student

learning style;
Humanistics psychologist like Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow considered that every
pupil possesses individual inclination to achieve self-objective and goal through the
realization of potential development. Maslow also believed that human instinct has the
need to acquire knowledge and understanding. It is highly achievable when the learner
realizes their own self-realization. Whether an individual possesses the need to realize
self-actualization or not, depends on what proportions of the basic needs to be satisfied.
If all the basic needs have been fulfilled, then the learning motivation will arouse and
more sophisticated knowledge will be acquired through learning process. Therefore, a
humanism teacher must ensure the pupils needs are fulfilled. The learning environment
as well must be conducive in teaching and learning, so that pupils would feel pleasant,
happy, harmonious and secure to involve themselves in the learning activities especially
for reflective, sequential and intuitive learner. A musical intelligences pupils need to be
taught by humanism approach because by giving them a setting of calm and
harmonious, they are able to express themselves in terms of musical and singing. As
what have stated in the humanistic approach implementation, the clear emphasize is on
the learner-centred education and under non-threatening condition.
10.0 Conclusion
In conclusion, the teacher should understand the underlying meaning and
principle in FPK. The education goal depends largely on the effectiveness of the
teaching and learning process. . This process requires the teacher to understand and
internalize the learning theories, teaching model, approaches, strategies and technique,
individual differences, student learning styles and motivation. By fulfilling the need of
individual difference and student learning styles accord to the learning theories, we are
one step ahead to realize Vision 2020.

Learning Theory

: Humanism

Time

: 20 minutes

No. of students

: 24

Level of proficiency

: beginner to medium

Theme

: Mystery

Topic

: The Closet Creature

General objective

: Identifying verb and its past tense

Skills involved : 1. Reading

2. Speaking
3. Listening
Teaching Aids : 1. Music
2. Manila cards, flash card
3. Handouts
4. Ball

Stage/Time

Set Induction

Content

Whole-class relaxation

5 minutes
Material: Mozart Classical
Music

Presentation/Rationale

1. Teacher turns on the music.

2. Teacher asked the students to
relax and move into positive
frame of mind.

Rationale
To take off the negative frame from
the students mind.

First
Concert-Active
Concert

Dramatic reading

Material:
1. reading passage entitled
The Closet Creature.
2. Mozart Classical Music

1. Teacher change to another

classical music of Mozart.
2. Teacher asks students to watch
and listen to the text that being
read.
3. Teacher read the text and
acting out the action.
4. Students watch and listen to the
text that being read by the
teacher.

Rationale
Dramatic reading enhance the
students understanding about the text.

Second
Concert-Passiv
e Review

Normal reading

Material:
.
1. reading passage
entitled The Closet
Creature.
2. Baroque Music

1. Teacher change the music to

Baroque music.
2. Teacher asks students to listen
to the text that being read.
3. Teacher read the text with
normal speed.
4. Students listen to the text that
being read by the teacher.

Rationale
The change of music and the speed
of reading bring the learners into the
optimum mental state for the effortless
acquisition material.

Practice

1. Whole-class reading

Material:
1. reading passage
entitled The Closet
Creature.
2. Mozart Classical
Music

1. Teacher distribute the passage

to the students.
2. Teacher ask the students to
stand up and together read the
passage with the actions that
have been potrayed by the
teacher during the first stage.
3. Students stand up and read the
passage altogether
dramatically.

Rationale
This session work on the reading
and speaking skills of the students.

1. Teacher asks one of the

students for volunteer.
2. Teacher ask other students to
read the text aloud and the
students who volunteer will act
out the actions.

Rationale
2. Dramatization by the
student

This session will enhance the

students comprehension about the
text.

Material:
1. reading passage
entitled The Closet
Creature.
2. Mozart Classical

1. Teacher put up a manila card

that contained two columns.
Each column contained verbs in
past tense that ended up with -

Music

2. Correct past tense

pronunciation

Material:
1. A table of verbs
past tense
2. Flash cards

ed
2. Teacher pronounce the verbs
on both side and ask the
students whether there are any
differences.
3. Students spot the differences
and they are the t sound and
the d sound.
4. Teacher guide the students for
the correct pronunciation and
explain why it is sounded so.
5. Teacher assess the students
comprehension by conducting
listening game. All they have to
do is to listen and show up the
flash card on which sound does
the verb ended with.

Rationale
Eventhough the verbs ended up
with same ending, -ed, they
dont really pronounced the
same.

1. Teacher put up a table that

contained two columns. Each
column contained verbs in
present tense and past tense.
2. Teacher guides the students on
correct pronunciation of the
verbs
3. Students follow the teachers
pronunciation.
4. The process goes few more
times so that they can
memorized the words.
5. Teacher assess the students
memory by conducting a simple
game.
6. The game goes this way:
1. Teacher pass the ball to one
of the students and ask the past
tense of the verb said by the
teacher.
2. Students catch the ball and
answer the question posted by

the teacher and pass the ball

back to the teacher.

Rationale
Irregular verb has its own form of past
tense, which got nothing to do with the
addition of -ed.

3. Recognizing past tense

for irregular verb

Material:
1. A table of past
tense for irregular
verb
2. Ball

Closure

1. Teacher tell the students that

they can read the text again
before they go off to sleep and
after wake up in the next
morning if they want to.

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