Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

Abstract

The purpose of thisDissertation was to examine the effectiveness of matching learners optimal learning styles to their overall knowledge retention. The study attempted to determine if learners who are placed in an online learning environment that matches their optimal learning styles will retain the information at a higher rate than those learners who are not in an adapted learning environment. There were 56 participants that took one of two lessons; the first lesson was textual based, had no hypertext, and was not influenced heavily by the coherence principle, while the second lesson was multimedia based utilizing hypermedia guided by the coherence principle. Each participant took Felder and Solomans (1991, 2000) Index of Learning Styles (ILS) questionnaire and was classified using the Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model (FSLSM; 1998) into four individual categories. Groups were separated using the Visual/Verbal section of the FSLSM with 55% ( n = 31) of participants going to the adapted group, and 45% ( n =25) of participants going to the non-adapted group. Each participant completed an immediate posttest directly after the lesson and a retention posttest a week later. Several repeated measures MANOVA tests were conducted to measure the significance of differences in the tests between groups and within groups. Repeated measures MANOVA tests were conducted to determine if significance existed between the immediate posttest results and the retention posttest results. Also, participants were asked their perspectives if the lesson type they received was beneficial to their perceived learning of the material. Of the 56 students who took part in this study, 31 students were placed in the adapted group and 25 in the non-adapted group based on outcomes of the ILS and the FLSSM. No significant differences were found between groups taking the multimedia lesson and the textual lesson in the immediate posttest. No significant differences were found between the adapted and the non-adapted groups on the immediate posttest. No significant difference was found between the adapted and the non-adapted groups on the retention posttest. However, results also revealed that the adapted group scored significantly higher on the retention posttest when compared with the immediate posttest. Interestingly, the non-adapted group scored significantly higher on the immediate posttest when compared with the retention posttest. When queried about the perception of benefit of the lesson style, 42% of the adapted group replied in the affirmative following the immediate posttest, yet that percentage grew to 81% following the retention posttest. The non-adapted group had 28% reply in the affirmative following the immediate posttest, and that percentage grew to 48% following the retention posttest. Both groups found benefit, yet the numbers associated with the adapted group were higher. Overall perceptions of benefit corresponded to higher test scores as opposed to those who did not find benefit, who had a lower score.

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