Learning Style Preferences of Undergraduate Social Work Students

It has been identified that undergraduate social work students have distinctive learning needs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the learning style preferences of a group of undergraduate social work students enrolled at a large Australian university. The Kolb Learning Style Inventory, Index of Learning Styles and Success Types Learning Style Type Indicator was distributed to 606 students enrolled in an undergraduate social work degree at one metropolitan Australian university. A total of 116 questionnaires were returned, providing a response rate of 19.14%. The results indicated that converging and assimilating, intuitive and sensing, thinking, judging and perceiving learning styles were favoured by this group of social work students. It is recommended that educators understand and take into consideration the learning style preferences of undergraduate social work students when developing curricula and evaluating teaching approaches, especially when planning and implementing education initiatives. This will help create effective learning environments, appropriate learning opportunities and a contemporary curriculum for social work students.     

Preferences for popular music in and outside school among Chinese secondary school students

During the last two decades, China has experienced the emergence of vibrant popular music, resulting from globalisation and commercialisation. This empirical study investigates Chinese secondary students' popular music preferences in daily life, and to what extent and in what ways they prefer learning about popular music in school in the city of Changsha. Based on the findings from the survey questionnaires completed by 1816 secondary school students and interviews with 45 students from 8 secondary schools, this study revealed that Chinese teenagers preferred popular music styles in their daily lives and in school, particularly popular songs from Mainland China, the USA and the UK. There was a strong relationship found between school music teachers and the students' preferences for learning popular songs. Many of the students surveyed had their own popular music idols, but they mostly maintained that they liked their music idols because of their songs' melodies and lyrics. The findings also showed that there was a gap between the students' preferences for popular music and the popular music styles taught in school music lessons. Despite the division of classical and popular music learning among Chinese youths, most students conceded that these two musical styles should be taught in school music education. This study's findings challenge the notion of how popular music education in a culturally diverse community can be improved, as well as stimulate further examination of young students' music preferences in and outside the school environment.     

A study of the learning styles of undergraduate social work students

This study examines the learning styles of students in social work classes at Norfolk State University. Knowledge of learning styles can enhance the ability of faculty to build on student experiences and construct new learning opportunities. Kolb's Learning Style Inventory was administered to identify each student's dominate learning style. The theoretical underpinning is experiential learning, which supports the concept that learning styles are developed through experiences. The results indicated that diverging and accommodating learning styles occurred most often. Students with these styles learn best in classes where activities include lectures, role playing exercises, discussions, opportunities to practice skills, and reflection.     

Learning from Experience: Integrating Students’ Everyday Lives into the Urban Community College Sociology Classroom

Over 40 percent of today’s college students are enrolled at community colleges. While the institutions of community colleges have been gaining national attention given this growing statistic, we do not engage in large scale conversations about teaching practices that best benefit our local populations. This paper looks at the risks and rewards of incorporating students’ everyday life experiences into the classroom in an introduction to sociology course. This course is developed in an urban setting giving students tools both to see the world as sociologists and to critically analyze persistent inequalities in society. These goals are accomplished through challenging classroom conversations and culminate in a project where students collect data through their lived experience and analyze it as sociologists. While this style of teaching provides unique and often unexpected challenges, it creates a strong active learning environment in the classroom, confronts important social problems, and holds potential for consciousness raising and social change in the local community.     

Incorporating disabled students within an inclusive higher education environment

This study investigated disabled students' perceptions and experiences of learning in a single university. The paper reports the views of disabled student volunteers with a range of impairments who were selected to discuss experiences of teaching and assessment that they commonly encountered. Four group interviews were organized in 2002, before the Disability Discriminants Act (DDA) part IV came on stream, in which disabled students were invited to reflect together on their experiences as learners at the case study university. In addition to teaching and assessment, the students also identified issues to do with access to, and the use of, information as important in their learning experience. We conclude that further studies will need to adopt a more integrated approach to understanding disabled students' experiences as learners.     

Higher education students with disabilities speaking out: perceived barriers and opportunities of the Universal Design for Learning framework

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework offers a promising strategy to address the needs of higher education students with disabilities; UDL aims to support access, participation and progress for ‘all’ learners, resulting in more accessible learning environments. The objective of this qualitative study is to explore whether UDL addresses the learning needs of students with disabilities effectively. Findings suggested that students’ perceptions align well with UDL’s principles, especially with the principle of multiple means of engagement. Additionally, we found that meeting the learning needs of some students may create barriers for others. To overcome these weaknesses, UDL needs to address the individual learning needs of students, not only through setting and curricular changes, but also in a direct way. Therefore, this study argues for responsive teaching whilst implementing UDL in a flexible way. Helping students to articulate their learning needs by asking them the right questions will be crucial.     

Learning Style Characteristics of Adult Dependent Decision Makers: Counseling and Instructional Implications

Dependent decision makers form a significant population of students and adults who seek help from career counselors. This study investigated the learning style characteristics of dependent decision makers in an urban community college setting. The results suggest that the dependent decision makers as a group may have reduced motivation for learning, show limited persistence, and take less responsibility for their learning. Because of these learning style characteristics, we recommend that these characteristics be considered when making counseling interventions and instructional modifications when working with dependent decision makers.     

Emotionalized learning experiences: Tapping into the affective domain

The experimental study was undertaken to examine the effect of emotionalized learning experiences on the academic achievement of students at Preston University. The major objectives of the study were to identify the effect of teaching methods on students’ academic achievement and to evaluate the relationship between affective learning conditions and students’ academic achievement. Based on four intact semesters, the population of the study comprised 140 students from the Bachelors of Business Administration Program. The whole population was considered as the sample. The control group (28 students) was taught through the interactive lecture method, whereas, the experimental group 1 (35 students), experimental group 2 (46 students) and experimental group 3 (31 students) were taught through the activity method, reflective learning method and cooperative learning method respectively. Results indicated a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores obtained in the achievement test as a result of the effect of teaching methods used for offering the emotionalized learning experiences. There was also a significant relationship between affective leaning conditions and students’ academic achievement. Furthermore, it was found that students’ academic achievement in the affective domain was highest with regard to workshops 1, 2 and 3. It was concluded that the emotionalized learning experiences offered to the students via the four teaching methods helped students in enhancing their knowledge, changing their attitudes and developing their skills with regard to living a happy, healthy and meaningful life. However, the reflective learning method proved to be the most suitable followed by the interactive lecture method, the cooperative learning method and the activity method.     

WebQuests and Web 2.0 Screen Design

This study compared the designs of a traditional style WebQuest and a Web 2.0 style WebQuest in terms of their effectiveness as a teaching tool. The sample included 104 university sophomore students. Students were randomly assigned to two groups, with one group using the traditional style WebQuest and the other used the Web 2.0 style WebQuest. Data were collected (a) using a test developed by the author and (b) by conducting unstructured interviews. The results showed that the mean score of the students using the Web 2.0 style WebQuest was significantly higher than the traditional style WebQuest group on a test measuring the understanding of the WebQuest content. Furthermore, interview results indicated that while students from both groups enjoyed the activity, the responses from the Web 2.0 style group were more positive.     

Helping Students Starting a Social Work Qualifying Programme to Learn More Effectively

This paper gives an account of how Meyer's Reflections on Learning Inventory (RoLI) was used with groups of UK social work students embarking on their professional training in higher education, to assist them to reflect on their approaches to learning and the implications for their chosen career. Social work students were offered the opportunity to complete an inventory during the induction week of their qualifying award programme. They were provided with an analysis, which they then discussed with their tutor. As a result of this, students were required to produce a brief plan outlining what they had learned and how they could address any issues arising. The original profiles of the students were compared with their end of first year assessments. The RoLIs were found to be a sound indicator of those students ‘at risk’ of failing and proved a useful trigger for reflection on learning for most students.     

Adult learning styles: Implications for practice teaching in social work

This paper focuses on the current aspiration to further the process of continuing professional development in social work. It contends that knowledge from the field of adult learning theory may be helpful in sign-posting some tangible ways forward here. The particular emphasis is on critically assessing the usefulness of identifying learning styles as indicators of preferred ways of learning. Knowledge of learning styles is explored as one way of promoting students' learning on practice placements. A small-scale qualitative research study with a group of practice teachers and their students is presented as a vehicle for exploring this new terrain in social work. The findings of this research build on key themes identified by the current literature in this area. The author's findings suggest that information about learning styles has direct practical application in the social work practice teaching arena. The data points to the potential value of using such information to guide students' learning on practice placements and has relevance to considerations of their continuing professional development. Suggestions are put forward to highlight how practice teaching and Diploma in Social Work programmes could facilitate this process. The paper stresses the over-riding need to view students as actors in a broader social context, however, and highlights how information regarding learning styles needs to be utilised in this context.     

Female domestic violence offenders: their attachment security, trauma symptoms, and personality organization

Unlike male domestic violence offenders, female domestic violence offenders have traditionally been overlooked in research and theory, despite the fact that females also have high rates of domestic violence perpetration. Towards the aim of extending extant research on male and female pepetrators of domestic violence, we examined attachment style, trauma symptoms, and personality organization in 33 female offenders receiving mandated treatment for domestic violence. These offenders were compared to 32 nonoffending women receiving psychological treatment. The Experiences in Close Relationships Revised (ECR-Revised) was used to examine adult attachment, the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI) was used to examine trauma symptomology, and finally, the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory III (MCMI-III) was used to examine cluster B personality traits. Analyses indicated that female domestic violence offenders reported less attachment security, more trauma-related symptoms, and more personality psychopathology (Antisocial, Borderline, and Dependent Subscales) than did nonoffender clinical comparison women.     

An Outcome Evaluation of a Problem-Based Learning Approach With MSW Students

In this article, we report the findings from a study exploring the effects of a problem-based learning (PBL) approach to teaching and learning on learning outcomes for master’s of social work (MSW) students. Students who participated in a PBL pilot project were compared with students who did not participate in 5 outcome areas: social work knowledge, values, and skills; confidence in practice skills; confidence in learning skills; motivation to engage in deep learning and use deep-learning strategies; and satisfaction with their MSW education. PBL and non-PBL approaches were equally effective in helping students learn social work skills, knowledge, and values and in developing learning skills; the non-PBL group reported a significant shift to a more situational approach to their learning.     

An interdisciplinary approach to the development of professional identity through digital storytelling in health and social care and teacher education

The present article presents a study based on an interdisciplinary approach to research into reflection on identity construction. This multiple case study explores the narrative of professional identities in digital artefacts. It is aimed at exploring in what way digital storytelling can be used as a suitable pedagogical strategy for the construction of professional identity. The students involved in the innovative learning activity comprise two groups of Health and Social Care students in the UK, two groups of Primary Education student-teachers and one group of Secondary Education student-teachers in Spain. Thematic analysis is used to identify the topics addressed by students in exploring their professional identities, including values and the process of learning itself. Finally, the lessons learned from this interdisciplinary approach to reflection on identity and the implications these have not only for teaching and learning design but also for future collaborative research projects are set out in the discussion and conclusions.     

Task-based learning approaches for supporting the development of social science researchers’ critical data skills

Conducting social science research is a complex process, and social science students face a number of learning challenges in order to develop their skills. Moreover, new sources and types of data including so-called big data are providing new opportunities for research, but also pose methodological challenges. In this article, we explore a task-based learning approach for teaching social science research methods. We draw on evidence from two case study learning tasks: (i) the collection and analysis of Twitter data; and (ii) designing and conducting a face-to-face and online survey. The students were guided to co-lead the tasks, apply their knowledge and then to critically reflect. The pedagogical framework of task-based learning provides opportunities to embed learning in new ways by integrating knowledge, practice and critical reflection. Task-based learning can create a dynamic learning environment and can empower students to develop their identities as researchers.     

传媒类高职院校学生情感因素与大学英语教学的调查

通过调查山东传媒职业学院464名学生的英语学习情况,探究传媒类高职院校学生情感因素与大学英语教学之间的关系。结果表明：传媒类高职学生的英语基础普遍较弱;自信心不足,学习动机缺乏稳定性,克服困难的意志一般。因此,教师要注重与学生的沟通,注重培养学生的积极情感,鼓励学生主动探索和解决学习中出现的问题。     

Social work education and political conflict: preparing students to address the needs of victims and survivors of the Troubles in Northern Ireland

This paper reports on the evaluation of a European PEACE III sponsored teaching and learning project that was designed to enable social work students to better understand the needs of victims and survivors of the conflict in Northern Ireland. The paper begins with an introduction to policy, practice and educational contexts before reviewing the literature on social work, conflict and trauma. It also summarises key, innovative pedagogical approaches used in the teaching, including the use of ground rules, teaching teams consisting of lecturer and service user dyads, learning exercises and case studies. The paper then explains the evaluation methodology. This involved two surveys which returned 144 student and 34 practice teacher questionnaires. The findings revealed that students were generally committed to this form of teaching and engagement with victims and survivors of the conflict, although some students reported that their attitudes towards this subject had were not changed. Some students also discussed how the conflict had affected their lives and the lives of families and friends; it is argued that such biographical details are crucial in developing new pedagogical approaches in this area. Practice teachers who supervised some of these students on placement reported general levels of satisfaction with preparedness to work with conflict related situations but were less convinced that organisations were so committed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the study limitations and a recommendation for more robust methods of teaching and evaluation in this area of social work education and practice.     

Not lazy,not faking: teaching and learning experiences of university students with disabilities

This study explores the learning and teaching experiences of 105 disabled students mostly based in England, but with international voices. Students with disabilities are under-represented in universities and tend to have worse post-degree outcomes despite similar attainment rates to their peers. This presents a social justice issue. This article focuses on classroom experiences of these students. Using a survey with qualitative and quantitative elements, students were asked to give details about their experiences in taught settings, about their relationships with academic staff, and about their aspirations. Their responses have been analysed thematically and have been discussed in the context of the discourse around epistemic ignorance and social justice. The study finds that students may feel concerned about anonymity in disclosing disabilities and may be concerned about the way that others perceive them. The study finds that students perceive academic staff as often improperly trained for inclusive teaching.     

Twenty-first century learning in schools: A case study of New Technology High School in Napa, California

The most pertinent question concerning teaching and learning in the twenty-first century is not what knowledge and skills students need--that laundry list was identified over a decade ago--but rather how to foster twenty-first century learning. What curricula, experiences, assessments, environments, and technology best support twenty-first century learning? New Technology High School (NTHS) in Napa, California, is one example of a successful twenty-first century school. In this chapter, the author describes the components of this exemplary high school, illustrating an environment that will cultivate twenty-first century student learning. New Technology High School began by defining eight learning outcomes, aligned with the standards of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills; to graduate, students demonstrate mastery of these outcomes through an online portfolio. To help students achieve the outcomes, NTHS employs project- and problem-based learning. Whereas in traditional classrooms students work alone on short-term assignments that do not lend themselves to deep understanding, the project-based learning approach has students working in teams on long-term, in-depth, rigorous projects. Students' work is supported by the school's workplace-like environment and effectiv use of technology. Meaningful assessment is essential to project-based learning; students receive continuous feedback, helping them become self-directed learners. In fact, NTHS uses outcome-based grading through which students constantly know how they are performing on the twenty-first century outcomes. Research has shown that NTHS graduates are better prepared for postsecondary education, careers, and citizenship than their peers from other schools. To facilitate twenty-first century learning, all schools need to rethink their approach to teaching and learning. New Technology High School is one way to do so.