Vester learning type test

Evaluation diagram

A learning type test is a test that purports to determine in what way the student learns most effectively. A cornerstone was laid by Frederic Vester's learning typology , who, without any empirical evidence, postulated the following learning types :

• Hearing (auditory)
• Seeing (visual)
• Read
• Feel / touch (haptic)

procedure

In the classic Vester test, the examiner reads ten different terms to the examinee. The examinee remembers these terms as best he can. After a 30-second break with light arithmetic tasks, the examinee should remember the ten terms and write them down. This is repeated with ten terms each, which the examinee is shown as an object, which he reads as a word or which he should blindly feel.

Other learning type tests have also been established. Neil Fleming's work is based on Vester's model, but the test procedure differs significantly. If you can achieve a very good result across all characteristics in the test described above with good memory strategies, the VARK test by Neil Fleming tries to determine individual recording preferences using a questionnaire with 16 questions. Four possible answers are given to each question and the examinee ticks the answers that best apply to him.

evaluation

Rather auditory learner type

The number of terms that the DUT remembered is entered in an evaluation diagram. Each type of learner has its own axis. If you connect the four points to form a square, it is possible to categorize the respective learning type at a glance. Mixed forms often occur. If a test object z. B. has the same number of terms for hearing and seeing, one speaks of an auditory-visual learner type.

In a Nachgespräch can on mnemonics are received.

In the VARK test according to Neil Fleming, a number of points is calculated for each characteristic (visual, aural, read / write, kinesthetic). This in turn ultimately results in the individual learner type.

criticism

The ineffectiveness of learning type tests and the classification into learning types has been shown in numerous studies. A procedure of this kind is therefore rejected in scientific psychology. The empirical research could neither prove an improvement of the learning performance when taking into account the preferred learning type, nor could positive effects be measured for a lesson which takes different learning types into account. From the perspective of the cognitive sciences, learner types are therefore seen as a myth today.

Rather, one sees the learning success in the way in which "exciting" learning content is conveyed and how great the prior knowledge is.

swell

• Frederic Vester: Thinking, Learning, Forgetting ; dtv, Munich, 31st edition 2007, ISBN 3423330457
• Neil Fleming, Charles Bonwell: "How do I learn best?"; ISBN 978-0-473-07810-2

further reading

• Benedikt Wisniewski: The nonsense of the senses in: B. Wisniewski & A. Vogel: School on astray - myths, errors and superstitions in education , Schneider Verlag, Baltmannsweiler, 2013, ISBN 978-3834012562

Web links

• Learner types? - An educational construct put to the test by Maike Looß (PDF file; 218 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ John Hattie: Visible Learning - A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyzes relating to achievement , Routledge, London, 2009, ISBN 978-0415476188 .
2. ↑ KA Kabale & SR Forness: "substance over style: Assessing the efficacy of modality testing and teaching" in: Exceptional Children , 54 (3), 228-239., 1987
3. ↑ Spiegel Wissen: Intelligence 04/2017