Learning Styles in a Technology-Rich Environment

This study investigated whether learning style would change after a year of schooling in a technology-rich educational environment dedicated to a constructivist approach to learning. The subjects were 15 gifted freshmen who had been accepted into a “magnet” high school. The subjects were given Dunn and Dunn’s Learning Style Inventory and a questionnaire before and after the school year. This study could not conclude that learning styles change after one year; however, there are suggestions that learning styles are affected by factors within the environment, such as exposure to technology. Results suggest that a technology-rich environment affects the written and unwritten curriculum within a classroom, especially impacting the social context that exists. The use of computers affected the way the content was explored and presented. A technology-rich environment also seemed to affect the interaction that occurred between students and students, students and teachers, and teachers and teachers. A much more casual social context emerged, which was supportive of exploration and discourse. After one year, some students displayed low preference for learning in this environment; the researcher concluded that instruction must encourage many different forms of learning styles.