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Technical education in Singapore has undergone major changes. In the 1960's, technical education was aimed at changing public attitude towards blue-collar jobs and providing skills training to meet the manpower needs of the country. Today, as part of an all-round education, a creative approach to technology is emphasised to change the image of technical education from "hands-on" to creative thinking. Design and Technology (D&T) was subsequently introduced in 1986. If Singapore is to advance technologically, the emphasis on technical education in secondary schools cannot be neglected. The positive move in introducing the new subject `Design and Technology' in order to instil creativity into technical education must be matched by the methodology to ensure its viability.
That students learn is taken for granted. To those unfortunate few who fail, the blame is on their academic standard or the teaching methods. But what about the way students learn? Because the way teachers teach is best left to the teachers alone, can we allow our students to learn their own way while we teach our own way?
Ideally, the way teachers teach should match the way students learn. The concern of teachers should be the students' style of learning. Teachers can then adapt their teaching styles to suit the learning styles of students. This study therefore focuses on the learning styles of students and in particular the D&T students in a secondary school in Singapore. The aim is to understand from the heterogenous mix of student learning styles the group learning style so that D&T teachers can best adapt their teaching style and materials to suit the students' group learning style.
Definition
Learning styles are characteristic cognitive, affective, and psychological behaviours that indicate how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment (NASSP, 1979). Learning style may also be defined as the tendency to adopt a particular strategy in learning. Most students have a preferred learning style but some may adapt their learning styles according to the tasks. Those who adapt are referred to as having a 'versatile' learning style (Pask et al., 1977).
Learning Styles
Elements of learning style appeared in the research literature as early as 1892. The term `learning style' was probably first used by Thelen (1954) in discovering the dynamics of groups...