Word-Pair Recognition and Mobility

Della Valle’s (1984) initial screening of 417 New York seventh-graders with the Learning Style Inventory (Dunn, Dunn, & Price, 1978) resulted in identification of 217 with a preference for Mobility and 89 with a preference for passivity. Twenty students at each end of the Mobility continuum were selected to participate in this research. Word-pair recognition tasks were developed for use in both the passive and mobile environments, and all students were taught and tested in both conditions using a 2x2x2 way ANOVA with repeated measures to analyze the data.

The resultant data verified that:

1. students with either preference performed equally as well when matched, corroborating that both Mobility and passivity are strengths when they are responded to positively;
2. no differences were evidenced between the scores of students in the two extremely different environments, substantiating that no single environment that permits movement or one that requires students to sit still generates higher achievement than the other; and
3. significant differences wer e found when students’ environments were congruent with their learning style Mobility preferences.

Specifically, although actively and passively preferenced students performed equally well in the passive environment, those with a preference for Mobility obtained the highest scores of all groups when they were taught in the condition that permitted them Mobility while learning. Those findings suggest that such students may never have performed to their maximum potential in conventional classes. Conversely, those who preferred a passive environment scored poorly when required to engage actively in instruction while learning. When students were placed into settings congruent with their diagnosed learning style preferences for Mobility, their achievement scores increased significantly (p < .001). Those data verify that each school should provide at least two different classroom environments if both types of students are to achieve as well as they are able.