VARK: Take a look at the sources

After the past few posts, I needed one that was a little shorter and less intense. One of the things I first noticed when reviewing some of the VARK papers (Fleming, 2006; Fleming, 1995) was that they didn’t cite other research. One of the papers had a link to a research bibliography (http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=bibliography). On this page, along with in the initial VARK paper (Fleming & Mills, 1992), I found some interesting sources.

Some of these are expected based on my previous posts (Bandler and Grinder’s The Structure of Magic Vol I and II, and Frogs into Princes- for more on these see my post on Neuro-Linguistic Programming here). But some of these came as a surprise. For example, Mike Gazzaniga’s and Roger Sperry’s work in the split brain experiments are listed here. Also, listed is Alan Baddeley’s work with memory. My experience with these three is minimal, but any student of psychology has some experience with the work of these three researchers.

To elaborate a bit: Roger Sperry won a Nobel prize in 1981 for his work with cats and, later, with monkeys. So, his work was obviously well received. I was lucky enough to see Mike Gazzaniga give the keynote address at Cognitive Neuroscience Society a few years back. He discussed his work with split brain populations (some of which he worked on with Sperry, I believe). Gazzaniga writes well-received textbooks in psychology (Psychological Science, and a book in Cognitive Neuroscience as well- the name has slipped my mind).

As far as Alan Baddeley, he is a HUGE name in learning and memory research. Baddeley has developed one of the main models for processing memories which is discussed in most introductory courses. He has written many articles and books on memory as well.

So, I guess this post is a bit of a teaser. Seeing these articles cited within the VARK bibliography makes me wonder what exactly from these articles was used to develop VARK. Going into these will be a topic of my next few posts.

References:

Fleming, N.D. & Mills, C. (1992). Not Another Inventory, Rather a Catalyst for Reflection. To Improve the Academy, 11, 137-155.

Fleming, N.D; (1995), I'm different; not dumb. Modes of presentation (VARK) in the tertiary classroom, in Zelmer,A., (ed.) Research and Development in Higher Education, Proceedings of the 1995 Annual Conference of the Higher Education and Research Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA),HERDSA, Volume 18, 308 – 313.

Fleming, N., and Baume, D. (2006) Learning Styles Again: VARKing up the right tree!, Educational Developments, SEDA Ltd, Issue 7.4, Nov. 2006, 4-7.