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Learning Styles

The four learning styles are Activist, Theorist, Reflector and Pragmatist

Dr Peter Honey and Alan Mumford (1986) developed a learning styles questionnaire, based on Kolb (see 'Learning from Experience' factsheet) and others' work, to measure how people learn, to identify their learning strengths, to encourage individuals to develop their learning potential and report on how they can improve their learning style. They clarified the four main learning styles as:

As in the case of Kolb's theory, people may not be fully effective learners in all stages of the learning cycle. The purpose of Honey & Mumford's questionnaire is to enable you to identify the stage(s) at which your learning is most effective i.e. your preferred learning style.

The four learning preferences are as follows:

Activist
If you're an activist you like involving yourself fully in new experiences. You'll try anything once, in an open-minded way. You enjoy the here and now, and like 'getting stuck into' immediate problems, busily looking for solutions by brainstorming. You're good at short-term crisis fire-fighting. You don't like caution or boredom and are not keen on having to implement or consolidate your ideas, preferring to look for the excitement of a new challenge. Your sociable but like to be the centre of attention.
Theorist
You prefer to think problems through in a logical step-by-step way. You like analysing and integrating ideas into complex but coherent theories. You are something of a perfectionist seeking to create tidy, rational systems. You feel most comfortable working with theoretical models, basic assumptions and principles. You tend to be detached and objective. You are very uncomforable with ambiguity or subjectivity. You are intolerant of uncertainty or lateral thinking, in fact anything that doesn't fit into your theoretical framework.
Reflector
You tend to be cautious and thoughtful, liking to collect and analyse as much data as possible, before coming to a decision. You like to 'sleep on it'. You keep a low profile in discussions, preferring to observe and listen to others, seeing in which direction the discussion is going before making your own contributions.
Pragmatist
You are enthusiastic about trying out new theories and techniques in practice. You prefer to get on with things, acting quickly and confidently with ideas that you like. You get frustrated with 'beating about the bush' or long-winded, open-ended discussions. You are thoroughly practical, enjoy challenges and solving problems, and are always looking for better ways of doing things. Your view is 'if it works it's good'.