Learning style can be defined as, “Characteristic cognitive, affective, and physiological factors that serve as relatively stable indicators of how a learner perceives, interacts with, and responds to the learning environment” (NASSP). In other words, we can think of a learning style as how a person prefers to learn .

There are many approaches to determining students' learning styles. In this jigsawactivity we will look at five of these. An explanation for the jigsaw cooperative learning technique is attached to this page.

Each of you has received one of five different learning styles inventories, each representing a different approach to assessing learning style. During today's activity, you will need to:

1) complete and score the learning style inventory you have been given;

2) read the attached explanation;

3) meet with the other students who completed the same inventory (see the board for information regarding where your group will meet) and prepare to teach other students about your learning style inventory. Try to finish this segment in about 10 minutes;

4) form groups of five or six, consisting of at least one person who completed each inventory;

5) give a copy of the materials you received to the other students in your group, and teach them about the learning style model or approach assessed by your inventory. Models should be presented in the following order: VARK, MI, hemisphericity, Gregorc, and Kolb. This segment of the jigsaw should be completed in about 25 minutes (5 minutes each).