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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Recurso educativo Open Access |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
1988
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED307892 |
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Table of Contents:
- Learning Styles of Academic Librarians and Implications for Professional Development. Choi, Jin M. Washington, Nancy Academic Libraries Cognitive Style Higher Education Learning Strategies Librarians Library Surveys Library Technical Processes Professional Development Public Service Questionnaires Characteristics of learning styles and other attributes of academic librarians in public and technical services were examined based on Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (LSI), a system that conceptualizes the learning process as a four-stage cycle and identifies four different learning styles--accommodator (gets things done, takes risk, leads); diverger (has imagination, understands people, can brainstorm); converger (problem solves, defines problems, reasons deductively); and assimilator (plans, defines problems, develops theories). Survey instruments were distributed to 200 librarians working in technical services and public services--100 in each group--in 20 member libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Out of 148 returns, 73 (52%) were from technical services and 67 (48%) were from public services. The most common learning style among the librarians surveyed was found to be the assimilator (38.6%), followed by the converger (27.1%), the diverger (19.3%), and the accommodator (15%). These findings suggest that academic librarians prefer or have strengths in abstract conceptualizations. Neither group showed significant statistical differences in their learning style distributions, nor were differences found among learning styles in terms of gender, age group, length of experience, or undergraduate major, although female respondents tended to have a more divergent learning style than male respondents. However, several aspects of the study contradict Kolb's generalizations, and his theoretical construct and the LSI seem to have limited practical implication due to their failure to discriminate various factors involved in career choice and other related issues. (32 references) (CGD)