Learning Styles:
Tutors and Tutees Working Together
By John Wolfe

So what exactly does learning style mean? It is the unique and idiosyncratic way a child or adult learns something and it varies from individual to individual. A tutor's learning style profoundly influences his or her tutoring style, and if tutor and tutee learning styles clash, frustration and trouble can ensue. Identifying and describing both learning styles then becomes one pivotal element in crafting a successful tutor-tutee relationship.

John J. Hoover and James R. Patton, in their book Curriculum Adaptations for Students with Learning and Behavior Problems (Pro Ed, 1997), describe student learning styles in terms of seven key elements: field, tolerance, tempo, categorization, persistence, anxiety, and locus of control. Understanding a student's learning style, and adapting instruction accordingly, requires an understanding of each of these domains.

Field refers to how experiences are processed. Some students are field independent, meaning that they emphasize the discrete or separate parts of an experience; others are field sensitive, meaning that they see things as a whole rather than as an accumulation of parts or steps.

Tolerance describes the capacity to accept things that differ from the norm. Students are said to exhibit high or low tolerance for experiences or processes that are unusual or defy convention.

Tempo refers to the degree to which a student reflects (the tendency to need to take time to process information) or acts impulsively (the tendency to act or respond first, think later).

Categorization is a tool used to order experiences. Students tend toward broad categorization (lumping more elements together in a given category) or narrow categorization (putting just a few elements in a category).

Persistence refers to a student's relative ability to "stay on task." Students are described as having high or low levels of persistence; some choose to seek assistance and work until finished while others seem to be able to work only for short spurts of time.

Anxiety describes a student's response to "pressure to perform." Some students rise to the occasion (low anxiety), while others feel frustrated and want to give up under the burden (high anxiety).

Locus of control refers to what drives or motivates a learner. Some students tend to regulate themselves (internal locus of control) and others seem to need to look to the outside world (a teacher or tutor) for direction (external locus of control).

Identifying a tutee's learning style, and being sensitive to one's own is an important step in forging a successful tutor-tutee relationship. The fact that learning styles vary suggests that instructional approach must also vary. For success resides in the marriage of learning style and instructional approach.

John Wolfe is an advisor and instructor of Special Education at Bank Street College of Education.