Using Learning Preferences to Direct Teaching and Balance Academic Performance.

The Index of Learning Styles (ILS) generates reliable data. Its ability to characterize learning preference has been validated. However, the ILS has had very limited application in biology education. In 2009, students in an introductory biology laboratory completed the ILS. Overall academic performance (2009) was negatively associated with learning preference in two ways. As student preference to perceive information intuitively increased, the overall lab grade tended to decrease. Similarly, as student preference to understand information globally increased, the overall lab grade tended to decrease. To promote better academic performance by Intuitive and Global students, all students (2010) completed two mini-journal activities. The mini-journal approach to student laboratories models how scientists work: Students read a mini-journal article as the relevant literature, identify follow-up questions, design a simple experiment to answer one question, collect and interpret data, and present their work in the form of a scientific paper. In 2010, the negative associations between overall lab grades and student preferences to perceive information intuitively or to understand information globally were absent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]