Learning Styles in Vocational Work Experience

Abstract

A critical discussion of existing instruments for measuring learning styles in work-based learning situations resulted in a new instrument: the Questionnaire Practice-oriented Learning (QPL). It consists of bipolar items, intended to measure five bipolar constructs: immersion, reflection, conceptualisation, experimentation, and regulation. In a pilot study testing the usefulness of the instrument, data were gathered about the work-based learning of 407 students of a Dutch vocational school. A cluster analysis, followed by a discriminant analysis, resulted in three well interpretable work-based learning styles: (1) focused on doing with incidental learning; (2) learning on the basis of external regulation; and (3) self-regulated learning on the basis of theory and reflection. Some suggestions for further research on the instrument and the learning style model behind the instrument are offered in conclusion.