Use of the VARK Model for Students of an Undergraduate Course in Systems Analysis and Development

Material And Methods

The subject selected was Introduction to Informatics, in the first semester of the course, and consisted of 45 students. The methodology was applied in order to identify the learning preference profile of each student, in order to make classes more personalized. In this way, the class was divided into two groups: the group that did not take the questionnaire to identify their profile and only did an individual activity that would be identical for all of that group; the group that did the questionnaire, each one being embedded in a certain learning profile.

For each learning profile, a differentiated activity was elaborated, where an action should be carried out, and then answering a series of questions that were identical for all, even for those who did not respond to the questionnaire. Visual profile students should watch a video to be able to answer questions; students of the aural profile should discuss among colleagues and with the teacher; students of the read / write profile should read a text; students of the kinesthetic profile should perform a practice in the classroom.

The figure below presents the phases of the research:

Figure 1.

Source: Authors

In Appendix 2, it is available the activity all the students had access in the Virtual Learning Environment of the Institute, where they could read instructions about their activities. The fluxogram below explain what they could do:

Figure 2.

Source: Authors