VII PARTE

The major contribution of this work relates to the use of two pedagogies which significantly ‘intermesh’ and complement each other and has produced a far greater retention of the

knowledge gained relative to traditional teaching. It has accomplished this by using teaching to learning styles, using the VARKT learning styles, and active learning for a chemical safety intervention for 7-11 year old children using the new GHS system. The two pedagogies were chosen relative to the output from the Delphi study. The evidence for the conclusions is both quantitative and qualitative in nature. The quantitative part of the study uses participants’ test scores as the basis for testing with several statistical techniques

since this is a useful and scientifically accepted measure of success and formal hypotheses could be tested. Whilst the qualitative part of the study reviews the

participant’s misconceptions which is required to modify the participant’s understanding for

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As discussed in the literature review Tutty (2000) states that far too much emphasis is placed on whether or not the programmes should be offered rather than whether the programmes work. This research has focussed absolutely on the latter and reinforces the fact that research can produce programmes that incrementally produce greater efficacy. It supports research performed by Koelen et al. (2001) who states that the use of non-

traditional research methods, or combinations of methods, should be viewed positively and used in health promotion.

This research has done just that by assessing the efficacy of using two pedagogies, used consecutively within the test intervention, which has given a significant increase in the retention of knowledge by the children in the age range tested.

Gibson and Leitenberg (2000) stated that it is more important to be able to gage whether the method of teaching a particular curriculum is more productive, and therefore of more value, than another method since it allows intervention efficacy to gradually increase. The results of this study also support the results of many research studies such as those of Smialek (2010), as discussed in the literature review, who states that learners whose styles are congruent with the teaching style are inclined to remember information for longer. The VARKT learning styles were used, switching between each style periodically, to attain the required balance. The results of this study seem to be inconsistent however, with the results of the research performed by Kratzig and Arbuthnott (2003), discussed in the literature review, which found that there was insufficient evidence to establish that the retention of learned knowledge is due to learning styles. Nevertheless Ford (1995), Ford and Chen (2001) and Chen and Macredie (2002) performed three comparatively small but meticulous empirical investigations of mismatching and matching learning styles and found

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on all three studies that matching was correlated with longer retention of the knowledge gained which the results of this study support. Relative to the mass of literature regarding learning styles, reviewed in the literature review, it is clear that learning styles directly impact learning and retention of that learning in memory. Learning styles can enhance how information is received, processed and stored in the brain. They can affect the level of concentration shown by learners and can be a crucial factor in determining which stimuli will be ignored and which will be focussed on.

The results of this study also seem to be consistent with research findings such as those of Stephens (2006), as described in the literature review, and support the view that active learning has a long-lasting and constructive effect on children's learning in primary school. This study enabled children in the test group to question, clarify, consolidate and apply new knowledge which supports the view of an expanding mass of research discussed in the literature review which demonstrates that this approach enhances the learning and retention of knowledge. The use of numerous tasks and activities and allowing children to administer all the elements within the process and identify if and when the task

requirements have been accomplished seems to have had a significant effect on the retention of knowledge and may have had an effect, to a lesser degree, on the uptake of knowledge. The results gained by the use of these techniques supports the work of Koens et al. (2005) and Kolb (2000), as discussed in the literature review, who stressed that learning by experience and providing enriched contexts for learning have a significant positive effect on learning retention.

In order to retrieve knowledge from a sematic network there must be a process of

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exceeded the contents of the node can be recalled. Activation of linked nodes then depends on the activated node and linked nodes strength of the association. The most activated nodes will be those where there is a strong association (Anderson et al., 2001).

The main finding from this research is that using the two pedagogies greatly enhances the long term retention of gained knowledge. From the research of Craik and Tulving (2004) the strength of memory does not depend on how long information is processed but rather on how deeply information is processed and that connecting items to other related

information will increase retention. In this study teaching to the VARKT learning styles was used to provide the single preferred sensory input. However, the second part of the

intervention, the use of active learning, supplemented the multisensory input which

stimulates multiple sites in the brain which increases attention and retention of information. The use of multisensory input can therefore be viewed as multisensory learning and is crucial to the learner’s success in efficiently storing and retrieving knowledge. Therefore this research supports the study of McNamara and O’Reilly (2002) as discussed in the

literature review. Using multiple channels, maximises information processing which results in maximal stimulation to the brain and increased storage.

The brains ability to process and store information in an ordered manner, therefore

enhancing its retrieval, is the result of associating new informtion with existing information consciously. This will then facilitate the information being used in novel situations. The storage of information must facilitate future retrieval. Therefore the learner must, by paying active attention, make connections with knowledge already in long term memory which will then facilitate the restrucuring of old and new information together.