Anthony Gregorc
Encyclopedia
Anthony F. Gregorc is best known for his theory of a
Mind Styles Model
and its associated
Style Delineator.
and an M.S. degree and a Ph.D. degree from Kent State University
. He has taught mathematics and biology and has been principal of a laboratory school for gifted youth. He was an associate professor of education administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
and associate professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Connecticut
. He is president of Gregorc Associates, Inc., in Columbia, Connecticut
.
that elicits responses to a set of 40 specific
words.
Scoring the responses will give values for a model with two axes: a
"perceptual space duality," concrete vs. abstract, and
an "ordering duality," sequential vs.
random
The resulting quadrants are the "styles":
Descriptions of the characteristics of these styles can be found in the
materials available from Gregorc Associates.
A similarly structured (two-axis, four-style) learning style model
with rather different axes and interpretation can be seen in the
Kolb LSI
.
validity of his instrument and model are presented in his
Development, Technical, and Administration Manual,
self-published and sold by Gregorc Associates. Some peer review has since
appeared in conventional channels:
(Gregorc's, Myers Briggs, Kolb LSI
, and an LSI by
Canfield) by review of their published supporting studies (i.e., without
new experimental work) concluded of Gregorc's design, "the most appropriate
use of this instrument would be to provide an example of how not to
construct [an] assessment tool."
on those done earlier by O'Brien (1990) and Joniak and Isakson
(1988).
Internal consistency or reliability
concerns
whether evidence can show that an instrument is repeatably measuring something
(which may be, but is "not necessarily what it is supposed to be
measuring").
Construct validity concerns
whether evidence can show that what the instrument is measuring is at all what
the offered theory claims it is (whether each construct in the model "adequately
represents what is intended by theoretical account of the construct being
measured").
reported that
the evidence for a variety of learning style models is "highly variable",
that "authors are not by any means always frank about the evidence for their
work, and secondary sources ... may ignore the question of evidence altogether,
leaving the impression that there is no problem here."
Mind Styles Model
Learning styles
Learning styles are various approaches or ways of learning. They involve educating methods, particular to an individual, that are presumed to allow that individual to learn best. Most people prefer an identifiable method of interacting with, taking in, and processing stimuli or information...
and its associated
Style Delineator.
Career
Gregorc obtained a B.S. degree from Miami UniversityMiami University
Miami University is a coeducational public research university located in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the 10th oldest public university in the United States and the second oldest university in Ohio, founded four years after Ohio University. In its 2012 edition, U.S...
and an M.S. degree and a Ph.D. degree from Kent State University
Kent State University
Kent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...
. He has taught mathematics and biology and has been principal of a laboratory school for gifted youth. He was an associate professor of education administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
and associate professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Connecticut
University of Connecticut
The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...
. He is president of Gregorc Associates, Inc., in Columbia, Connecticut
Columbia, Connecticut
Columbia is a town in Tolland County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 4,971 at the 2000 census. Columbia was incorporated in May, 1804, from Lebanon. Columbia offers prekindergarten through 8th grade education in town at Horace W. Porter School, while high school students have a...
.
Mind Styles Model and Gregorc Style Delineator
The Gregorc Style Delineator is a self-scoring written instrumentthat elicits responses to a set of 40 specific
words.
Scoring the responses will give values for a model with two axes: a
"perceptual space duality," concrete vs. abstract, and
an "ordering duality," sequential vs.
random
The resulting quadrants are the "styles":
- Concrete Sequential
- Concrete Random
- Abstract Sequential
- Abstract Random
Descriptions of the characteristics of these styles can be found in the
materials available from Gregorc Associates.
A similarly structured (two-axis, four-style) learning style model
with rather different axes and interpretation can be seen in the
Kolb LSI
David A. Kolb
David A. Kolb is an American educational theorist whose interests and publications focus on experiential learning, the individual and social change, career development, and executive and professional education...
.
Supporting evidence
The design, conduct, and results of Gregorc's original testing of thevalidity of his instrument and model are presented in his
Development, Technical, and Administration Manual,
self-published and sold by Gregorc Associates. Some peer review has since
appeared in conventional channels:
With the exception of Joniak and Isakson (1988) and O'Brien (1990), the only
other psychometric analysis of the GSD has been limited to Gregorc's (1979)
initial assessments made during the instrument's early development in which
Gregorc interviewed several hundred participants. He compared the agreement of
GSD scores with an untested self-assessment scale to establish the instrument's
face validity for each individual (i.e., the instrument's results versus an
individual's subjective agreement that their learning style profile tends to
fit them). The correlations of the instrument's general results and the
subjectively rated agreement attributes were reported to be between .55 and
.76. This problematic method was adopted again in a subsequent comparative
analysis by the author (Gregorc, 1982c) and also yielded what Gregorc
considered positive results--29% strongly agreeing, 57% agreeing, 14% unsure,
and none
disagreeing.
Review of Gregorc's study
Timothy Sewall, in a comparison of four learning style assessments(Gregorc's, Myers Briggs, Kolb LSI
David A. Kolb
David A. Kolb is an American educational theorist whose interests and publications focus on experiential learning, the individual and social change, career development, and executive and professional education...
, and an LSI by
Canfield) by review of their published supporting studies (i.e., without
new experimental work) concluded of Gregorc's design, "the most appropriate
use of this instrument would be to provide an example of how not to
construct [an] assessment tool."
Studies by others
Reio and Wiswell (2006) report on their own independent study andon those done earlier by O'Brien (1990) and Joniak and Isakson
(1988).
Reliability
Internal consistency or reliability
Reliability (statistics)
In statistics, reliability is the consistency of a set of measurements or of a measuring instrument, often used to describe a test. Reliability is inversely related to random error.-Types:There are several general classes of reliability estimates:...
concerns
whether evidence can show that an instrument is repeatably measuring something
(which may be, but is "not necessarily what it is supposed to be
measuring").
Gregorc (1982c) reported test-retest correlation coefficients of .85 to .88
(measured twice with intervals ranging from 6 hours to 8 weeks) and alpha
coefficients of .89 to .93 on all four scales. In this study, the
Cronbach's alphaCronbach's alphaCronbach's \alpha is a coefficient of reliability. It is commonly used as a measure of the internal consistency or reliability of a psychometric test score for a sample of examinees. It was first named alpha by Lee Cronbach in 1951, as he had intended to continue with further coefficients...
coefficients on all scales or channels ranged from .54 to
.68 (CS = .64, CR = .68, AR = .58, AS = .54). This study's alpha coefficients
are consistent with those reported by O'Brien (1990) and Joniak and Isakson
(1988), which ranged from .51 to .64 and .23 to .66, respectively, on all
scales.
For internal consistency reliability estimates, although an alpha level of .70
can be considered "adequate," for the purposes of this study we considered a
stricter alpha level of .80 as a "good" cutoff value for our psychometric
examination of the GSD
(Henson, 2001).
Construct validity
Construct validity concerns
whether evidence can show that what the instrument is measuring is at all what
the offered theory claims it is (whether each construct in the model "adequately
represents what is intended by theoretical account of the construct being
measured").
The data disconfirmed
both the two- and four-factor confirmatory models. In the post hoc exploratory
factor analyses, many of the factor pattern/structure coefficients were
ambiguously associated with two or more of the four theoretical channels as
well. Overall, there was little support for the GSD's theoretical basis or
design and the concomitant accurate portrayal of one's cognitive learning
style.
[F]ar more work is needed on the GSD if indeed two bipolar
dimensions and Gregorc's mediational or channel theory are to be empirically
supported and if it is to be appropriately used with samples of
adults.
Consistent with Joniak and Isaksen (1988) and O'Brien (1990), the GSD did not
display sufficient empirical evidence to validate the instrument's scores or to
confirm Gregorc's theoretical interpretation of four learning style channels or
two bipolar
dimensions.
Supporting evidence, learning style models generally
A report from the UK think-tank DemosDemos (UK think tank)
- History :Demos was founded in 1993 by former Marxism Today editor Martin Jacques, and Geoff Mulgan, who became its first director. It was formed in response to what Mulgan, Jacques and others saw as a crisis in politics in Britain, with voter engagement in decline and political institutions...
reported that
the evidence for a variety of learning style models is "highly variable",
that "authors are not by any means always frank about the evidence for their
work, and secondary sources ... may ignore the question of evidence altogether,
leaving the impression that there is no problem here."
Major works
- Gregorc Style Delineator - A psychometric test
- An Adult's Guide to Style, Gabriel Systems, Maynard (1982).
- Mind Styles FAQs Book
- The Mind Styles Model: Theory, Principles and Practice