Sequential and Global Learners

Sequential and Global Learners

Sequential learners absorb information and acquire understanding of material in small connected chunks, and global learners take in ,information in seemingly unconnected fragments and achieve understanding in large holistic leaps. Before global learners can master the details of a subject they need to understand how the material being presented relates to their prior knowledge and experience, a perspective that relatively few instructors routinely provide. Consequently, strongly global learners may appear slow and do poorlyon homework and tests until they grasp the total picture, but once they have it they can often see connections that escape sequential learners. On the other hand, sequential learners can function with incomplete understanding of course material, but they may lack a grasp of the broad context of a body of knowledge and its interrelationships with other subjects and disciplines.

Many authors who have done research on cognitive or learning styles have noted the importance of this dichotomous pairing, and various terms have been used to describe categories that appear to have points in common with what we term the sequential and global categories: analytic and global (Kirby 1988; Schmeck 1988); field-independent and field-dependent (Witkin & Goodenough 1981); serialistic and holistic (Pask 1988); left-brained and right-brained (Kane 1984); atomistic and holistic (Marton 1988); sequential and random (Gregorc 1982). Luria’s (1980) working brain model postulates successive and simultaneous modes of processing, and Pask (1988) similarly distinguishes between stringing and clumping modes of coding information and structuring responses. Schmeck (1988) believes that the

analytic/global dimension encompasses all other cognitive styles, a belief shared by Oxford et al. (1991).

Oxford (1990) proposes that this learning style dimension can be tapped through studies of brain hemisphericity. She cites studies of Leaver (1986) suggesting that left-brain (sequential) thinkers deal more easily with grammatical structure and contrastive analysis, while right-brain (global) thinkers are better at learning language intonation and rhythms. Sequential

learners gravitate toward strategies that involve dissecting words and sentences into component parts and are comfortable with structured teaching approaches that stress grammatical analysis; global learners prefer holistic strategies such as guessing at words and searching for main ideas, and may respond well to relatively unstructured approaches like community language learning that might not appeal to sequential learners.