After searching through my Terminology Tuesday posts, I was shocked I had yet to discuss learning styles. Oi. I recently had a great discussion with my graduate students about their thoughts on learning styles, so it seems appropriate to share some of that discussion here with you lovely folks!
Learning Styles
The idea behind the concept of learning styles is that everyone receives and processes information differently. This may be correct, but that assumption places a lot of pressure on the teacher to be able to correctly identify each student’s learning style and THEN accommodate that learning style. In classes of 20, 30, or 200…that just doesn’t seem like a feasible task.
It has not yet been proven that ”designing instruction to meet the specific learning styles of individuals increases academic achievement” (Ellis, 2005). However, awareness that learners comprehend information differently should remind anyone responsble for designing instruction to provide a number of activities that stimulate learners’ thinking in a variety of different ways.” (Brown & Green, 2016, p. 76).
The main argument against learning styles right now is that they don’t exist and are merely preferences. Every learner has individual learning preferences.
Within the Ted Talk video, below, the speaker discusses the emergence of learning styles and it seems almost conspiratorial in that we’ve been so brainwashed to believe in learning styles that the sheer suggestion they don’t exist can take some time to process and investigate further.
What do you think about learning styles?!
References
Brown, A. H., & Green, T. D. (2016). The essentials of instructional design: Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Ellis, A. K. (2005). Research on educational innovations (4th ed.). Poughkeepsie, NY: Eye on Education.
I think something very standard-like. That the more research has to be done. For instance, the fact that knowledge is deeply processed and therefore stored as meaning doesn’t necessarily imply that visual (for instance) stimuli are completely irrelevant.
Take Solomon Shereshevsky – he had an amazing visual memory but still what he remembered wasn’t only unprocessed pictures, but also meaningful data. But this was thanks to his memory skills directly linked in a single sense modality (at least prima facie).
I find that focus on the learning objectives with the delivery method in mind makes more sense in a purely practical way. Yes, we want to present information in as many ways (learning styles) as possible to accommodate learning style preferences, but not all material lends itself to all learning styles equally. Also, how the course/training is being delivered will dictate what you are able to offer in the way of teaching strategies.
In a corporate training setting, there is a business need that must be met. If the company needs the employee to be able to perform a task in a given environment, such as on the computer – then that is what they must learn, regardless of their preferred learning style.
In a perfect world, we would be able to create learning for everything, in every learning style but practical constraints force us to make decisions about how we present learning material.