One should teach in the manner that the topic demands. Another way to put it is, the way one learns is topic dependent. Curwin, 1999
Do learning styles really matter? Yes and No.
Yes learning styles matter, because they are real; they are the way we learn! They must matter. The idea of learning styles has been around for a long time; Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, and Kinesthetic are the Top 4 styles. But, does it mean that a teacher has to shape each piece of information for each student a different way because of their “learning style”? Perhaps it would be beneficial to survey each class to see what the learning style is for the majority of the students. If the majority are visual learners, then the teacher can use more PowerPoint in her instruction. However, if the majority of the students were Aural learners, she could lecture more, and still be effective (If you believe in learning styles).
Next is my No argument: The article we read in class last night takes the example of the color of a pea and the color of a Christmas tree. If a teacher was trying to explain the difference in the shade of the color green, it wouldn’t matter that my learning style is auditory. If the teacher said the color was different, and tried to explain how by reading about the color, it wouldn’t be too effective for the student to learn what the difference is. The only effective way to teach the difference would be to visually show the students the two different shades of green. Another example is if the subject is geography and a teacher is teaching the shapes of the countries in Africa. Then they should teach in a visual style, even if we know that the student is an aural learner.
This excerpt from an article in the Washington Post gives a great example of why learning styles don’t matter:
“Consider this analogy. Watch kids on a museum field trip and you’ll notice that they stop to look at different paintings: some like cubism, some like impressionism, some like the Old Masters, and so on. You would not conclude that these kids have different visual systems. You’d figure that these differences were due to the children’s backgrounds, their personalities, tastes, and so on. The same seems to be true of learning. Some lessons click with one child and not with another, but not because of an enduring bias or predisposition in the way the child learns. The lesson clicks or doesn’t because of the knowledge the child brought to the lesson, his interests, or other factors.”
Even proponents of learning styles have said that learning styles change over time. They are not static. There is no way a teacher can constantly test a student to see if their learning style has changed, and then adapt the lesson to their new learning style.
Maybe educational researchers and everyone involved in education are putting way too much emphasis on learning styles. In my opinion, adapting to learning styles, in all reality, would make a teacher’s job much more difficult, without any real benefit being given to the students.
Sources:
http://www.learningstyles.webs.com/
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/daniel-willingham/the-big-idea-behind-learning.html
Lisa. I like your anology. You are right. I just want to add something about what we discussed in class about learning styles. I believe that a teacher (specially, experienced one) should be able to differentiate her teaching to fit students' learning styles. It may not be so hard to do when a teacher is been teaching for many years. Part of that skill that a teacher with inquire over time is the ability to sense her/his students' learning styles and abilities. But I also believe that new teacher can do that and it is important. The problem is that before we differentiate our teaching strategies to reach every student, the job become easier if we have the ability to build their interest in the content. I mean connect. Offen, eventhough I still need the long practical experience in the field, it make sense that any student will not learn no matter what style you use if he or she has no interest in learning the subject. When interest occur,students then use their learning style preferences to assure that they receive the information taught. Therefore, it takes two to get the job done.
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ReplyDeleteGood discussion. Peter, you have a valid point in regards to the survey, however, maybe a survey like the one given during our class would help to prevent the skewing of results.
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