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Why Learning Styles are Irrelevant

9/8/2017

8 Comments

 
If you believe the learning styles theory, you’re showing up to class with 3 different versions of your lesson plan - one for the kinesthetic learner, another for the visual, a third for the auditory, right? 

No, you’re not doing that?

But…but what the different learning styles of your students?? 

Clearly, no one is showing up to class with three lesson plans.  (Unless you are, in which case, please comment below…I’d love to talk about what you’ve found).

In 2008 four psychologists collaborated and cohesively studied the existing literature on learning styles; they concluded that there was no strong evidence to support the learning styles theory but they didn’t completely rule it out. You can read the paper by Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, & Bjork, here:  https://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/pspi/PSPI_9_3.pdf

Yet we continue to talk about learning styles in education.

Veteran Baltimore City Public Schools educator, Dr. Mariale Hardiman, now Professor of Education at Johns Hopkins University, recommends teachers think big picture learning goals and let those learning goals drive the activities and assessments, “When teachers focus solely on the individual points students often miss the larger concepts or the “big picture” essential for deep understanding and memory.”

I look at it as giving the main idea rather than just the bulleted points, as in, “Here’s what you’re going to learning in this section/unit building on previous knowledge of x,y, and z.” I also like to outline the takeaways, as in, here’s what you’re really learning to do.  If you’re more of a sports analogy person, think big play, instead of move by move.  

But, what about my kinesthetic and auditory and visual learners, teachers will say at this point.

Vicky Krug, a college professor at Westmoreland County Community College, featured in Grey Matters, says, “I take a multi sensorial approach to what I teach and I design the learning experience using multiple senses. I know that getting students up and about in class helps their engagement and focus so I incorporate that.  Some material naturally lends itself to movement and with other stuff, I find a way to work it in.  I add visuals, I have students repeat things out loud”  

Want to try a multi sensorial approach in your classroom? Try backwards planning.  What are the key things your students need to master at the end of the unit?  Then, think about the best ways to make that happen from both an activities and assessment perspective.

Invest in planning
When Jeremy Mettler planned a unit on the importance of the Suez Canal he started with an in class unit to give him an idea of the collective knowledge base of his students, incorporated flash cards with vocabulary cartoons to help students quickly grasp the basics, and then designed an experience that brought home the differences of travel pre-canal and post-canal.  “The biggest thing fear for teachers is the lack of content time but when I invest in planning and using some kind of visual organizer to highlight the key concepts of the unit, it strengthens my teaching practice in class.  I teach, instead of just covering content”.

Mix it up
Krug teaches college level developmental reading and writing; she often chooses different instruction materials to help her students grasp concepts simply because they’re more interesting.  It’s not uncommon to hear Dr. Seuss or debates on the 14th Amendment in her classes. “I’m a big believer in fun and I give students multiple ways to experience the material so that they have multiple ways to retrieve the material”.

Incorporate Real Life
Justin Holbrook, a 4th grade STEM teacher at Roland Park Elementary, tries to show the real life applications of things, “When students see what I’m teaching them is applicable in the real world, they pay more attention. Place value translated nicely into pay cheques; calculating area was a great way to weigh in on some of the proposed changes to various spaces to our school”.

You can see Mettler, Krug, and Holbrook in the education documentary Grey Matters: Teaching The Way The Brain Learns.  
​
Interested in purchasing for Professional Development? Click here and join teachers and school districts across the US who are using Grey Matters to engage their students and strengthen their teaching practice.
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8 Comments
Dr. joanne hunter link
10/1/2017 09:21:54 am

Although I don't teach using 3 or 4 separate lessons, I do use each learning style (and/or multiple intelligence) every class. When I started doing so, I found a statistically significant difference in college student learning/understanding. I haven't published anything yet, but there's a huge difference when I add visual cues, diagrams, auditory, movement, into the lesson. Students didn't respond to the exercise physiology class well when just provided with one learning style. However, when afforded the combination of verbal and written directions from me, the opportunity to recite directions/important information back to me, & finally pulling it all together by physically performing an activity, they really shinned!

Reply
Ramona
10/1/2017 09:12:21 pm

What's key is that you offered a combination of ways for students to experience the concepts taught.

Reply
Dr. joanne hunter
10/1/2017 09:29:20 pm

It's more than that. I offer additional videos I found on the web created by someone else, explaining a concept differently than I do for additional visual/auditory explanation of the concept, I create Captivate interactive videos to help students be active visually and kinesthetically to understand concepts. I create blogs and times the students can interact with me online to recite what they have done, need to do so I can see where they are in the breakdown of the material. It's truly a multistep process engaging all learners and learning styles the students appreciate.

Mike Raven PHD link
10/1/2017 11:53:08 pm

Ramona .. Justine Holbrook may find the above link of interest. (As an aside: Learning Styles was just a passing fashion - it has largely died off now ... https://bestlearningplace.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/brain-science-myths.html )

Reply
Dr. joanne hunter
10/2/2017 01:41:58 am

I don't use the learning styles as much as Gardner's multiple intelligence. But in the MI theory, are the LS.

Reply
Mike Raven PHD
10/1/2017 11:54:59 pm

For Justine ... https://bestlearningplace.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/teaching-tool-for-real-world.html

Reply
Ramona
10/2/2017 06:43:04 am

Mike, thanks for sharing your experience. You may want to have a look at Connecting Brain Research with Effective Teaching and Brain Targeted Teaching for 21st Century Schools, both by Dr. Mariale Hardiman; and the website www.braintargetedteaching.org. The documentary Grey Matters: Teaching The Way The Brain Learns, is based on her work and teachers using the model in their classrooms.

Reply
mike raven
10/4/2017 02:30:52 am

Thanks for those Ramona. I will check them.

I might offer another book that you may not have come across ...

Geake, John G. The Brain at School Educational Neuroscience in the Classroom. Maidenhead, England: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press, 2009.

AMAZON SUMMARY

"At last, a book that meaningfully links the evidence that we have so far gained from cognitive neuroscience with an understanding of learning and education. This book avoids the usual pitfalls of over-stretched interpretations of the research findings and outdated assumptions about teaching and learning. It is a catalyst for bringing together the expertise and experience of professional educators with that of professional scientists in which Geake has expertly balanced accessibility and rigour."
Professor Martin Westwell, Director, Flinders Centre for Science Education in the 21st Century, Flinders University, Australia

Within education there is a growing interest in neuroscience research and what it can teach us. This book focuses on what neuroscience means for education professionals - in key areas such as learning, memory, intelligence and motivation - and addresses questions such as:

How does the brain enable us to learn?
Why do some children have learning difficulties, such as ADHD or dyslexia?
How can actual scientific research be applied to pedagogy and curriculum design

Furthermore, the book explores common 'brain based' learning schemes and exposes the misunderstandings on which these are often based. The author, both an experienced teacher and cognitive neuroscientist, offers teachers advice on how neuroscience can help them in their own teaching. Each chapter includes practical classroom examples and case studies based on real life teaching experiences.

This friendly book is jargon-free and no prior scientific knowledge is assumed of the reader. It is thought-provoking reading for practising teachers across all age ranges, trainee teachers, parents, head teachers, educational policymakers, academics and educational psychologists

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John G. Geake is Professor of Learning and Teaching in the School of Education, The University of New England, Australia. John co-founded the Oxford Cognitive Neuroscience Education Forum and conducted research at the Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain, Oxford, UK.




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