Monday, August 29, 2011
An argument against teaching to students' learning styles?
Scientists are questioning the value of teaching to students' learning styles and are now simply advocating "mixing things up" and spreading learning out over a longer period of time to help students understand and retain information/concepts. Check out this article from NPR.org and decide for yourself.
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I think that one of the largest factors of learning styles that has been largely ignored is that they have always been considered learning style *theories*, meaning they may not necessarily be scientifically true.
ReplyDeleteInstead of eliminating the learning styles completely, maybe we should have students focus on the learning style that does *not* come naturally to them. For example, have a "visual learner" focus on becoming a better writer and listener, or have an "auditory learner" focus more on learning from visual representations of lessons. This way they become more well-rounded, flexible thinkers instead of believing there is only that one specific way they will ever learn.
I like your thinking, Sam, and I've always wondered about that myself -- should we always be trying to teach to students' strengths? Like you, I think not. Thanks for your thoughtful reply to this post!
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