Friends,
As an adult educator, I have heard presentations and information about learning styles, yet the research on these supposed styles is tenuous. Learning styles are the belief that students benefit from receiving instruction in the student's preferred format, often assessed using a self-report questionnaire. Some experts believe it's time to step away from this so called "neuromyth". First, researchers struggle with the lack of a coherent framework of preferred learning styles. Are students auditory, visual, kinesthetic? Or, is it left versus right brain? Holistic versus serialists? Concrete versus sequential? And how does the learning style concept fit with the growth mindset? If students develop a fixed idea about how they learn (i.e.... I need to have someone show me something... I have to do it to understand...), how to they adapt in a different teaching / instructional environment?
Some experts feel that teachers are spending a great deal of time assessing a learning style when their is very limited evidence that connects these styles to increased learning.
What are your thoughts? Are learning styles 'real'? Does assessing learning styles lead to increased academic growth?
I'd love to hear your ideas and experiences.
Kathy
Comments
I have heard similar questions about learning styles in the past couple of years and some have concerns about a lack of research and how much of all of this is just self fulfilling proficiency. In my experience as a learner and as an educator, I strongly believe that people process and learn in different ways and that each person has tendencies to go with whatever processing method(s) appear easiest at the time.
Personally, I have many stories to share, but here is just one I struggled with reading comprehension in 5th grade and had to stay back. I had all sorts of reading remediation shoved at me including SRA, summer reading, reading recovery 1:1 aids, and other options at the time. My father, a person that had never graduated high school, (at that time) , asked if anyone had tried comics and no one felt that was even a valid option. The argument went that comics did not help students learn the linguistic skills necessary to comprehend reading in "real" books and writing. My father rejected this opinion and went out and picked up huge stacks of comics and locked me in a room with them. I was told there was going to be a quiz on each one of them, so I had better get reading. As you can imagine, comics ended up being that learning method I needed to appreciate and come to desire reading as a skill. There are many other skills that comics have helped me with as well.
I have similar stories that could illustrate how specific processing methods greatly enhanced my ability for success. There are skills today I still struggle with if forced to use a method I am weak with. If I am forced to write with a pen or pencil, you would laugh at what I produce. It is hardly the quality of what I am able to do when allowed to type. Sadly, though all of my schooling, pen and pencil were the only options and I was told by every professor that my writing would never be good, whatever that meant. As anyone who has read my posts before can attest, I enjoy writing today. That joy and comfort was only possible because I was allowed to shift how I processed the learning and thinking that needs to be done when communicating with others.
I think that if people obsess with labels then behavior does fall into a rut to meet both negative and positive expectations. That being said, I think there is also an inherent laziness in all humans in how we think, process and learn. Offer 5 different types of activities to any group of people and see what choices each one makes. Do this 100 times and you would see that most of us stick to specific trends either consciously or unconsciously when we choose how to process a given request. Why would we expect learning in an academic setting to be any different? No matter what you end up labeling things as, people all vary in what methods are most comfortable to the individual.
I guess I don't fuss much with what the labels are. Kathy, you mention many of the terms associated with how people may think and I wonder if educators focus on minimizing and maximizing the challenges/benefits of each too much. I propose that all of us need to be aware of different ways of processing, specifically ways that are outside our personal comfort zones and we need to be able to offer learning options to individuals we work with. Go look for Kinesthetic curriculum in math for instance and you will quickly realize that most mathematics textbooks are academically challenged at best in that modality. Many of us expect that our individual learning habits should be easy or comfortable for our learners to adopt. "It is easy for us, so why does our learner struggle so much? They just may not be trying hard enough." This is sadly and all too common, erroneous assumption.
This brings me to your last question about learning styles and growth. If I never had the chance to try writing in a different modality, this post would have been a paragraph at best, it would have shared almost no thoughts or feelings, and it would have frustrated me to write it. If different modalities of reading were not introduced, I would not have even been able to understand what you were asking in your post at any meaningful level. I content that there can not be academic growth in ALL learners unless educators continue to strive to introduce as many learning options and means of expression as possible. I know I still have a huge handful of methods I am poor at and I find it not surprising that students that process best in those same methods often struggle to learn with me. That is not a failure on their part, it is my own lack of ability to process proficiently in the methods that others might be strongest in.
Not sure what we want to call them, but the methods of learning, processing and expressing what we know vary a good deal from individual to individual. Maybe our self reporting questionnaire is faulty? Perhaps people focus on labels too much? All of us have a tendency to use methods we are comfortable with and when forced outside that comfort level, learning is impeded, often to the point of dysfunction.
Hi Edward,
You have brought up some very valid points about reading and writing instruction. Your father was wise in getting you to read comics; however, I don't agree with him locking you in your room. So often, reading is given as a punishment rather than a reward. Teachers often overlook the importance of creating a love for reading in each student. The more they read, the better they will read.
As far as writing is concerned, typing can be an option, but knowing how to compose the words in written form is still a necessity. There are ways to improve writing while making it fun for the student. I have seen so many teachers say their students do journal writing all the time, but what that consists of is the struggling writers just copying the start of the prompt the teacher has given. This is not writing, this is copying letters. Students have to realize it is in their power to create their own writing.
Empower the students by giving them choices to read and write! Reading and writing instruction does not have to be so complicated and painful to be successful.
Lisa Hamid
Right on , Lisa, and it doesn't have to be grammar based or fall into rigid frameworks that scare some students away if they don't relate to the rules so often imposed. Many Native Americans in my region, for example, are fantastic story tellers. However, many, especially traditional folks, don't follow a straight line from beginning to end in telling stories. They weave the past and the present as they go along, with details going in different directions. And when actually weaving, they don't follow little diagrams and measurements to create a perfect rug. They simply see it in their minds and weave what they see. Their daughters watch and watch them, and when they create their first rugs, the measurements are perfect. They learn by observing until they learn. How often do we let students do that? Leecy
Ed,
I love your examples - I do think we may be focusing on labels too much. More that teaching students they have a specific learning style, we should focus on teaching students strategies to use when learning is difficult. If writing is hard, could they use technology. Finding appropriate reading materials goes a long way to helping students build reading skills. I think its all about the tools we use to help students and those tools can help students become independent learners.
Kathy
Hi, Ed, I particularly enjoyed reading about your experience. Your father certainly understood the need to get you engaged with reading!
I agree that we need to realize that people learning differently. It is vital as instructors to understand this. Teaching learning styles is one way to look at those differences.
We all get caught up with the popular trends, I've even presented on Learning Styles... Recently however, while trying to put together a new student orientation (adapting an OER workshop), I ran across the counter arguments. Here are a couple that I copied for quick reference.
Professor Daniel Willingham has a site that discusses this - http://www.danielwillingham.com/learning-styles-faq.html, as well as a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIv9rz2NTUk&feature=youtu.be.
This video was produced by 4th year students at McMaster University - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYyVWBJn59g&t=5s
Generally, the argument is that learning preferences certainly exist - but according to the evidence, people learn equally well and sometimes better with non-preferred teaching styles.
-Marshall
Hello Kathy, Marshall, Lisa, Ed and all, This is a really interesting topic. Anecdotes such as Ed's powerful story abound. There is no dispute that all learners have different abilities, background knowledge and interests. At the same time, according to some experts, there is no research which shows that learning styles exist-- or--for that matter- that they do not exist. Daniel Willingham lays out the issues well at the links shared by Marshall. In addition, here is a direct link to one of the articles on Willingham's site that briefly summarizes implications for adult educators, "The Myth of Learning Styles" by Riener and Willingham.
What seems important to me is recognizing that all students differ, which means adapting instruction to make learning accessible to each and every one. This is our job as teachers. The existence on non existence of learning styles in the traditional way we think of them, i.e., visual, auditory, or kinesthetic may not be all that relevant to instructional planning. Therefore, having students complete learning styles inventories may be unnecessary.
If this is the case, what are some other steps we can take to effectively differentiate instruction to support individual's learning?
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, Assessment CoP
These are great Marshall!
I think the concept we are looking for is whole brain learning. These are great resources. Thanks for sharing!
Kathy
The "debunking" of learning styles boiled down to research showing that bending over backwards and modifying teaching to "fit" learning styles didn't improve performance.
Sorry, folks, that doesn't say learning styles are a myth at all. Replacing one "fad du jour" (learning styles should be the focus of instruction) with another ("they're bunk") is still not good critical thinking. Learning is complex! It could be that comic books wouldn't really have helped Ed learn to read if he hadn't also had that mess of SRA, etc. Or not!
Also -- while some people learn equally well w/ non-preferred styles, others don't.
To me, learning styles are a very effective path towards helping students own their learning. Choosing whether to read notes & listen to them, or draw diagrams, gets students engaged in thinking about the content. WHen it turns into "I need a teacher who teaches my style," then we're wandering into "I don't expect to succeed so I'm aligning my defenses/excuses" land. I encourage students to learn to shop for a compatible teacher -- but if they're already in that class, then it's about "okay, how can we change what you do so you can learn this stuff?"
Kathy and all, to me the issue is - how could "learning styles" be incorporated into an adult class of more than 20 people? In general, I believe we do have our preferred learning style. So in my ESL classes I use different strategies. For example, in one hour I might introduce a grammar lesson, then practice pronunciation and tongue twisters, followed by a round robin of reading out loud and concluded with learning a popular song, etc.
The practical application of any "theory" determines if the theory is valid.
Kathy, thanks so much for bringing up learning styles and to others who have helped expand and deepen our dialogue on this issue.
Like others here, I do workshops on how important it is for instructors, managers, administrators, trainers, and other professionals, and even students themselves, to become aware of how they and others prefer to learn. Rather than "styles," I call them "preferences." In my view, preferences are developed as we grow up and have a lot to do with culture, unless we are dealing with learning "disabilities." LD folks don't have preferences as much as specific abilities that are neurologically determined. If I am told that I have a learning style, I feel fenced in, as if I were genetically preconditioned to learn only in that way.
Whatever we call them, in differentiated instruction, which I strongly advocate, leaders are not required to know each person's preference and determine instruction or tasks for each individual! Rather, I advocate developing activities that appeal to many different ways of learning (differentiation) so that most students are likely to become engaged. In the process, why not notice if certain people are not responding and dig further into finding out why not?
Screening for "styles" during intake, if well done, might help the learner himself grasp that he does prefer certain things over others. Many of our students are not aware that they have preferences at all! They think that everyone else got "As" on five-paragraph essays or fraction problems in public schools, and they didn't because they were dumb! Phooey on that! :) Leecy
What an interesting discussion! Let's take this one level farther if you will. Who is responsible for a student's learning style - the teacher or the student? I remember, early in my teaching career, I would give students a learning style inventory, 'discover' their preferred learning style, and then proceed to explain how the student could be successful when learning. The majority of my students were considered auditory learners. But, in reflection, understanding that the majority of my students were not readers - they developed skills in learning through hearing / listening because they were not readers. Was that a real learning style - or did the student learn to adapt and develop stronger skills in one area to overcome weakness in another?
Finally, I learned (and would love to hear your thoughts / feedback on this part) regardless of the students preferred method of learning, they had to become visual learners. I hear this from students - "I can't learn from reading information, I need someone to tell me...." But what does that look like in a job training program or a college course where there is an expectation that students learn from reading - (or they have a teacher / trainer that provides a lecture only and the student considers themselves a visual learner.)
Are we making it harder for students to be successful outside of our classroom because the student identifies as a specific style of learner? Or, does recognizing preferences help the student develop self advocacy skills?
Sincerely,
Kathy
Some thoughts in response to Kathy's prompt on responsibility.
Who is responsible? I think I would change this to, "How can both teacher and student can be responsible?" If you don't mind, I would like to address this new question.
Teachers must be responsible for offering learning opportunities that offer as many options to learn as is manageable and as many ways to express learning as possible to allow for students to demonstrate what is really known. Too often teachers offer learning experiences in only one or two learning modalities and the methods of demonstrating what was learned is often limited to just the one method a teacher chooses for each subject. Even in a teacher-centric world, if we want all students being able to learn, we need to stop assuming everyone will perform on any one given choice of learning or demonstrating learning with success. We will infrequently get all of our students to ace that multiple choice test or to master a perfect paragraph response or create a model that accurately depicts the learning goals. If all of these were options given to a class, there are good odds that at least one or two students in the class may excel in each of those options. I wonder if there have been studies that look at percentages of students finding success given any one form of expression of learning? How would written success compare to verbal, kinestetic, reflection/meditation, or even in music? Students are so used to being exposed to only written expressions, I suspect the data might be skewed a bit towards that end, but I would love to see some research numbers on this.
As for the student responsibility, students must be able to better communicate and advocate for themselves as learners. Ignorance, fear, and poor communication skills are all factors that present challenges to our learners being good self advocates. Many learners are ignorant of what to ask or how to ask a question respectfully and accurately to address a given need. Others fear "interrupting" teachers who may have more focus on all that still needs to be done in a lesson rather than where all the students are at in terms of understanding. When students ask legitimate questions, some teachers become quite agitated and dish out negative energy on that learner. Finally, communication skills need to be improved so that the student can use language that avoids judgmental language and instead focuses on language that accurately represents the feelings and frustrations being experienced. "I am so bad at this stuff! I suck at fractions!" becomes "I am still struggling with how I find an equivalent fraction after I find a common bottom number". Notice that in that second example the student may not even be using the most specific language ("denominator" instead of "bottom number"), but clearly lets the instructor know where the difficulty is and what is needed for assistance. Most learners do not come to us well equipped to communicate what problem exists and what help is needed.
Thoughts / Feedback on "I can't learn from .... , I need someone to let me ...." situations. You shared the situations of job training programs and college courses where the expectations are clearly on one or maybe two modalities at best. In those situations, students will struggle and need help to "survive" the mono focus that our education professionals seem limited to in those environments. In the real world however, people use whatever resource they can when they need to find something out. That may be reaching out to a friend, doing a quick Google search, reading, or sometimes just running a few miles before hitting up the problem again a different way. We can all point to experiences we learned by repetitive failures which certainly is not allowed in most educational settings. In my real life experiences, it has only been in the artificial constructs of education that I have been ironically stifled into only one modality of learning or processing a task in front of me. So you are correct that if one can not read, they are going to struggle in the educational situations you shared, it's the cost of a teacher-centered business model those industries are built upon. I don't believe it has to be that way, by the way.
To your last point, students need to increase confidence and self advocacy and understanding of learning options and how they are all valid methods of approaching learning or expressing learning goes a long way in helping to build both. I hear from students all the time, "Why did I never see this way of doing things? This is so easy and I get it!" my reply is often, "I was never taught that this was possible either, a former student helped me discover it when we explored problems he or she was having," Of course, those students that help me learn so much more about different learning approaches had to feel comfortable approaching me and they had to be able to positively communicate with me to help resolve the challenge. Comfort, communication and self advocacy does not come naturally and has to be consistently a focus to foster in the classroom.
Just my experiences and two cents. What do others think?
I"m glad that you emphasized self advocacy among your comments, Ed. You said, "...students need to increase confidence and self advocacy and understanding of learning options and how they are all valid methods of approaching learning or expressing learning goes a long way in helping to build both." Indeed. I have found that self advocacy is extremely important, especially among learning disabled adults, who tend to hide rather than be proactive. I know that when interviewing for jobs, it can really help for applicants to state, "I have a condition that doesn't allow me to (fill in the blanks.) However, I'm very strong and capable doing (fill in the gaps)." In fact, that's not a bad approach among all applicants. Employers like to see that applicants are self aware, and they like to place employees in areas of their strength. I wonder if any employers here would like to comment on that. Leecy
Thanks, Ed, for this thoughtful post. I agree that we teachers learn so much from listening to the way learners process information and problem solve.
Just yesterday, there was a fascinating article in my local paper that some members might be interested in about a tiny school district in my area that is revamping the way it provides instruction. They are individualizing instruction to meet each student's needs. The writer lives on my block!
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, Assessment CoP
Just my thoughts, I have used a short learning styles inventory for many years, followed by a fun exercise. I introduce the topic with interesting examples of comfort levels and how your learning style fits you. I am not researching or looking for the validity in science and research. What I tend to see over the last 17 years are AHA moments where students get it and it is empowering as they go through the program. It doesn't hurt that I passionately believe that people or A-K-or V and when they lean into that it is quite empowering for students because they feel like they weren't "less than" after all.
I tell my students about the an incident where my daughter and I were together and got lost, (before gps). We stopped at a gas station and ask directions, the attendant proceeded to give directions, I ask for a pen and paper ( I am visual). The attendant said "oh it's easy just listen you do not need to write" I said I did and he became a little impatient like I was less intelligent. My daughter is auditory and said "Mom I got it" and she was my GPS that day. My point is our students live in that world sometimes, made to feel like they are less them because they don't quite get it the way it is presented. The knowledge of how they process brings confidence, self-efficacy and pride. Every bit of self-empowerment helps..
I love that your students find their AHA moments in your classroom. There are certainly times I want information presented to me in an auditory manner (trying to learn directions, understand new technology), things I want to learn through doing (duplicating my grandmother's Easter recipes), or visual (trying to balance my mother's checkbook.) Each scenario requires me to apply a different learning strategy based on my comfort level with the content area. Students need to learn that if one strategy doesn't work, they can try a different one. Teaching that incorporates all the senses: sight, sound, touch will lead to student outcomes.
I've been skimming along with this discussion. Lots of good thoughts and practical examples. I've always thought the learning styles talk was a little bit hokey. Incidentally, I ran across a link to this whole volume looking at the lack of evidence for and the evidence against learning style: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/pspi/PSPI_9_3.pdf
But the funny thing is I've kept presenting about Learning Styles in my tutor training for the last 5 years. This conversation helped me figure out why. It's because tutors need to hear that teaching is not just lecturing or discussing, which is what constitutes instruction in their minds. It's also, maybe most especially, experiencing the process with the learner, that kinesthetic idea. What I actually present about these "styles" now is that there are different modes of conveying information (visually, orally and experiencially), that everyone uses all of them to learn, and that good instruction includes all of the modalities.
The best framework I've come across for getting tutors to actually do this kind of instruction is the Explicit, Instruction, Framework. If a tutor or teacher really internalizes the mantra, "Explain, Model, Practice, Apply" they'll end up using the whole scope of modalities much more often and much more naturally.
I suspect that most that use either learning styles or multiple intelligence surveys process them on paper. In some programs I have worked with, there has been some benefit to digitizing things.
First, the results of the survey are immediate and no work is required either by the learner or someone assisting them.
Second, computers can generate data in many different ways that may have different levels of importance to different teachers and learners.
Third, if done within Google's environment, it is easy to share this data with teachers to help guide instruction.
Is there any interest in exploring some models and options in this venue? Do people have digitized processes they use? Are you wondering why someone would bother doing digital and want to see an example? Perhaps others have systems they use that they can share with others?
Ed, I hope that others will share digital processes that they use. When I was training college instructors who taught Native American students to become aware of how differently people approach learning, I often shared links to online surveys of different types. There are many benefits to accessing tools online, beyond those you covered and just saving trees. People love the privacy of the activity, the option of completing it at their pleasure, and instant rewards, such as quick results and links to sites that support their choices/preferences. Once in the digital environments, there are so many choices for learning! Hoping for more ideas, Leecy
Friends,
Our discussion on learning styles: myth or reality has been extremely interactive. I’d like to highlight some of the comments for your consideration. Some experts call learning styles ‘neurmyths’ with many experts struggling with the coherent framework for learning styles which include auditory, visual, kinesthetic, left brain, right brain, holistic, serialists, concrete, sequential, ect. Highlights from the discussion included the following:
So my question to continue this discussion is: How realistic is it to differentiate instruction in an open entry/ open exit multi-level adult education classroom? How do you differentiate instruction and how does this integrate learning preferences?
Sincerely,
Kathy Tracey
@Kathy_Tracey
What follows was not developed over night, nor was it the work of only one person. The entire staff developed these systems over multiple years. I have participated in many forms of education and have found the following the most effective for learners and most rewarding teaching I have been involved in. When the system is established, learning labs of 20-25 students are easily supported by one teacher even though all learners are at different points of study and may even be studying different subjects in each learning lab.
Student Enters Adult Education enrollment:
1. Learners come in and much intake data is collected and digitized in a way that teachers instantly have access for each of their learners.
2. For each academic need and level there are content guides. These guides include what standards need to be explored, (worded in language that learners can easily relate to), and also includes a list of performance types that must be demonstrated. Additionally, each guide has a timeline broken down to 5 week chunks to help learners set shorter term goals and to break a class down into less intimidating chunks.
3. Teachers sit with each student and explore college and career interests. This process produces three areas the learner wishes to explore in the studies.
4. During intake, learning styles, multiple intelligences, personal goals, educational history, and personal perceptions are all recorded to help the teacher better understand the learner.
5. Now teacher and learner work together to set daily and weekly goals and projects that mix and match standards needed, performance types and career/college aspirations. Teachers help learners find resources to get started. In many cases, the first activity is the hardest because the learners are used to passive lecture formats. Teachers work to help introduce the independent learning cycle and what the learner's responsibilities are and what the teachers's responsibilities are and how this all works to the learner's benefit. In the many years I have experienced this system, all learners have bought in quite quickly.
6. Teachers and learners weekly discuss progress, goals and track accomplishments. These records create a digital journal that can be used monthly to help reflect on progress, challenges and alter goals and approaches appropriately. Outside professionals in the field that do work related to the student's college and career goals are often brought into the process as part of the activities and projects engaged in. This has even formed into some internship work in some cases where the professional was geographically close by.
This whole process does take some adjustment for teachers and learners and that period is typically 3 to 5 weeks. Once people get in the groove, it has been amazing to see the growth and progress. Students quickly learn the need to self advocate and how to reflect on a given situation and communicate needs with others. The feedback collected by administration every 6 months continually points out a learner perspective that the education process is all about the individual and what the individual needs and can and can't do. Persistence data, goal achievement data and enrollment numbers have all supported that this process of individualization is highly effective.
Hi Ed and all, Thanks for spelling out how the process works in your program, Ed. It is good to hear of the success students are having with this individualized approach. Reading this made me wonder what the actual classroom looks like. Is instruction all individualized or do you have whole class lessons, too? Do learners interact with one other in the classroom? If so, how is that managed?
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, Teaching & Learning CoP
The instruction is all individualized for the most part. Very often, someone has learning needs and another student may have just mastered that skill. When this happens I try to get the learners working together which helps build a classroom of learning. Because each person's work is tailored to the individual's college and career aspirations, there is no worry of someone just "giving the answer". Learners help each other understand enough so they can apply the learning to their specific investigations.
Students come in and I immediately ask if there are any high priority needs. I quickly resolve those individual needs as everyone gets started on the work they left off with last class. Then I circulate asking questions, checking on progress, helping learners reflect and adapt approaches, and often helping learners find other learning resources that meet their needs. In some cases, and individual needs something I know a few others need as well. In that case I will call attention to the board and invite those I know need the focused attention. Almost always, most of the others listen in and often offer contributions or questions. They are socially eavesdropping and think they are getting away with something when in actuality they are paying more attention to the material than if I had requested they pay attention :)
When possible peers are supporting each other in addressing questions. Students quickly learn that when they ask a question to me, they are often going to get a series of questions that help them find solutions or ways of discovering a solution. Over time, this helps individuals adapt those strategies to find many of their own answers. It is not that they don't reach out for support still. The questions become more refined and more complex needs are shared.
My class time is spent sitting side by side with each individual checking in on academics, habits of mind, and often personal perspectives that are affecting their days in and out of the class. I feel my work is much more like a coach. There may be times when I need to gather students into directed study, but those times are not the norm and almost never need to entail the entire class unless it is paperwork that everyone needs to do or something bureaucratic like that.
One of the problems that we've faced with our students is that they've learned about learning styles and then use it as a crutch when they encounter something that isn't going as fast as they'd like (or that they don't like). I've heard something similar to the following from both students in my lab and recounted by other teachers in more traditional classroom settings - "I'm not getting it because it's not being provided to me in the correct style."
-Marshall
If the problem is neurological, then, yes, some students might complain as you mentioned, Marshall, since they cannot adapt to many ways of learning.
I have also heard teachers say, "They have to function in a world that is logical and linguistic, so they need to work it out if they don't think that way." OK. Sink or Swim? And who is going to help them become logical and linguistic in their thinking and perceptions if they haven't addressed it themselves before? My take on that is to go where they are first and then teach them to cross through unfamiliar waters until the feel safe. Maybe they can teach us how to teach them.
If a student told me "I'm not getting it because it's not being provided to me in the correct style,' my response would be, "How do you learn, and how does this instruction not address that? How would you teach it?" After that discussion then, "Now, are you ready to try a different way?" Getting folks to talk about how they learn best can open big doors and minds, for teachers and students! Leecy
Good teaching will include several methods by its very nature (not saying mine is or isn't good) and certainly, if the student has or appears to have valid issues - additional tools will be brought to play. In our case, our students will have failed at their endeavors a few times by the time we see them. They've developed coping mechanisms to explain to themselves (and others) why things haven't worked out for them, normally these don't involve them acknowledging their having made poor life choices or that they don't want to put in the effort to change those outcomes.
As an example - I hear our GED teachers complain on a fairly regular basis that a new student refuses to do anything in class because he knows that he'll pass the test and then complain that the teacher is keeping them from getting their GED because they won't let them take the test. After they quit coming to class and are dropped, they will continue to blame the teacher/school for them not having completed the GED. Most of the time, the teacher will eventually convince them to start doing the work, but this scenario is still relatively common.
-Marshall
Note submitted by Tom Sticht (Retired International Consultant in Adult Education and longtime supporter of adult learners all over the world)
(http://oerinadulted.org/stichtarticles.htm)
I see the issues surrounding learning styles is back! Here are some thoughts by a variety of folks about learning styles. A recent Letter to the Editor of the U.K.-based online Guardian newspaper is entitled “No evidence to back idea of learning styles.” Signed by twenty neurologists, educationalists, and psychologists the letter once again calls attention to the dearth of research demonstrating the validity of the concept of “learning styles”, including the idea that there are those who are “auditory” vs “visual” vs “kinesthetic” learners chttps://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/mar/12/no-evidence-to-back-idea-of-learning-styleshttps://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/mar/12/no-evidence-to-back-idea-of-learning-styles).
This questioning of a conceptual framework held by many educators is just the latest in a long list of those who have questioned the learning styles hypothesis. For instance, Pashler, et al. (2008), university-based cognitive scientists, offer an extensive review of research on learning styles. They conclude: “Although the literature on learning styles is enormous, very few studies have even used an experimental methodology capable of testing the validity of learning styles applied to education. Moreover, of those that did use an appropriate method, several found results that flatly contradict the popular meshing hypothesis [i.e., that teaching according to a person’s learning style would improve learning].” Of course, as researchers, they also recommend that more research on learning styles needs to be done!
In 2008 a LINCS discussion list had spirited discussions of “debunking” ideas such as learning styles and multiple intelligences that occupy much professional development but have little of the “evidence-based” veneer with which we are supposed to overlay our extensive amount of professional wisdom in adult literacy education. The discussions, on the Professional Development list I think, included work by Willingham and a British paper by Coffield et al. There was also a fairly lengthy discussion by Rita Dunn of the Dunn & Dunn learning styles work which she felt validated the use of their learning styles assessments and practices. Willingham, the 2004 British paper, and the more recent 2008 paper I cited above disagree with Rita Dunn's assessment of her and her colleagues work. The earlier messages can be found in the NIFL discussion lists archives. Using the Google search engine can also help locate the discussions.
Regarding learning styles and multiple intelligences, we are, as reviewers cited above indicate, still in a position of caveat emptor!