Peter DeWitt closes his most recent EdWeek Blog by stating, "For many years, educators, including me, were under the false notion that there were learning styles. It's harmful if we box students into one way of learning, because that creates a one-size-fits-all mentality. However, offering different ways of learning is really helpful to students because they need to take in information in a variety of ways."
I kid you not -- just yesterday I was talking with a friend about the fact that I am NOT an aural learner. I have difficulty retaining much of what is discussed on a conference call unless I take copious notes. I opined that I must obviously be a visual learner. Apparently, I was wrong. While what DeWitt says in his blog entry is that students learn better when as many learning modalities as possibly are used to teach a concept, what he means is that assigning one specific learning style to a student can actually lessen their ability to learn. The entirety of his blog post can be found in the link below. It's an interesting essay, and one I would have challenged just yesterday. But he ends recommending moderation and the application of individualized attention to student needs, with which it's pretty hard to argue. I think that Correctional Ed classrooms tend to field an exaggerated view of the challenges that traditional students face. That, coupled with DeWitt's assertions, emphasize the need for individualized instruction within all classrooms, and I would suggest that it is even more crucial within Adult Ed classrooms.
If anyone has a story to share or observation to make on the challenge that the concept of Learning Styles is debunct, It would be great to hear them.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2014/04/the_myth_of_learning_styles.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2
-- Heather Erwin