What should teachers do with ‘learning styles?’
As a teacher, I have sat through many professional developments designed to teach us how to assess learning styles and how to use them effectively in the classroom. As a doctoral student, I have learned there are multiple modes under which instruction is more effective. One of the issues that designers deal with is how to present information in instructional materials in such a way that learning is optimized. Presenting information in two sensory modalities rather than one leads to a more efficient use of memory resources because the modality-specific subsystems of the working memory are utilized optimally. Tindall-Ford, Chandler, and Sweller (1997) explored the effect of bimodal instruction in their study that compared student performance using audio text and visual diagrams to students who just used visual-only format. They concluded that presentations incorporating two sensory modes are more effective than one. This effect was further explored and named the modality principle by Mayer (2001).
Based on my experience, here is what I know to be true:
1. There are different ways to learn. The ways are what some deem as ‘learning styles’
2. There are individual differences in learning
3. Students learn differently depending on many things. For example, the topic, the teacher, the type of presentation, the temperature in the room. (and in high school, the moon phases).
4. Learning can occur in an infinite number of ways.
In short, I agree with Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, and Bjork (2009) and in my opinion, learning ‘styles’ do not exist. Each student may have a learning preference, per se, but to design instruction based on a single style of learning seems to me to be counterproductive given the many different ways of learning something.
To answer the introductory question “What should teachers do with learning styles?” I offer two suggestions. First, teachers need to recognize there are different ways of learning and incorporate a variety of activities in a lesson that support various learning preferences. Second, while individual learning styles are important, it may be more effective to match instruction to the content that is being taught.
While researching information for this blog, I came across the following article. The author, David Glenn, discusses the Pashler article.
While researching information for this blog, I came across the following article. The author, David Glenn, discusses the Pashler article.
Mayer, R.E. (2001). Multimedia learning. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D. & Bjork, R. (2009). Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest. (9), 105-119.
Tindall-Ford, S., Chandler, P., & Sweller, J. (1997). When two sensory modes are better than one. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, (3), 257-287.
Excellent post, Ellen. You've pointed to some great scholarly connections here too. I like the fact that, in the end, you think the answer is somewhere in the middle.
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