Learning Styles Debunked

Perhaps you have heard of Daniel Willingham on your own or in some of my posts over the years.  He wrote a great book, "Why Students Don't Like School" and encourage you to read it over the summer if you have not done so already.  He argues that there is no evidence for learning styles, so changing up your teaching to accommodate the hypothesized (although widely accepted with little data) styles will not change the learning.  I know many want to believe that there is such a thing as learning styles and it can help one be a better teacher because it makes sense but there is no evidence to support it other than folk lore.

Here is an excerpt from an article entitled "Ask the Cognitive Scientist" which discusses learning styles:

Question: What does cognitive science tell us about the existence of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners and the best way to teach them?
The idea that people may differ in their ability to learn new material depending on its modality—that is, whether the child hears it, sees it, or touches it—has been tested for over 100 years. And the idea that these differences might prove useful in the classroom has been around for at least 40 years.
What cognitive science has taught us is that children do differ in their abilities with different modalities, but teaching the child in his best modality doesn't affect his educational achievement. What does matter is whether the child is taught in the content's best modality. All students learn more when content drives the choice of modality. In this column, I will describe some of the research on matching modality strength to the modality of instruction. I will also address why the idea of tailoring instruction to a student's best modality is so enduring—despite substantial evidence that it is wrong.  You can read the entire article here, which is a good read:
http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/ae/summer2005/willingham.cfm

You can also watch a video where he explains the trouble with learning styles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIv9rz2NTUk

Enjoy!

Am off to Italy and hope me and the iPad will get along so I can post my journey on  to the blog.  We shall see!