Learning Styles Don't Exist

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Learning Styles Don't Exist

Uploaded by: dbw8m
Video Description:
A college professor describes research showing that learning styles are a myth

Tags for this video: auditory education kinesthetic learning styles visual

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This video is not ... ( 2 months ago by dbw8m)

This video is not about therapy, cognitive or otherwise. It's about a class of theories of how people differ in their learning.

Excellent. As a ... ( 2 months ago by txw17)

Excellent. As a teacher educator, I was often frustrated by the blind faith of my students (future teachers) about learning styles. To me, the most important aspect is the nature of the topic you are discussing, and that should determine how to approach the topic. Another aspect you didn't mention is that, even if these learning styles do exist, we need to have a valid and reliable method of determining one's learning style. I don't think there is such an instrument. Again, great job.

txw you comment ... ( 2 months ago by dbw8m)

txw you comment highlights a couple of things I wish I had had time to discuss--first, that teacher educators know that learning styles are not a valid theory--you won't find discussion of them in any textbook for teachers. And you're dead on about the problem in classifying people as one or the other "type;" this problem has dogged the field since the 1940's. dan

Mind posting a ... ( 2 months ago by bag99001)

Mind posting a reference list for your claims?

For diff ways ... ( 2 months ago by dbw8m)

For diff ways learning is represented: A. Martin, 2007, Representation of Object Concepts in the Brain, Ann Rev of Psychol, 58, 25-45. That VAK doesn't work: K Kavale et al, 1998, Meta-analytic validation of the Dunn
Dunn Learning Style Preferences, Learning Disabilities Research
Practice, 13, 75-80. General article: S. Stahl, Different Strokes for different folks, American Educator, Fall, 1999, 1-5. EMAIL ME FOR MORE

Thanks for the ... ( 2 months ago by bag99001)

Thanks for the response. I will check out your resources. I feel however, that you don't seem to understand what different learning styles can truly encompass. Who is to say there is a merely a biological preference? There is clearly preference based on experience and the subject at hand to how one would prefer and best learn an item.

Spot on. The UK's ... ( 2 months ago by finellac)

Spot on. The UK's Learning and Skills Research Council produced two extensive reports (2004) which examined some of the most prevalent approaches to learning styles in relation to the research evidence (or otherwise) that supports their existence. Their conclusion? That the field is characterised by "conceptual and empirical complexity and controversy", and that standard in-classroom 'applications' of learning styles theories to pedagogical practice are NOT to be recommended as good practice.

The same is true ... ( 1 month ago by lgxxl)

The same is true for socalled "Learning Objects". If you cannot differentiate successfully one (Learning Object) from the other (Non-Learning Object) it simply does not exist. Same seems to be true for this "Learning Style" thingy. Try to differentiate it. How do you differentiate Learning using style from any other learning? If it is not possible, it does not exist.

Part I. Apparently ... ( 1 month ago by PostColonialTech)

Part I. Apparently you know nothing about contemporary brain research, and have never seen fMRIs. Also, apparently you have never been out in the world, observing human learning behaviors among actual people. But your real problem is that you have no idea of what you are talking about. You are discussing a single learning concept - "words" - and trying to find a great differentiation in concept.

Part II. But the ... ( 1 month ago by PostColonialTech)

Part II. But the fact is that humans construct concept understanding in ways not related to your very narrow understanding of meaning. So, to summarize what you don't know. Because you have spent your life on a university campus, you are surrounded by white Protestant highly educated Americans who tend to construct knowledge in the same way as you. So you tend to construct ambiguous information in the pattern you and your friends understand.

Part III. Because ... ( 1 month ago by PostColonialTech)

Part III. Because you already believe that all humans learn like you, and that "good teaching is good teaching," you interpret your "findings" in a way that assures that what you believe is correct, and you alter your data analysis to match your world view. - a researcher at Michigan State

Except...that's not ... ( 1 month ago by Darjeeling11)

Except...that's not Algeria. It's Chad. :-)

Can you be more ... ( 1 month ago by dbw8m)

Can you be more specific about which studies of the brain supports learning styles?

I'm not ... ( 1 month ago by dbw8m)

I'm not interpreting data. . .I'm summarizing about 50 years of research conducted by 100's of other investigators (I'll post cites later today at my website.) If you think they've got it wrong, I invite you to reanalyze their data, or conduct your own study that does a better job of investigating this issue. Claiming that "you're wrong because of your outlook on life" is not falsifiable and therefore not persuasive.

Interesting ... ( 1 month ago by bobcollier001)

Interesting counterarguments in the comments. My personal experience suggests to me that you're right. "Learning styles" are in the mind of the beholder.

fMRI evidence ( ... ( 1 month ago by PostColonialTech)

fMRI evidence (going back to Eden, et al - NIMH 1996) clearly shows that different learners use entirely different brain regions to process conceptual information. Mukai, Kim (2007) and others further this, demonstrating how "attentional differences" alter brain processing region activity. If different brain regions are involved it becomes obvious that processing is occurring in different ways.

But equally ... ( 1 month ago by PostColonialTech)

But equally important, you are approaching this as a "modernist" scientist. Of course your world view impacts your findings. You believe in "the single correct answer." It is how you have been educated and trained. And the idea that you, as a teacher, might have to alter your activities in response to learner differences is threatening. So, you seek a single answer which means you won't have to do that.

1) The prediction ... ( 1 month ago by dbw8m)

1) The prediction of a styles theory would not be variability in brain activity, but coherent subgroups of subjects showing the same activity, with differences across groups. No evidence for that. 2) That attention modulates brain activity is not a prediction of the styles argument, and any theory of learning predicts that changes in attention modulate learning. Styles theories predict that people pay attention to particular features of stimuli. . .and there is no evidence that they do.

The point of the ... ( 1 month ago by dbw8m)

The point of the video is that there is not credible evidence to support learning styles. Your attempt to mind-read my motivation and beliefs does not persuade me that learning styles are a useful theoretical construct.

...hav[ing] to ... ( 1 month ago by ed4wb)

...hav[ing] to alter your activities in response to learner differences is threatening." seems a little harsh. The reason I don't spend time teaching to different learning styles is not because I don't want to vary my teaching, it's because I don't want to waste students' time. I'd rather provide them with rich lessons that are full of high quality semantic information. I've observed too many kids learning very little because their teachers would rather put them in semantic-poor conditions...

...like touching ... ( 1 month ago by ed4wb)

...like touching different materials or listening to sounds out of context. I've observed large groups of students (100s) totally engaged by a good talk or a powerful picture. It's the concept that makes all the difference--not the sensory mode that ferries it to the mind.

Pedegogy should ... ( 1 month ago by butteboysmom)

Pedegogy should address multiple learning modalities!Multiple intelligences discussed by Gardner HAVE been effective: develops a broader range of talents, making curriculum accessible to wider range of students.(challenges assumption that everyone learns material the same way)Multiple intelligences argues: learners possess different minds,therefore learn/remember/perform diferently. Its also WIZE to add inquiry strategies
build cognitive skills to increase gpa
improve testing.

A viewer, who saw ... ( 1 month ago by WalshSeminars)

A viewer, who saw both Dans and my video, asked me if we were at odds. My reply: I don't see that Dan and I disagree all that much. My focus is more on accommodating kinesthetic learners. They are the disenfranchised ones. I think it is asking too much for a teacher to adapt lesson delivery for each individual student. Just incorporating some movement (a simple thing to do) will embrace those kinesthetic learners who are the ones usually ignored by typical visual
auditory teaching practices.

According to styles ... ( 1 week ago by dbw8m)

According to styles theories styles are different than abilities, so the blindness example is not applicable.

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Learning Styles Don't Exist

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