Gifted Issues Discussion homepage

Comments on this 2 part blog?
http://blog.k12.com/online-public-s...mon-sense-may-not-make-good-sense-part-1
http://blog.k12.com/online-public-s...mon-sense-may-not-make-good-sense-part-2

I thought most research had come to the conclsion it was bunkum. I almost said so when he claimed that the senior school with its modern no desk think would suit his kinestetic learning style. The fact he can't sit still is probably not related to his learning style just his age and physicallity. I would actually be very surprised if his preferred method of learning was by doing rather than reading like the rest of the family.

First off, the blog winds up to a selling point for their curriculum product.

I haven't seen any research that shows that learning styles are meaningless. I did read a summary of a good swath of the literature that judged that there was a ton of poorly designed research surrounding the topic.

In fact a simple thought exercise shows that some kids do have different needs for modes of instruction. A blind child will do poorly in a class that relies on visuals and charts. So, variations of loss of senses bounds things. Mix in various levels of sensory processing disorders and the impact of mode variations becomes larger. Now toss in the other side of things, are there some people who can look at a chart and understand it significantly more quickly than others?

Now wander into the extreme ranges that most of us here are dealing with and you can reason through limits of different presentation modes. For myself, lectures are paced way too slowly in general to the point that my thoughts race out ahead with a chance that some key bit of info is missed due to inattention. But we rarely show up as more than noise in studies.

I don't have a strong opinion on differing learning styles, though I tend to think there's some merit in it.

However, this post seems to me to say, "There's no such thing as differing learning styles. In fact, everyone learns best by approaching things from many different angles. Fortunately, this is exactly what our product does. It's perfect for everyone."

From what I've found, there isn't really any solid research supporting the existence of learning styles, but there is solid research refuting them. It is true that plenty of people self-report different learning styles, but nothing has shown that their beliefs have a basis in fact or biology.

This article nicely summarizes the evidence that learning styles don't exist. Here's a quote:


Another quote from the same article:


There's also a field of research called denial science. It investigates why people believe stuff in the face of evidence to the contrary. It's very interesting. Here's a summary of current ideas.

I think I use all modalities when learning. I think it depends on the task. My auditory memory is pretty good. I also like to hear myself talk. I also hear literature as I read it...like an audio book in my head much more than I am aware of seeing the words. So if anyone asked me I would say that auditory is my learning style but I don't know that I have ever felt that is 100% true. I can learn just as easily through other modalities.

The fact that it has been debunked is interesting and it is interesting how education just can't let go.

The real question that comes to my mind: is this article using "learning" and "memorizing" synonymously. If read something I can mentally recall the entire page and the information on it for several days, but I can't remember anything I hear verbally unless I repeat it back a few times or write it down. I am a stong advocate for name tags! LOL
I do feel that people may differ greatly in the ways in which input becomes memory best for them, but I believe that memory and learning (in the understanding sense) are not the same.

For me the only way to really "learn" is to figure it out myself: reading, watching, and hearing all come up short when I'm facing the understanding a new topic like math/physics. I must organize information in my own way (usually down to the minute details), which rarely is the way others present it.

the only way to really "learn" is to figure it out myself

I'm pretty convinced that this is the only way that anyone actually learns. Assuming that "learning" is not merely memorization, that is.



I know that my daughter, for example, is much like Sweetie in that she seems to process information in a spoken fashion. She can memorize reasonably well by writing or reading (though the former not as well as me, and the latter better), or auditorily (though nowhere near as well as her dad).

The key for her actually is NOT the mode of the interaction-- but the fact that it needs to be interactive and to have a random/unpredictable/responsive element. It's why Khan/YouTube are singularly useless to her.

I realize that is anecdote and not data. One might readily assume that this is a learning style issue, and that she is verbal and "not visual, kinesthetic or auditory." But that's not actually true. A variety of modes work for her. As long as there are other live human beings involved.


The learning style thing is no more valid than Meyers-Briggs is, actually-- but people (in general) seem to love both ideas, regardless of whether they are valid. {sigh} Truthiness rides again, I'm afraid.

I've made a similar comment when this comment came out before, so my apologies to anyone who is already bored.

My take on this, based entirely on personal experience, is that there is a such thing as thinking modes, and not so much learning modes. My brain likes to operate in a visual manner, but if you're teaching me something, whether the information is presented to me visually or aurally, I will be busy constructing some sort of visual model based on what I'm receiving. Once the model appears complete and seems to work, I've learned something. Otherwise, it's time to ask some searching questions as I examine my model, and modify or destroy as appropriate.

And why this idea of learning modes is appealing to people, I think, is because people recognize their own processing modes, and naturally think that's the same thing.

As for memorization, which is a whole different thing than learning, my DW is constantly irritated by my reduced ability to recall things heard rather than seen.

Absolutely! I think the memorizing part is very key in school, so that just gets lumped together with learning, even though they are very different actions in our brains. I learn things very quickly, regardless of how it's presented, but I remember things best with action - work stuff I remember via repetition, other things via writing long hand a few times.