Trickle Down Episode 13: Educational Fashions
Added 2023-12-31 00:09:56 +0000 UTCThe root concept of “learning styles” is based on a simple and intuitive idea: different people most successfully learn through different means. Or maybe they best learn through different sensory or emotional inputs. Possibly because people with differing brains make them more receptive to certain ways of knowing and absorbing information. Some people managed to take this intuitive idea and build massively successful careers for decades. Students were labeled “Visual,” “Aural,” or “Kinesthetic” learners.
The problem, as researchers discovered in the ‘00s, is that there’s no good evidence to suggest that any of the “learning styles” models popular with teachers actually improved educational outcomes. But that did little to slow the popularity of learning styles — or the mini industry built up around them.
REFERENCES
McLaughlin, Dorene Casey EdD, "An Evaluation Case Study of the Effects of a Learning Style Awareness Program for Ninth Graders at an Independent School" (1996). Dissertations. 617. https://digital.sandiego.edu/dissertations/617
Furey, William, “The Stubborn Myth of Learning Styles” (2023)
Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9(3), 105-119. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6053.2009.01038.x
Sun X, Norton O, Nancekivell SE. Beware the myth: learning styles affect parents', children's, and teachers' thinking about children's academic potential. NPJ Sci Learn.
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Coffield, F. (2004). Learning Styles and Pedagogy in Post-16 Learning: a Systematic and Critical Review. LSRC Reference, Learning & Skills Research Center, London.
https://www.leerbeleving.nl/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/learning-styles.pdf
Cassidy, Simon (2004) Learning Styles: An overview of theories, models, and measures, Educational Psychology, 24:4, 419-444, DOI: 10.1080/0144341042000228834
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Rogowsky, Beth A., et al. “Matching Learning Style to Instructional Method: Effects on Comprehension.” Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 107, no. 1, 2015, pp. 64–78., doi:10.1037/a0037478.
“Belief in Learning Styles Myth May Be Detrimental.” PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2019, doi:10.1037/e504772019-001.
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Nancekivell, Shaylene E., et al. “Maybe They’Re Born with It, or Maybe It’s Experience: Toward a Deeper Understanding of the Learning Style Myth.” Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 112, no. 2, 2020, pp. 221–235., doi:10.1037/edu0000366.
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Learning Styles Network Resources Brochure
Comments
Oh it’s an idea form the turn of the century that boys and girls need to be socialized differently and need to be taught in different schools so that boys will develop a bit brain and girls will develop a girl brain. They thought that co education would make children have androgynous brains, and that was thought to lead to the breakdown of society. Michael Kimmel discusses this in his book Manhood in America
Chloe Showalter
2024-12-06 01:40:06 +0000 UTCAlways suspected this. Used to teach at a progressive school which had different coloured paper for handouts based on what "thinking hat" the lesson was based on. And don't get me started on "Habits of Mind". One teacher went to a conference on it and returned like a missionary for a cult.
Joe Fitzpatrick
2024-05-27 02:48:42 +0000 UTCAn academic has very seriously told me that boys and girls learn differently and I strongly suspect that this is a bogus extension of learning styles into biological essentialism .
Cate Kneale
2024-03-03 18:59:56 +0000 UTCI'm training to be a primary school teacher and although my program is careful to always say Learning Styles are myth, it's pervasive in education and still used constantly.
Coleen Monroe
2024-01-19 12:00:34 +0000 UTCTravis - I can not emphasize how helpful this was for me to hear. I work in the mental health arena and I am literally having our intellectual modules re-written. I so so so appreicate your research.
2024-01-18 18:55:22 +0000 UTCI had a hybrid Julian/Jake (weed, crush-motivated) learning style in High School. Not sure I’ve moved far beyond that
Shivvy
2024-01-09 08:04:03 +0000 UTCI stumbled into a lecture at a psych conference as an undergrad in 2015 about the learning styles myth. In grad school, we were taught that we should always use multiple modalities and that multiple modalities (visual AND audio AND etc) is the best strategy.
Chloe Showalter
2024-01-06 03:43:05 +0000 UTC
