Learning Styles - Three Kinds - One Controversy
Sunday December 28, 2008
There has been a lot of talk for years about learning styles. People search often for info about them. The Adult Education Center at the University College Dublin has one of the best short reviews of the three primary kinds of learning styles educators talk most about.
The article reviews:
Here's the controversy: David H. Rose, Anne Meyer, and Chuck Hitchcock of the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) have written several books about the universal design for learning (UDL), maintaining that learning styles aren't the problem. At all. Their books, A Practical Reader in Universal Design for Learning and The Universally Designed Classroom, outline why curriculum is the main issue in holding students back.
- Left and right brain learning styles
- Auditory, visual and kinesthetic learning styles
- Activists, reflectors, theorists and pragmatists learning styles
This is a fascinating issue. I'm working on book reviews for you on the two titles above and will post them in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.
More on teaching adults:
Comments
As a former homeschooler, I believe in learning styles. I have three children – two are very similar in their learning styles and one marches to the beat of a very different drummer. However, I can also see where curriculum comes into play. An advanced curriculum (like the one I used in homeschooling, Abeka) isn’t always “user friendly” to those students who aren’t as advanced academically. Yet, for those students who are more advanced, a “watered down” curriculum may be more of an educational frustration to them than an educational help. Successful teaching should take into account both the students’ learning styles and the curriculum and be an equitable blend of both – ideally. However, most school systems do not have the luxury of tailoring their curriculum to their students, unless the school system has a TAG program or the school is a private school.
Fast forward to adult learning. I sat in the Spanish class last semester and observed the different ways my classmates studied. I could tell right away who was what learning style. I thought the curriculum was relatively simple and straight-forward, yet those students who had not had experience with a foreign language found it tedious and boring. The class started out with 25 students and ended up with 17. The teacher was great! The subject proved to be too difficult for some folks.
I will be curious to read your reviews on the books! Thanks.