Sunday, September 20, 2009

Learning styles - BUNK?

I found this article by Daniel Willingham in an entry on the Change.org blog. He is the author of "Why Don't Students Like School?," a book I started, but have still not finished. In this article he makes the claim that learning styles theory is bunk and that districts that force teachers to include multiple strategies focused on learning styles are actually making teacher jobs more difficult with no benefit to students and without research to prove its effectiveness.

In the article he takes exception to the D.C. school district’s learning framework that focuses on learning styles. He suggests that what influences learning are . . .

Some lessons click with one child and not with another, but not because of an enduring bias or predisposition in the way the child learns. The lesson clicks or doesn’t because of the knowledge the child brought to the lesson, his interests, or other factors.

Your thoughts?

1 comment:

LoomDog said...

A bit of a loaded question it seems. Agreeing with the premise seems to fly in the face of common wisdom and could make quick enemies. To disagree appears to deny the cold, hard data. Voicing one's opinion here feels like a lose-lose. I am curious...is this the book I mentioned on this blog a few weeks ago?