{"id":980,"date":"2010-06-10t21:38:37","date_gmt":"2010-06-11t02:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/"},"modified":"2021-02-19t16:02:14","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19t21:02:14","slug":"learning-styles-preferences","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/guides-sub-pages\/learning-styles-preferences\/","title":{"rendered":"learning styles"},"content":{"rendered":"<table style=\"height: 62px\" width=\"754\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"235\"><em>by nancy chick<\/em><\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align: right\" width=\"208\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2010\/06\/19134024\/learning-styles.docx\">print version<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<table style=\"height: 65px\" width=\"757\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"padding-left: 30px\" bgcolor=\"#deeaee\" width=\"443\"><strong>cite this guide:<\/strong> chick, n. (2010). learning styles. 瑞士vs喀麦隆走地 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分. retrieved [todaysdate] from \/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/guides-sub-pages\/learning-styles-preferences\/.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div style=\"text-align: right\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#what\"><span style=\"line-height: 16px\">what are learning styles?<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#caution\"><em>caution!<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#popular\">why are they so popular?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#now\">now what?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a name=\"what\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>what are learning styles?<\/h2>\n<p>the term\u00a0<em>learning styles<\/em> is widely used to describe how learners gather, sift through, interpret, organize, come to conclusions about, and \u201cstore\u201d information for further use. \u00a0as spelled out in <a href=\"http:\/\/vark-learn.com\/\"><strong>vark<\/strong> <\/a>(one of the most popular learning styles inventories), these styles are often categorized by sensory approaches: \u00a0<strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">v<\/span><\/strong>isual, <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">a<\/span><\/strong>ural, verbal [<strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">r<\/span><\/strong>eading\/writing], and <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">k<\/span><\/strong>inesthetic.\u00a0 many of the models that don\u2019t resemble the vark\u2019s sensory focus are reminiscent of felder and silverman\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www4.ncsu.edu\/unity\/lockers\/users\/f\/felder\/public\/ilspage.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">index of learning styles<\/a>, with a continuum of descriptors for how learners process and organize information:\u00a0 active-reflective, sensing-intuitive, verbal-visual, and sequential-global.<\/p>\n<p><strong>there are well over 70 different learning styles schemes<\/strong> (coffield, 2004), most of which are supported by \u201ca thriving industry devoted to publishing learning-styles tests and guidebooks\u201d and \u201cprofessional development workshops for teachers and educators\u201d (pashler, et al., 2009, p. 105).<\/p>\n<p>despite the variation in categories, the fundamental idea behind learning styles is the same: that each of us has a specific learning style (sometimes called a \u201cpreference\u201d), and we learn best when information is presented to us in this style.\u00a0 for example, visual learners would learn any subject matter best if given graphically or through other kinds of visual images, kinesthetic learners would learn more effectively if they could involve bodily movements in the learning process, and so on.\u00a0<strong> <a name=\"caution\"><\/a>the message thus given to instructors is that \u201coptimal instruction requires diagnosing individuals\u2019 learning style[s] and tailoring instruction accordingly\u201d <\/strong>(pashler, et al., 2009, p. 105).<\/p>\n<h2><em><strong>caution!<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n<p>despite the popularity of learning styles and inventories such as the vark, it\u2019s important to know that <strong>there is<\/strong> <strong>no evidence to support the idea that matching activities to one\u2019s learning style improves learning<\/strong>.\u00a0 it\u2019s not simply a matter of \u201cthe absence of evidence doesn\u2019t mean the evidence of absence.\u201d\u00a0 on the contrary, for years researchers have tried to make this connection through hundreds of studies.<\/p>\n<p>in 2009, psychological science in the public interest commissioned cognitive psychologists harold pashler, mark mcdaniel, doug rohrer, and robert bjork to evaluate the research on learning styles to determine whether there is credible evidence to support using learning styles in instruction.\u00a0 they came to a startling but clear conclusion:\u00a0 \u201calthough the literature on learning styles is enormous,\u201d they \u201cfound virtually no evidence\u201d supporting the idea that \u201cinstruction is best provided in a format that matches the preference of the learner.\u201d\u00a0 many of those studies suffered from weak research design, rendering them far from convincing.\u00a0 others with an effective experimental design \u201cfound results that flatly contradict the popular\u201d assumptions about learning styles (p. 105).\u00a0in sum,<a name=\"popular\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;the contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing\u201d (p. 117).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>why are they so popular?<\/h2>\n<p>pashler and his colleagues point to some reasons to explain why learning styles have gained\u2014and kept\u2014such traction, aside from the enormous industry that supports the concept.\u00a0 first, <strong>people like to identify themselves and others by \u201ctype.\u201d<\/strong> such categories help order the social environment and offer quick ways of understanding each other.\u00a0 also, this approach appeals to the idea that learners should be recognized as \u201cunique individuals\u201d\u2014or, more precisely, that <strong>differences among students should be acknowledged<\/strong>\u2014rather than treated as a number in a crowd or a faceless class of students (p. 107). carried further, teaching to different learning styles suggests that \u201c<strong>all people have the potential to learn effectively and easily if only instruction is tailored to their individual learning styles<\/strong>\u201d (p. 107).<\/p>\n<p>there may be another reason why this approach to learning styles is so widely accepted. they very loosely resemble the concept of <strong>metacognition<\/strong>, or the process of thinking about one\u2019s thinking.\u00a0 for instance, having your students describe which study strategies and conditions for their last exam worked for them and which didn\u2019t is likely to improve their studying on the next exam (tanner, 2012).\u00a0 integrating such metacognitive activities into the classroom\u2014unlike learning styles\u2014is supported by a wealth of research (e.g., askell williams, lawson, &amp; murray-harvey, 2007; bransford, brown, &amp; cocking, 2000; butler &amp; winne, 1995; isaacson &amp; fujita, 2006; nelson &amp; dunlosky, 1991; tobias &amp; everson, 2002).<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"now\"><\/a>importantly, metacognition is focused on planning, monitoring, and evaluating any kind of thinking about thinking and does nothing to connect one\u2019s identity or abilities to any singular approach to knowledge. \u00a0(for more information about metacognition, see cft assistant director cynthia brame&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2013\/01\/thinking-about-metacognition\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">thinking about metacognition<\/a>&#8221; blog post, and stay tuned for a teaching guide on metacognition this spring.)<\/p>\n<h2>now what?<\/h2>\n<p><strong>there is, however, something you can take away from these different approaches to learning\u2014not based on the learner, but instead on the content being learned<\/strong>.\u00a0 to explore the persistence of the belief in learning styles, cft assistant director nancy chick interviewed dr. bill cerbin, professor of psychology and director of the center for advancing teaching and learning at the university of wisconsin-la crosse and former carnegie scholar with the carnegie academy for the scholarship of teaching and learning.\u00a0 he points out that the differences identified by the labels \u201cvisual, auditory, kinesthetic, and reading\/writing\u201d are more appropriately connected to the nature of the discipline:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cthere may be evidence that indicates that<strong> there are some ways to teach some subjects that are just better than others<\/strong>, despite the learning styles of individuals\u2026. if you\u2019re thinking about teaching sculpture, i\u2019m not sure that long tracts of verbal descriptions of statues or of sculptures would be a particularly effective way for individuals to learn about works of art. naturally, these are physical objects and you need to take a look at them, you might even need to handle them.\u201d (cerbin, 2011, <a href=\"http:\/\/archive.org\/embed\/aconversationonlearningstyleswithdr.billcerbin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">7:45-8:30<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>pashler and his colleagues agree: \u201can obvious point is that the optimal instructional method is likely to vary across disciplines\u201d (p. 116). in other words, it makes disciplinary sense to include kinesthetic activities in sculpture and anatomy courses, reading\/writing activities in literature and history courses, visual activities in geography and engineering courses, and auditory activities in music, foreign language, and speech courses.\u00a0 obvious or not, it aligns teaching and learning with the contours of the subject matter, without limiting the potential abilities of the learners.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">references<\/span><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>askell-williams, h., lawson, m. &amp; murray, harvey, r. (2007). <a href=\"http:\/\/digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&amp;context=int_jtl\">\u2018<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu\/ij-sotl\/vol1\/iss1\/8\/\">what happens in my university classes that helps me to learn?\u2019: teacher education students\u2019 instructional metacognitive knowledge. <\/a><em>international journal of the scholarship of teaching and learning<\/em>, 1. 1-21.<\/li>\n<li>bransford, j. d., brown, a. l. &amp; cocking, r. r., (eds.). (2000). <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nap.edu\/catalog.php?record_id=9853\">how people learn: brain, mind, experience, and school<\/a><\/em> (expanded edition). washington, d.c.: national academy press.<\/li>\n<li>butler, d. l., &amp; winne, p. h. (1995) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/1170684\">feedback and self-regulated learning: a theoretical synthesis<\/a>. <em>review of educational research<\/em>, 65, 245-281.<\/li>\n<li>cerbin, william. (2011). <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/a\/gapps.uwc.edu\/vtlc\/home\/programs\/podcasts\/learningstylescerbin\">understanding learning styles: a conversation with dr. bill cerbin<\/a>.\u00a0 interview with nancy chick. <em>uw colleges virtual teaching and learning center<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>cof\ufb01eld, f., moseley, d., hall, e., &amp; ecclestone, k. (2004). <a href=\"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/learning-styles.pdf\">learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning. a systematic and critical review<\/a>. london: learning and skills research centre.<\/li>\n<li>isaacson, r. m. &amp; fujita, f. (2006). <a href=\"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/isaacson2007meta.pdf\">metacognitive knowledge monitoring and self-regulated learning: academic success and reflections on learning<\/a>. <em>journal of the scholarship of teaching and learning<\/em>, 6, 39-55.<\/li>\n<li>nelson, t.o. &amp; dunlosky, j. (1991). the delayed-jol effect: when delaying your judgments of learning can improve the accuracy of your metacognitive monitoring. <em>psychological science<\/em>, 2, 267-270.<\/li>\n<li>pashler, harold, mcdaniel, m., rohrer, d., &amp; bjork, r.\u00a0 (2008). <a href=\"http:\/\/www.psychologicalscience.org\/journals\/pspi\/pspi_9_3.pdf\">learning styles: concepts and evidence<\/a>. <em>psychological science in the public interest<\/em>. 9.3 103-119.<\/li>\n<li>tobias, s., &amp; everson, h. (2002). <a href=\"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/knowing-what-you-know-what-what-you-don-further-research-metacognitive.pdf\">knowing what you know and what you don\u2019t: further research on metacognitive knowledge monitoring<\/a>. <em>college board report no. 2002-3<\/em>. college board, ny.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\"><img class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.creativecommons.org\/l\/by-nc\/4.0\/80x15.png\" alt=\"creative commons license\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nthis teaching guide is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international license<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by nancy chick print version cite this guide: chick, n. (2010). learning styles. 瑞士vs喀麦隆走地 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分. retrieved [todaysdate] from \/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/guides-sub-pages\/learning-styles-preferences\/. what are learning styles? caution! why are they so popular? now what? what are learning styles? the term\u00a0learning styles is widely used to describe how learners gather, sift through, interpret, organize, come to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"parent":18232,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/980"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=980"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37637,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/980\/revisions\/37637"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}