Comments on: So, Are There Different Learning Styles?

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:25:38 +0000

Aaron, excellent point, and I’m surprised that didn’t occur to me! Of course repetition in ways that are slightly different (and therefore not boring) would reenforce learning.

It still might be that some kids need specific types of input, but overall, I bet your explanation would be the more likely one.

By: Aaron Helton

Aaron Helton — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:20:45 +0000

I think the trick is that multiple instructional approaches for the same topic simply provides reinforcement for that topic, improving the learning rate. This seems like a plausible explanation for what seems to happen in the classroom when teachers are accommodating different “learning styles.”

Incidentally, I don’t remember any mention of learning styles when I was young, so I don’t know what I would be classified now. I’m kinda happy about that, now that I think about it

By: Fiona

Fiona — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:18:57 +0000

I need visual supports, and can’t deal with too much auditory input, but I’m not sure what that is. I still strongly push use of visual along with verbal because classrooms are often so verbal that the less-strong kids in their language skills miss out.

And hands-on rocks for some kids.

By: Lee

Lee — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:53:41 +0000

I took some of these tests to see what my ’style’ was back when I was tutoring. It turns out that I answer the questions very differently and get a different result when thinking about teaching/learning math vs thinking about teaching/learning anthropology or english.

I can also identify some moments where I needed a visual or auditory explanation of something before it ‘clicked’ but I might need one type one day and another the next.

It’s still valid to use different teaching methods to reach the whole class – as you say it still seems like common sense to present the information in as many ways as possible.