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Hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil.

By DenverWW


The case for learning styles and how best students engage with and absorb classroom content has been debated, considered, and in general, part of learning conversations around me for as long as I can remember - which really means, elemetary school in the early 80s. What's amazing, despite the evidence, is how pervasive it remains.

"Oh, I'm not doing well in class becuase I'm a visual learner and the lectures don't really sink in with me," says one classmate.

"I have to take notes. Lots and lots of notes or I won't learn. I can't just sit there and listen," says another. 

Visual. Auditory. Reading/Writing. Kinesthetic. Learning styles.

My peers and even my own students can not only easily describe and reference their learning styles, but can point to the ability to activate these styles in classes as their keys to success. For some, whether or not teachers/instructors build in and accommodate such styles, dictates their interest and enrollment. For others, using the excuse that their learning style is not used gives them permission to use less effort.

Trouble is, while learning styles - just like study strategies we investigated earlier this semester - are very much part of our learning dialogue, the research says nothing about their validity. So while most of us can clearly self-identify learning styles, at the end of the day these "styles" don't do much to improve our ability to learn and retain information. Simply put, there isn't any evidence supporting learning styles as the pathway to success. Excuses are out the window.

Hear not evil. See no evil. Speak no evil. 

The evil, in this case, our ability to learn, is not contingent on our ability to hear, touch, or see it.  

Comments

  1. Tracy CloseApril 1, 2021 at 4:34 PM

    Yeah...i'm the one who says I am an active learner and I can't learn by reading. Clearly I can because here I am in my PhD program. (insert laughting emoji...now I have to go watch a video so I can learn how to insert a laughing emoji here).

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