Learning Styles -A Valid Consideration?

It is widely regarded that individual learners learn in different ways and that when teaching, these different styles should be taken into account but how true is this? During my time as a learning practitioner, I have come across a number of different ways of classifying different learning styles. The following are the most common (taken from www.teachingenglish.org.uk)

The four modalities, which originates from the work of Dr's Bandler, R. and Grinder, J. in the Field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. The theory is that students or delegates may prefer a visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), kinesthetic (moving) or tactile (touching) way of learning. For example, those who prefer a visual learning style will prefer to look at wall displays and books rather than listen to a talk or lecture.

Field-independent vs. Field-dependent, where field-independent students are supposed to be able to easily separate important details from a complex or confusing background and tend to rely on themselves and their own thought-system when solving problems. Field-dependent students rely more on others' ideas when solving problems and are good at interpersonal relationships.

Left-brain dominated vs. right-brain dominated. Students who are left-brain dominated are alleged to be more intellectual, objective and prefer established, certain information; whereas those who are right-brain dominated are more intuitive process information in a holistic way, are more subjective and prefer elusive, uncertain information.

McCarthy's four learning styles McCarthy (1980) described students as innovative learners, analytic learners, common sense learners or dynamic learners.

There are doubtless many more examples of how to categorise our students, learners, clients or delegates. Differentiating between different learning styles is widely regarded as an important part of teaching Felder & Silverman (1998, p674) states that:

‘How much a given student learns in a class is governed in part by that student’s native ability and prior preparation but also by the compatibility of his or her learning style and the instructor’s teaching style‘.

However, Nixon, et al (2007) argues that (p39&49) there is:

‘little objective evidence in support of these models... the intuitive appeal of learning style models facilitates their promotion as models of ‘good practice’, even though there is little robust evidence in support of their effectiveness. There is a danger that teachers may promote an impoverished view of pedagogy... [and] see their role as being one of compliance, conformity and performance with standards set for them by others’.

Nixon, et al (2007) questions the purpose of education and further question whether learning style make a positive contribution, however, views presented within the LSRC’s Report ‘Should we be using learning styles?’ (Coffield, at al., 2004), go even further, suggesting that:

The quality of learning styles is generally poor and not valid... there is a no of evidence that assessing and focusing on learning styles and learning process has a positive effect on achievement or progression.

However, the report does acknowledge that the research in the field of learning styles has gaps and that this research would needs considerable investment, which may not be worthwhile based on current (limited) research.

Learning Styles a Waste of Time?

It is clearly important to recognise that each learner is unique and had a preference to learn in a certain way. The fact that any particular group is made of unique individuals should be taken into account when planning a learning session. A learning session which uses different learning activities, teaching styles and methods will make a more interesting session for everyone, no matter what their learning style. Hainer, et al (1990) states ‘Many educators want to know if one learning style is "better" than another or if they should teach students using only their favourite learning style. The answer to both questions is "no". Each learning style is special but at the same time, each learning style has its strengths and weaknesses. This means that in order to prepare our students for future challenges, we must help them to adjust and function in styles that may not be their most comfortable’.

Taking into account learning styles when planning programmes and sessions helps maintain ample stimulation for each learner. One of the most important jobs of a trainer is to keep the learner engaged and this will not be achieved only using one method of teaching. In a group, it is important to use a variety of teaching methods to keep all learners engaged, no matter what their learning style and this will often include elements of getting up and moving around, practical activities, discussion, handouts, writing notes and working within large groups, smaller groups and individually.

When working in smaller groups, or one-to-one, it is easier to tailor the programme to the individual, for example, helping one person to learn how to put a website together could be achieved by giving a handout, telling the learner how it is done, showing the learner how it is done, or by letting the learner experiment, giving support where needed. A good tutor should have access to all of these strategies, using the most appropriate methods for any given situation.