Activity 4.3 Learning Styles

The Learning Styles article supports or confirms what I have learned in my program at the University of Kentucky.  I remember reading Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences.  At the time, it was a very popular theory and I believe that the reasons set forth by Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, and Bjork for the popularity of the learning styles concept (the appeal of finding out what type of person you are, the feeling of being treated as an individual by educators, the decreased responsibility for one’s own learning) are the real reasons for its’ popularity, not the fact that outcomes demonstrate a true effect of the use of learning styles.  Gardner discussed multiple intelligences that learners use to effectively access information, including such intelligences (or styles) as musical or kinesthetic learning.  I think these are learning styles and in my opinion learning styles are preferences.  As the authors state, when asked to provide a preference most learners are very willing to do so. There is one way in which the process of matching learners’ learning styles to instruction could be effective; this is in generating motivation for enthusiasm.  Perhaps, if specially designed or tailored instruction is provided to learners they might respond with increased levels of motivation or enthusiasm, which could possibly lead to improved outcomes.  I believe this would be in response to the attention more than in response to the style of learning and I don’t think there would be any way in which you could predict the level of engagement.  Also, as the authors point out, the benefits of this approach would potentially be outweighed by investment in other, research-based and proven, approaches.