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The Blinkered Learning Style
Most people think that kids have different learning styles - you know, he's a visual learner but she's an auditory learner... leading to a need for different teaching approaches for different students. And so many teachers work hard to identify their students' learning styles and then cater to them. A whole industry has grown up around this notion: learning style tests, manuals, professional development courses, specialized teaching materials, and so forth. Now a major new report from the Association for Psychological Science says that "there is no adequate research base to justify incorporating learning-style assessments into general educational practice. Thus, limited education resources would better be devoted to adopting other educational practices that have strong evidence base, of which there are an increasing number."
We will be greatly surprised, however, if Ontario education leaders were to heed this advice. From our observations, we are forced to conclude that our decision-makers have their very own special learning style, one that unfortunately renders them blind to research evidence.