Nine Stubborn Brain Myths That Just Won't Die, Debunked by Science. Why Is the Research on Learning Styles Still Being Dismissed by Some Learning Leaders and Practitioners? I have been battling the notion of "designing instruction for learning styles" in my own quixotic fashion for a couple of decades now. In my attempt to be a good steward of my clients' shareholders' equity I wished to help them avoid faddish instructional design practices that have been disproven by empirical research. I first learned back in the 1980s at NSPI (now ISPI) conferences that while self-reported learning style preferences do exist, that designing instruction to accommodate them has no basis. When I posted yet again on this topic on my blog a couple of months ago and then sent a Tweet out about it—Jane Bozarth, EIC of this magazine, invited me to publish an article.
I accepted and decided to reach out to the usual suspects, those in my professional crowd who know the research, for their inputs. Here is some of what I got back that day and shared with Jane to show her I was "on it. " Wisdom from This Crowd From Harold Stolovitch: There is so much press about learning styles. Change Magazine - September-October 2010. By Cedar Riener and Daniel Willingham There is no credible evidence that learning styles exist. While we will elaborate on this assertion, it is important to counteract the real harm that may be done by equivocating on the matter. In what follows, we will begin by defining “learning styles”; then we will address the claims made by those who believe that they exist, in the process acknowledging what we consider the valid claims of learning-styles theorists.
But in separating the wheat from the pseudoscientific chaff in learning-styles theory, we will make clear that the wheat is contained in other educational approaches as well. A belief in learning styles is not necessary to incorporating useful knowledge about learning into one's teaching. What is a Learning Style?
The claim at the center of learning-styles theory is this: Different students have different modes of learning, and their learning could be improved by matching one's teaching with that preferred learning mode. Resources 1. A convenient untruth. Debating Learning StylesS.pdf.