In my new book, Evidence-based Training Methods (ASTD Press), I conclude my review of research on learning styles with the hope that if readers do nothing else, they abandon time and resources devoted to learning styles in favor of other instructional methods which have much more evidence to support them. In other words, it’s time to drop the learning styles myth. What do you think about learning styles? What makes the learning style idea so compelling?
I’ll devote some future posts to the evidence (or lack thereof) on learning styles that I’ve seen since I wrote my book.
Tags: learning styles
Do Learning Styles Really Matter? In today`s web 2.0 and blended learning,
you actually learn without knowing you are learning. Isn`t it? So I believe
today we cannot avoid any learning style and simply have to take (if I stay
within your categorization of types of learning) all four styles into
account if we want to learn effectively. But I still believe everyone has
its preferred learning style and will simply learn the most during that
phase. What I see is maybe an emergence of a new learning style – some kind
of »targeted exploratory type« where we use all the exploratory tools
(blogs, wikis, forums, books …) but are focused on something specific.
Today you see content-specific wikis, technology-specific forums, even books
focus on a certain area. So we cannot simply talk about some stochastic
exploration, but about »slightly formalized exploration.« I like Lance
Dublin`s idea about non-formal learning (instead of informal). If we add
some mentoring to the exploratory type we are definitely introducing the
4.5th or 5th learning type.