Are learning styles all they’re cracked up to be?
The relevance of learning styles to the Australian VET practitioner
Three new papers are causing a stir by debunking dearly held beliefs about learners and learning styles. One paper argues that we may be barking up the wrong tree when it comes to learning styles. The second suggests that teachers don’t need to know much about learning styles to construct effective teaching strategies intuitively. The third claims that current online course design actually works against the constructivist, interactive learning experience that the elearning medium promises to be.
Should we forget about learning styles?
Are you taking the time to assess your students’ learning styles? Are you adjusting your teaching strategies accordingly? According to this research, maybe you should think again...
Most learning styles – even some of the best known - have not been rigorously tested and are based on dubious research.
Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: A systematic and critical review (see link below) argues that most learning styles are not based on credible empirical evidence, and that even the few models that do seem promising have never been demonstrated to be of benefit in the VET environment.
This comprehensive research report from the UK’s Learning and Skills Research Centre identified no fewer than 71 learning style models currently in circulation. The researchers examined 13 of the most influential - and were surprised by what they found. Most learning styles - even some of the best known - have not been rigorously tested and are based on dubious research. Learning style designers make wild and exaggerated claims about their systems and avoid collaborative research or investigation. It seems there is a lot to lose in the lucrative learning styles industry.
Learning styles ignore socio-economic and cultural factors as well as learner personality, self-esteem, motivation and previous experience - all potentially greater influences on success than learning styles.
So, what’s the appeal? Why do we all love learning styles so much that we forgot to ask questions? Could it be that we have embraced learning styles because they are an easy solution to a complicated problem? Teachers know from experience that their learners take on new ideas at different rates and in different ways. Could it be that learning styles offer a simple, convenient explanation?
Learning styles are also a good fit with current political agendas. Teachers are being asked to demonstrate that they are doing their bit to develop students’ lifelong learning skills. Introducing the idea of ‘learning styles’ to a class is an easy way to quickly cover this issue.
The researchers also bemoan a lack of a genuine theory of learning for the post-16/ further education sector in the UK (the equivalent of VET). The ‘pseudo-science’ of learning styles, it says, has moved in to fill the pedagogy vacuum.
The report also asks the question - what should you, the teacher, actually
do with information collected from class learning style questionnaires? There
are almost as many answers to this as there are learning style inventories.
Some models advocate matching your teaching style to the student’s
learning style. Others stress that you must avoid teaching to the
learner’s style to encourage the student to adapt to other methods.
But how do you match (or avoid) 30 learning styles in one class? And, even
if you could, how long could a learner tolerate being taught in only one
style before dropping out from boredom?
Learning styles ignore socio-economic and cultural factors as well as learner personality, self-esteem, motivation and previous experience - all potentially greater influences on learner success. It could be better to get to know your learners through interviews and observation.
Do Australian TAFE teachers care about learning styles?
The findings presented in Accommodating Learning Styles: Relevance and Good Practice in VET (see link below) are based on research into TAFE and RTO staff and students in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.
Australian VET teachers are a practical bunch - they don’t bother with any learning style criteria that they can’t test by just observing classroom behaviour.
Australian VET teachers, the study discovered, strongly believe that learning styles do matter and account for them in their teaching. Most teachers’ knowledge of learning style theory is quite limited - but this doesn’t seem to matter!
Australian VET teachers are a practical bunch, they don’t bother with any learning style criteria that they can’t test just by observing classroom behaviour. Although most learning styles are based around inventories or questionnaires, very few Australian teachers use them. Instead, they make a common sense diagnosis based on observation and experience.
Despite the abundance of models available, most teachers define their learners according to a fairly basic set of criteria:
- visual/auditory/kinaesthetic
- independent/social
- self-paced
- self-directed
A basic familiarity with the concept of learning styles, the study found, is enough to improve the quality of teaching. This seems to be the result of teachers ‘mixing it up a bit’ and using a range of methods, strategies and media.
Does elearning really address learner needs?
As more and more VET teaching goes online assumptions are being made about the medium that don’t necessarily bear close scrutiny. This is one of the findings of a major NCVER research project - One size doesn’t fit all: Pedagogy in the online environment. (see link below)
A basic familiarity with the concept of learning styles is enough to improve the quality of teaching - the result of teachers ‘mixing it up a bit.’
According to this report, many in the VET sector believe that online learning:
- encourages active engagement
- facilitates easy access
- speeds up communication between teacher and learner
- offers choice and
- provides a constructivist learning environment.
The reality, however, appears to be quite different. This research finds that online learning in its current form actually works against these potential pedagogical advantages.
Online courses vary in quality, but most make worrying assumptions about their learners. For example, not all online learners are:
- highly motivated
- well organised
- independent learners
Most online courses require learners to have high order cognitive skills and critical literacy.
The technology that allows for communication and collaboration is available but is rarely used.
Online VET education in Australia still largely means content delivery – with a little email thrown in. The technology that allows for communication and collaboration (such as forums and chat) is available but is rarely used by instructional designers or online facilitators.
Making use of the very tools that give online learning its advantages will go a long way towards improving elearning in Australian VET.
References
COFFIELD,
Frank; Moseley, David; Hall, Elaine & Ecclestone, Kathryn, 2004 Learning
styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: A systematic and critical review Learning
and Skills Research Centre, London
SMITH, Peter & Dalton, Jennifer, 2005 Accommodating Learning Styles: Relevance and Good Practice in VET NCVER, Adelaide
BRENNAN, Roslin, 2003 One
size doesn’t fit all: Pedagogy
in the online environment NCVER,
Adelaide
Also see
Accommodating learner styles and characteristics in TAFE