Learning Styles: To Use or Not To Use...Is That Really the Question?

A learning style is the starting point for the learners...it is the baseline, but it is not a security blanket for their educational lives.

Although there are many arguments both for and against teaching according to students' learning styles, my take on this is that a learning style is another tool which gives educators the best chance of making lasting impressions. By teaching to learning styles at the beginning of a course, educators can create relationships of trust and "safe" learning environments. This bond of understanding once present gives students the security they need to succeed or even fail within that classroom.

There are several non-negotiable teaching principles that I learned while serving as a missionary back in 1996. These are principles that still guide every class that I teach today, and have found are vital to the success of any class or workshop. Some of these might sound familiar to you. The first is build relationships of trust or what I commonly refer to as BRT. I discover everything I can about the learners, their interests, what they want to be when they grow up, and yes, even their learning styles. I show empathy, and interest, and find common bonds between us. The more I know about them, the more I can anchor learning to the students' personal experience. I do this by building upon common beliefs. Past learning and behavior is the best indicator of future openness to learning and behavior. If I can get students to discuss past learning experiences whether good or bad, and if I can build upon past learning experiences, then I have my best chance of adding to the learning. I wish someone had done this with me and Algebra.

To use learning styles in curriculum development is not an all or nothing prospect. Understanding students' learning styles is one more implement for the toolbox. This understanding is the crowbar that prys limitations off learning rather than adding limitations as some might have you believe. The only time that learning style assessments are a hinderance is when the teacher gets bogged down with them. Once teachers evaluate and understand the students' "starting point" then they can move forward! Too many educators decipher the learning styles of a class then continue to stand on the starting line. They create a curriculum based on initial learning style assessments instead of taking the information and moving forward with it creating a living, breathing, ever-changing, evolving curriculum.

A curriculum such as this is one that encourages students' growth through activities and opportunities that promote both success and failure. It gives students a chance to stretch beyond their own learning styles, and it allows them to expand into new styles. Further, it allows them to adapt and evolve into well-rounded students and eventually productive citizens and members of the workforce. Show me an employer who asks, "What is your learning style so I might best be able to train you in this job?" I have yet to know of one. It is up to students to change their own learning styles, to adapt to new styles of learning placed before them, and to grow to a point where they eventually do not need any particular style to absorb new learning.

Like humans learning styles are always growing, developing, and ever-changing. Why then would we force ourselves to make a choice? Why would we consider teaching to learning styles an all or nothing prospect? We must have both to ensure that we can connect with our students, build relationships of trust, establish common beliefs, and ultimately create a life-long learner.
Rebel1