Monday, September 6, 2010

Psychologists say NO to Learning Styles

I'll have to read the rest of this NYTimes article carefully, but this paragraph stood out:
Take the notion that children have specific learning styles, that some are “visual learners” and others are auditory; some are “left-brain” students, others “right-brain.” In a recent review of the relevant research, published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a team of psychologists found almost zero support for such ideas. “The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing,” the researchers concluded.
Hallelujah. Striking and disturbing, indeed.

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic article. I just read it in its entirety, printed it, and emailed it to our math curriculum coordinator. I plan on reading it again later. I plan on sharing the suggestions in the article with my students. Thanks so much for sharing.

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  2. I wrote a commentary in regards to the article too. A few points came to my mind when I read the article as well. I am an early childhood teacher, specifically work with pre-k and kindergarten (and LOVE TEACHING math to them too) so my point of view is from the early childhood perspective.

    http://talesofasweetgirl.blogspot.com/2010/09/study-habits.html

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