Chapter 7: How should I adjust my teaching for different types of learners?

Why Don't Students Like School? by Daniel T. Willingham (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).

Bottom line message of this chapter: The method you use to teach an individual topic or concept should be dictated by the nature of the concept, not the "learning style" of the student.

If what you want students to learn is a visual concept, say the structure of a cell, then use visuals to teach it. If you want students to learn music, an auditory approach is the way to go. If you want students to learn how to move their bodies in a certain way, then kinesthetic activities are called for.* There is no evidence, however, to support the idea that a visual learner can learn auditory concepts better if they are presented in a visual way (reading musical notes as opposed the hearing them), or that kinesthetic learners will understand mitosis better if they can "dance" the process. This applies equally to any of the other learning styles applied to a concept that doesn't naturally fit the style.

Now for the discussion. None of this is meant to suggest that a student can't be a "visual learner," for example. What that means, though, is that such a person is particularly good at learning visual information, i.e., concepts that have a visual component to them such as colors, shapes, arrangements, physical relationships, etc. It does not mean, and research bears this out according to Willingham, that a visual learner can remember the meanings of vocabulary words better if they are presented with pictures illustrating the vocabulary words or that auditory learners will retain more if the meanings of the words are read aloud or that kinesthetic learners will be better served by acting out the meanings of the words.

The problem is that what is important, what is typically tested, is the meaning of the words, and meaning is something different from auditory, visual, or kinesthetic information. As noted above, the visual learners may well remember exquisite details about the images, but not necessarily be any better able to connect the picture with its corresponding word than a nonvisual learner. Furthermore, remembering details about the visual aspects of a picture is no guarantee that the viewer will have any noticeably enhanced ability to interpret, i.e. find meaning in, that image.

Howard Gardner's model of multiple intelligences fails for the same reasons. It's not that people aren't different in terms of their abilities ("intelligences") in various types of cognition - mathematical, linguistic, interpersonal, musical, etc. However, the idea that we can use their native strengths in one area to help them find success in another, such as using their musical intelligence to help them learn science by singing songs about photosynthesis, is not supported by the data.

Willingham acknowledges that he feels a bit like the Grinch in drawing these conclusions, knowing that the "learning styles" and "multiple intelligences" paradigms have become accepted wisdom among educators at all levels. People have invested time and energy and perhaps unrealistic hope in the idea that finding a teaching method that suits the individual's learning style or "intelligence" will finally allow everyone to enjoy as much success as they are capable of achieving.

So, having pulled the learning styles rug out from under us, what does Wilingham have to offer in its place? Some ideas are presented below and more will appear in Chapter 8.

Implications for teaching

As noted earlier, let content objectives dictate your teaching strategy. Remember, however, that EVERYONE benefits from looking at or interacting with a concept in a variety of ways, so incorporate visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities as appropriate to the concept (see footnote below).

Change is good. Spending an entire period asking students to stay focused on one cognitive task (listening, e.g.) can be draining. Mixing in visuals to break up the monotony will help to maintain attention. This will again benefit learners of all types. This also should not be news. Everyone knows the 20 minute rule, I hope.

Finally, as the previous implications suggest, don't waste your time or money trying to formally diagnose your students' individual learning styles. There's no proven value to it and you should be incorporating multiple strategies into your teaching anyway. I would add that it may even be counter-productive. I can recall many instances of students using their "learning style" as an excuse for why they can't learn something or pay attention to a discussion: "This isn't working for me, I'm a visual learner..."

Footnote
*It should be noted that many activities and concepts are multi-dimensional and can be approached from many different angles. Learning to sing involves hearing, obviously, but also positioning of the mouth and movement of the lips and tongue and so forth, all of which can be thought of as both kinesthetic, in in terms of learning how to move the muscles the right way, and visual, in that seeing someone else make those movements correctly helps us figure how to do it ourselves. Engaging all students in each of these activities, hearing, moving, and seeing, will benefit everyone, regardless of their perceived learning style.

Next:
Chapter 8: How can I help slow learners?