Learning Styles

Maria Capelli

Post 3

6.1 Learning Styles

                I’ve been told that I am a visual learner, but do I really learn better by seeing things? There are three styles of learning: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. The first two are self-explanatory, and kinesthetic learning is learning by doing the action you are attempting to learn. Supposedly most people will fall into one of these three groups of learning styles. Since everyone learn things different ways and at different paces it makes sense to think that associating people with their appropriate learning styles will provide positive results. However, all the claims made by learning styles are not proven by scientific science. Here are some claims to the benefits of knowing and using your learning style:

Benefits of Determining Your Learning Type
Some of these benefits of learning which category that you fall under when it comes to learning type include:

• Being able to learn and absorb information the first time that you hear it and reducing the amount of time and repetition that is required when learning.
• Reducing the amount of reviewing and study time using methods of learning that are not compatible with your learning ability.
• Defining your learning type can help you to choose the best study method for you. The majority of people are unsure about which methods that they should use to study and therefore learning which method enables you to learn best can enable you to learn effectively with the least amount of (knowledge.http://www.learningguide.org/learningstyles.htm)

 

All these claims seem to be backed up by a bunch of pseudoscience. In chapter 6.1 of our book, research has found that “[The assumption that one can improve instruction by matching materials to children’s modality strengths] appears to lack even minimal empirical support.” Modality refers to vision and hearing sensations. Even teachers who have attended learning styles workshops have said they stopped trying to match children by their learning styles. However, many people still believe that learning styles can improve performance.  The Huntington Learning Center is where children who are behind in school can go to get tutoring. They believe that determining learning styles are very important for the success of children. Here is their description of learning styles and if you click on the link it will bring you to a page where you could determine your child’s learning style.  Although I don’t know how well I feel about sending my child to a tutoring center where they use instructions supported by pseudoscience.

All parents know that children have unique personalities, likes and dislikes, and of course, strengths and weaknesses. Just as every child is his or her own person, when it comes to learning style, no two children process information exactly the same way. What is a learning style? Put simply, your child's learning style is the manner in which he or she learns best. While there are many definitions of different types of learning styles, a common way to categorize learning preference is through the senses - in particular, visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Here are some helpful questions parents can use to assess their own child's sensory learning styles: 
(http://huntingtonlearning.com/resources/p-learningstyles/)