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This article really just seems to be mincing words and debating what "style" means. The fact remains: some methods of presenting information is worse than othe

This article really just seems to be mincing words and debating what "style" means. The fact remains: some methods of presenting information is worse than others. Some students will think they hate the subject material, but really what they hate is the teacher's relationship to the subject material. The teacher understands a subject a certain way, and that way might not make sense to a student. A different teacher will likely be able to present in a way that student will like. Perhaps that's not a difference in "style" but it's a difference that matters.

roywiggins 9y ago
The myth is that everyone has a learning style, that style can be summed up as one of a few categories, the style never changes, and will be stable year to year, and once you have identified what the style is with a questionnaire, you can tailor teaching to it to target particular students. Once you weaken all those things, the predictive value of the theory is pretty well nil.
- kolpa 9y ago
  I've heard many more debunkings of learning styles than I've heard advocacies of learning styles. It's just fun to be contrarian.
rafiki6 9y ago
In general, I'm of the opinion the current day style of teaching (someone supposed "expert" stands there and tells you stuff) is inefficient and a terrible way to teach anything. The best way to learn any concept, and I mean ANY concept is to see it in an application or tangible example. Without fail, that is how people will learn and retain information. That's why the only way to become proficient at math is to practice problems. The same concept applies in other fields. Receiving and relaying information are actually two quite separate skills. That's why the best way to know if you know a subject is to attempt to teach it yourself. Your knowledge gap should become immediately apparent. https://lifehacker.com/the-science-behind-how-we-learn-new-skills-908488422 https://lifehacker.com/the-science-behind-how-we-learn-new-s...

roywiggins 9y ago

The myth is that everyone has a learning style, that style can be summed up as one of a few categories, the style never changes, and will be stable year to year, and once you have identified what the style is with a questionnaire, you can tailor teaching to it to target particular students. Once you weaken all those things, the predictive value of the theory is pretty well nil.

kolpa 9y ago
I've heard many more debunkings of learning styles than I've heard advocacies of learning styles. It's just fun to be contrarian.

rafiki6 9y ago

In general, I'm of the opinion the current day style of teaching (someone supposed "expert" stands there and tells you stuff) is inefficient and a terrible way to teach anything. The best way to learn any concept, and I mean ANY concept is to see it in an application or tangible example. Without fail, that is how people will learn and retain information. That's why the only way to become proficient at math is to practice problems. The same concept applies in other fields. Receiving and relaying information are actually two quite separate skills. That's why the best way to know if you know a subject is to attempt to teach it yourself. Your knowledge gap should become immediately apparent. https://lifehacker.com/the-science-behind-how-we-learn-new-skills-908488422 https://lifehacker.com/the-science-behind-how-we-learn-new-s...