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I don't have any research to support this claim (unless you consider anecdotal, n=1 as evidence), but I believe that "learning styles" exist, just that they are relatively dynamic and more specific than just "kinesthetic". If you take learning in and of itself, it requires connecting new ideas to pre-existing ideas. If you present something to an individual that is distant to their current understandings, then of course it will be difficult to understand. You need to learn how to walk before you learn how to run. If you take that concept and sum it over their entire learning background, you get two effects: 1. People that get an early lead/intuition in specific fields/topics/skills tend to keep building on similar fields/topics/skills. Kids that are good at math/comouters early on are more likely to pursue STEM in University. The skill is compounding in this way. 2. Specialization in a field/topic/skill (let's use a Math Bachelor's for example) requires that individual to learn/solve problems broadly inside of a narrow domain. Those narrow domains (math) have inherent skills that need to be built (logic, pigeonholing, building on top of root ideas, abstraction, etc.), as well as some supplementary skills that are often developed but not necessarily critical (visualization, fact checking, re-organization, etc.). These skills can be thought of as "learning styles". If you know a Math Major that is strong at visualizing geometry, then describing a mechanical reaction to them would be easier if you simplify the structure to it's simplest level (they don't need to hear about all the fillets you have to smooth sharp edges), and describe the reaction. In that methodology, you can skip all of the engineering terminology you may otherwise use and nail down the representation that they need to think about the problem. In that way I believe that "learning styles" exist, it just requires case-by-case understanding. This likely plays a role in the numerous benefits reaped through smaller class sizes. |