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I read that article but it doesn't seem to actually say much, other than "leaning styles == bad." My best guess is that the author has built a strawman and his definition of "different learning styles" is markedly different (or narrower) than the common understanding of the phase. I consider myself a pretty open-minded individual and a strong adherent to the idea that (properly conducted!) science furthers human progress, health, and happiness. But there's no way anyone can convince me that, given the exceptionally wide variability in the way human brains process information, that there is "one true way" to teach somebody something. Or even "one true way" for a specific individual that applies to all subjects. For instance, there is an entire generation who seem to learn faster and/or better by watching well-produced videos on a topic. For them, reading a textbook or other forms of documentation takes too long or just plain doesn't work. This is basically what all of those modern online course sites and coding bootcamps are doing. I'm the complete opposite. I'd rather sift through book-sized volumes of written documentation and tutorials (or in a pinch, a textbook) to quickly gain an overall big-picture view of a topic and then dive into specific details as necessary. For me, watching videos takes too long, and I get bored and sleepy watching them. Give me something to read, reflect on, and play with. Another example: my son, unlike most of his peers, can't sit still in a classroom. Nor can he watch educational videos for any particular length of time. He is not (yet?) a self-directed learner because if you put him in front of an electronic device of any kind, he will tinker with all of the settings on the device instead of using it for its intended purpose. However, he absolutely excels at one-on-one tutoring because I have managed to teach him some fairly advanced (for his age) math, computer, and electronics concepts just by sitting down and talking about these things with him as if it was just casual conversation. The problem, of course, is that the way schools are structured, this cannot possibly scale even to just the kids that need it the most. |