Friday, August 29, 2008

Learning Styles Don't Exist

I discovered it from Clive Shepherd (btw - I always want to say Clive Drexler for some reason) who discovered it from Stephen Downes.

This is another great video talking about the Myth of Learning Styles. Shouldn't we be listening to the Cognitive Psychologists and Neuroscientists? I think so. I think they have more to tell us about how we should be developing learning solutions than just about anyone.

One of the points he makes is that the myth persists because we all believe it. Guilty as charged! I fell for it too when it was spoon fed in grad school and later via popular gurus. We need to help start spreading the word.

Also, this prof has got to be given kudos for putting this on YouTube. I'll bet this used to be a full lecture that filled one entire class period. Now students can watch the lecture when its convenient for them and discuss it perhaps on Facebook or some other social network setup for the class or setup by the students. Nice job Dr. Willingham. I'm certain your students appreciate the extra effort.

John Medina
, who is keynoting DevLearn08, also shoots down the theory of learning styles. Dr. Medina's book, Brain Rules has quickly become a favorite of mine. I love the 10min rule. But that's another post.

My question to the e-Learning Development community is...

How are we going to respond? Maybe this would make for a good BIG QUESTION.

DevLearn 2008 Conference & Expo - November 10-14 - San Jose, CA

3 comments:

Mark said...

Brent - right on - reminds me of Will Thalheimer's myth-busting work (http://www.willatworklearning.com/2006/05/people_remember.html)

Mark

Anonymous said...

This is awesome!

thanks for reenforcing what we have discovered for a long time here at Dance Labs - that our work works with ESL students, people of all classes and ages, people of different cultures, and most importantly, whether people "like" dance or not!

this also debunks the basis of Rosetta Japanese learning software - it's great you support what others who actively learn Japanese experience themselves first hand!

jay said...

Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning. A systematic and critical review nails it.