Comments on: Episode 90: The Learning Styles Myth: An Interview with Daniel Willingham http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/03/episode-90-the-learning-styles-myth-an-interview-with-daniel-willingham/ Psychology podcast and resources for students and educators Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:59:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: J-B Q http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/03/episode-90-the-learning-styles-myth-an-interview-with-daniel-willingham/comment-page-1/#comment-2036 J-B Q Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:42:29 +0000 http://www.thepsychfiles.com/?p=661#comment-2036 “Learning style is not significant in terms of results”. Considering the confirmation bias, we could consider that we prime our “believed learning style”. Therefore we are self-inducing an interest in the content by priming the form, the way we learn. Did anyone conduct a research on the motivational aspect of the learning style? From a cognitive perspective we might not have any benefits in considering the learning styles. On the other hand, as social animals, we may benefit from learning styles in an indirect way, a self inducted way. For example, H may believe that he is a visual learner then by studying in this particular fashion H may feel more confident and more motivated. H might cope with the fact that he is not good in math by thinking that the content does not fit the form (learning style) that enhance the best her understanding and memory process. By considering the Learning style hypotheses, we probably cognitively auto-limit our ability to grasp and understand information. How to fight children’s boredom and keep their cognitive potential at the maximum? Keep their “Thirst of knowledge” and have them being the most efficient in terms of mental ability (cognitive capacity) are the challenges of the educator. “Learning style is not significant in terms of results”.
Considering the confirmation bias, we could consider that we prime our “believed learning style”. Therefore we are self-inducing an interest in the content by priming the form, the way we learn.

Did anyone conduct a research on the motivational aspect of the learning style?

From a cognitive perspective we might not have any benefits in considering the learning styles.

On the other hand, as social animals, we may benefit from learning styles in an indirect way, a self inducted way. For example, H may believe that he is a visual learner then by studying in this particular fashion H may feel more confident and more motivated. H might cope with the fact that he is not good in math by thinking that the content does not fit the form (learning style) that enhance the best her understanding and memory process.

By considering the Learning style hypotheses, we probably cognitively auto-limit our ability to grasp and understand information.

How to fight children’s boredom and keep their cognitive potential at the maximum?
Keep their “Thirst of knowledge” and have them being the most efficient in terms of mental ability (cognitive capacity) are the challenges of the educator.

]]> By: Jean http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/03/episode-90-the-learning-styles-myth-an-interview-with-daniel-willingham/comment-page-1/#comment-1952 Jean Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:00:58 +0000 http://www.thepsychfiles.com/?p=661#comment-1952 Prof. Willingham, Thank you for your articles & podcasts. They are wonderful. I am a fairly new Nursing instructor - and am currently the black sheep of my department. My peers use powerpoint slides for lecture and expect the students to copy their slides. I use slides for pictures and give the students outlines of the material to support our class discussion. If a concept is really important, I tell stories from my years of nursing practice. These stories are what students say they remember - even years after graduation. I also make worksheets for them for difficult material (like how the heart works and what it does) and try to break difficult concepts down so that they (and I!) can understand them better. Once they have the basic concepts, I use case studies to present common patient scenarios. My boss says I'm "spoonfeeding" our students. She also says I don't "make" them read the textbook. Honestly, Dan - a reading assignment may be >200 pages (few pictures, small type). I think the material is fascinating, but even I have trouble reading and taking notes on that much material. Many of my students work full time, have families, and don't read well. I would like to do better - and have more "active" learners. I just don't know where to start. Any advice would be appreciated! -Jean Prof. Willingham,
Thank you for your articles & podcasts. They are wonderful.
I am a fairly new Nursing instructor – and am currently the black sheep of my department. My peers use powerpoint slides for lecture and expect the students to copy their slides. I use slides for pictures and give the students outlines of the material to support our class discussion. If a concept is really important, I tell stories from my years of nursing practice. These stories are what students say they remember – even years after graduation. I also make worksheets for them for difficult material (like how the heart works and what it does) and try to break difficult concepts down so that they (and I!) can understand them better. Once they have the basic concepts, I use case studies to present common patient scenarios.
My boss says I’m “spoonfeeding” our students. She also says I don’t “make” them read the textbook. Honestly, Dan – a reading assignment may be >200 pages (few pictures, small type). I think the material is fascinating, but even I have trouble reading and taking notes on that much material. Many of my students work full time, have families, and don’t read well. I would like to do better – and have more “active” learners. I just don’t know where to start.
Any advice would be appreciated! -Jean

]]> By: Michael http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/03/episode-90-the-learning-styles-myth-an-interview-with-daniel-willingham/comment-page-1/#comment-1590 Michael Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:17:55 +0000 http://www.thepsychfiles.com/?p=661#comment-1590 Great comment Patricia. Like you, I have to write down math work in order to see how to work it out (although if it's easy enough I can picture it in my head) and history is like a timeline in my head as well. Couldn't argue with your last sentence either. Well put. - Michael Great comment Patricia. Like you, I have to write down math work in order to see how to work it out (although if it’s easy enough I can picture it in my head) and history is like a timeline in my head as well. Couldn’t argue with your last sentence either. Well put. – Michael

]]> By: patricia smith http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/03/episode-90-the-learning-styles-myth-an-interview-with-daniel-willingham/comment-page-1/#comment-1582 patricia smith Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:57:15 +0000 http://www.thepsychfiles.com/?p=661#comment-1582 every time i take one of those "personality inventories" or "brain abilities test" I end up being smack-dab in the middle of the hemispheres and almost dead-center of the "lobes'...for what it is worth, I seem to learn on all levels and actually enjoy using different ones for different fields (math needs some doodles for me to work them out; history i see in a mental time line that sort of spirals, remembering what to get for dinner gets a little mnemonic diddy...I am a jack of all trades! i fully agree with the idea that we learn "meaning" and we learn it through a variety of inlets...can I remind us that as babies and toddlers we learned everything (or so it seemed!) through our MOUTHS!? Haha! But really didn't we look and listen and touch and taste and then do it all again until we somehow created a mental file on whatever it was we were investigating and file it away so we can add to it later. Are we as adults really so different as kids, ok, except the tasting part (maybe.) When I work with my 4 & 5 year old I use all the sensory methods because I want them to become familiar (read: meaning) with something to the point of mental filing for later use. We also use a variety of learning backgrounds--we do small group, large group, one on one, large muscle then fine motor then free play and then quiet reading...the idea is variety is the spice of learning! Just FYI, Mythbusters on TV pretty much busted the idea that we can multi-task. Their episode basically proved that we may attempt doing many ,many things at once but we really are doing A, then B then C and we may do it rapid fire, but we still have to do one and then the next, not many simultaneously! There is also an idea in the back of my mind that says maybe we get lazy in our learning and say I am a visual learner or auditory or whatever because we have found that we learn EASIER that way--in other words we don;t want to have to work too hard to get the learning done so we go with what is easiest? Either way, it comes down to teachers using many senses to make meaning. Plain and simple! every time i take one of those “personality inventories” or “brain abilities test” I end up being smack-dab in the middle of the hemispheres and almost dead-center of the “lobes’…for what it is worth, I seem to learn on all levels and actually enjoy using different ones for different fields (math needs some doodles for me to work them out; history i see in a mental time line that sort of spirals, remembering what to get for dinner gets a little mnemonic diddy…I am a jack of all trades!
i fully agree with the idea that we learn “meaning” and we learn it through a variety of inlets…can I remind us that as babies and toddlers we learned everything (or so it seemed!) through our MOUTHS!? Haha! But really didn’t we look and listen and touch and taste and then do it all again until we somehow created a mental file on whatever it was we were investigating and file it away so we can add to it later. Are we as adults really so different as kids, ok, except the tasting part (maybe.)
When I work with my 4 & 5 year old I use all the sensory methods because I want them to become familiar (read: meaning) with something to the point of mental filing for later use. We also use a variety of learning backgrounds–we do small group, large group, one on one, large muscle then fine motor then free play and then quiet reading…the idea is variety is the spice of learning!
Just FYI, Mythbusters on TV pretty much busted the idea that we can multi-task. Their episode basically proved that we may attempt doing many ,many things at once but we really are doing A, then B then C and we may do it rapid fire, but we still have to do one and then the next, not many simultaneously!

There is also an idea in the back of my mind that says maybe we get lazy in our learning and say I am a visual learner or auditory or whatever because we have found that we learn EASIER that way–in other words we don;t want to have to work too hard to get the learning done so we go with what is easiest? Either way, it comes down to teachers using many senses to make meaning. Plain and simple!

]]> By: Dan Willingham http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/03/episode-90-the-learning-styles-myth-an-interview-with-daniel-willingham/comment-page-1/#comment-1151 Dan Willingham Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:01:37 +0000 http://www.thepsychfiles.com/?p=661#comment-1151 Lindsay convergent/divergent thinking is an old distinction, proposed in the early 1950's I don't know of any recent experimental work examining it. There were a few studies in the 60's and 70's, that weren't that terrific. It's important to bear in mind the difference between "styles" and "abilities." The whole point of the styles distinction is that it's independent of ability. I find it easiest to think of it this way: you'd always rather have more of an ability. But a style is just supposed to be your particular path to a goal. . .having more visual style or more auditory style wouldn't be an advantage. If we don't make that distinction clear, then we may as well talk about "mathematical style" or "musical style" when we really mean mathematical or musical ability. The convergent/divergent distinction was proposed by Guilford not as a style, but as part of his model of ability. The two types of thinking (as he proposed them, whichdiffers a bit from what you've written) don't lead you to the same place. Convergent sounds like analytic problem solving and divergent sounds like creativity. Dan Lindsay
convergent/divergent thinking is an old distinction, proposed in the early 1950’s I don’t know of any recent experimental work examining it. There were a few studies in the 60’s and 70’s, that weren’t that terrific.
It’s important to bear in mind the difference between “styles” and “abilities.” The whole point of the styles distinction is that it’s independent of ability. I find it easiest to think of it this way: you’d always rather have more of an ability. But a style is just supposed to be your particular path to a goal. . .having more visual style or more auditory style wouldn’t be an advantage. If we don’t make that distinction clear, then we may as well talk about “mathematical style” or “musical style” when we really mean mathematical or musical ability.
The convergent/divergent distinction was proposed by Guilford not as a style, but as part of his model of ability. The two types of thinking (as he proposed them, whichdiffers a bit from what you’ve written) don’t lead you to the same place. Convergent sounds like analytic problem solving and divergent sounds like creativity.
Dan

]]> By: Lindsay Kay http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/03/episode-90-the-learning-styles-myth-an-interview-with-daniel-willingham/comment-page-1/#comment-1140 Lindsay Kay Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:50:30 +0000 http://www.thepsychfiles.com/?p=661#comment-1140 Wait a second, what about convergent and divergent learning styles? As a software engineer I've seen colleagues lean clearly towards one or the other of these. The convergent type relies on incremental learning, building on what they have learned so far, very dependent on context. The divergent type works better with disjoint information, inferring context as they go, a kind of boffin. I'm not psychologist, but I can see these trends in people and it's really interesting to me, particularly when they clash and we get a sort of cognitive dissonance happening in our group discussions. Wait a second, what about convergent and divergent learning styles? As a software engineer I’ve seen colleagues lean clearly towards one or the other of these. The convergent type relies on incremental learning, building on what they have learned so far, very dependent on context. The divergent type works better with disjoint information, inferring context as they go, a kind of boffin. I’m not psychologist, but I can see these trends in people and it’s really interesting to me, particularly when they clash and we get a sort of cognitive dissonance happening in our group discussions.

]]> By: Debunking the Learning Styles Myth : EphBlog http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/03/episode-90-the-learning-styles-myth-an-interview-with-daniel-willingham/comment-page-1/#comment-1088 Debunking the Learning Styles Myth : EphBlog Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:01:08 +0000 http://www.thepsychfiles.com/?p=661#comment-1088 [...] Virginia (Wahoos!) cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham has done a pretty good job of debunking “the learning styles myth” in, among other places, his new book, Why Don’t Students Like School? Comment [...] [...] Virginia (Wahoos!) cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham has done a pretty good job of debunking “the learning styles myth” in, among other places, his new book, Why Don’t Students Like School? Comment [...]

]]> By: Michael http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/03/episode-90-the-learning-styles-myth-an-interview-with-daniel-willingham/comment-page-1/#comment-914 Michael Sun, 31 May 2009 11:59:21 +0000 http://www.thepsychfiles.com/?p=661#comment-914 Lacey, You're absolutely right - the example of how science teachers have to demonstrate ideas is one of the most convincing arguments Willingham makes. Science teachers have to make some of their learning goals into hands-on activities. It's really the only way for students to really learn some aspects of science, no matter what their supposed "learning style" may or may not be (I never thought about the potty training example, but you certainly wouldn't want to waste too much time explaining potty training - you just have to do it). Lacey,

You’re absolutely right – the example of how science teachers have to demonstrate ideas is one of the most convincing arguments Willingham makes. Science teachers have to make some of their learning goals into hands-on activities. It’s really the only way for students to really learn some aspects of science, no matter what their supposed “learning style” may or may not be (I never thought about the potty training example, but you certainly wouldn’t want to waste too much time explaining potty training – you just have to do it).

]]> By: Michael http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/03/episode-90-the-learning-styles-myth-an-interview-with-daniel-willingham/comment-page-1/#comment-913 Michael Sun, 31 May 2009 11:54:27 +0000 http://www.thepsychfiles.com/?p=661#comment-913 Scott: excellent points. There are a indeed a lot of good ideas regarding the use of examples, modeling, feedback, etc. to improve instruction, but what gets the most interest - learning styles. I guess learning styles is more interesting to talk about than the more perhaps less "sexy" ideas like modeling and feedback. Unfortunate. Scott: excellent points. There are a indeed a lot of good ideas regarding the use of examples, modeling, feedback, etc. to improve instruction, but what gets the most interest – learning styles. I guess learning styles is more interesting to talk about than the more perhaps less “sexy” ideas like modeling and feedback. Unfortunate.

]]> By: Lacey Lugar http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/03/episode-90-the-learning-styles-myth-an-interview-with-daniel-willingham/comment-page-1/#comment-898 Lacey Lugar Thu, 14 May 2009 01:49:33 +0000 http://www.thepsychfiles.com/?p=661#comment-898 I am a student at arc whos taking psycolocy as a prequequitit not as a class I would have chosen. So , my view on the subject may be a little uneducated however I personally agree with Proffessor Daniel Willinghams veiw on learning styles. I have three children so I understand hoe children learn best according to the subject at hand. Proffessor Willingham stated that a science teacher would actually need to demenstrat an experiment rather than describe it. That statment alone actually convinced that his theories were also my own beliefs when I began thinking about my own experiances. For example when potting training my children I had to actually show them and assist them in the process. Then while they grow and begin schooling if they only were able to adapt to learning one certain way all students would experiance difficulty because now teacher is always going to teach in the same manner. I am a student at arc whos taking psycolocy as a prequequitit not as a class I would have chosen. So , my view on the subject may be a little uneducated however I personally agree with Proffessor Daniel Willinghams veiw on learning styles. I have three children so I understand hoe children learn best according to the subject at hand. Proffessor Willingham stated that a science teacher would actually need to demenstrat an experiment rather than describe it. That statment alone actually convinced that his theories were also my own beliefs when I began thinking about my own experiances. For example when potting training my children I had to actually show them and assist them in the process. Then while they grow and begin schooling if they only were able to adapt to learning one certain way all students would experiance difficulty because now teacher is always going to teach in the same manner.

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