Remember Anything

Sometimes when we endeavor to learn about our children’s education and how best to foster it we encounter concepts about methods of teaching or learning that at first seem difficult to understand. And, to be honest, some of those concepts continue to be difficult for many of us to comprehend. The notion of student learning styles, the idea that not every person learns in the same way or at the same rate, is one of those philosophical notions about education that isn’t easy for all of us to readily grasp. So let’s take a minute and see if we can make sense of this idea of student learning styles.

Background
The idea of student learning styles first became popular in the 1970s. To many it was a refreshing break from previous methods of teaching that relied wholly on rote memorization. The idea that the traditional methods of teaching might not be adequate for all students was revolutionary. After the idea became popular several models came to prominence.

Popular models

A few of the most widely known models were the Experimental Learning Theory, The Manual of Learning Styles, and the Gregorc Style Delineator. These methods all had in common their trait of dividing students into four or more types. Each type was supposed to respond better to a certain type of teaching. Also the well-known Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, used to determine and understand personality types, was adapted to explain the various student learning styles and the best teaching methods to match with those learning styles.

Criticism
In the last couple of years many educational psychologists have criticized the existing learning style models. Most of these psychologists state that in their beginning most learning style models start with theoretical beliefs that can’t be scientifically verified. And the psychologists go on to claim that there is no verifiable proof that student learning style models improve or speed up the learning experience. Yet another criticism is that too strict a reliance on learning style models can lead to students being arbitrarily classified into types, or simply "labeled."

Common use today
While different educational institutions and even different individual teachers have diverse opinions on the value and validity of models of student learning styles, most will agree with the basic idea that different students have their own predisposition when it comes to learning. A common practice now is to divide the student learning styles into four types: visual learners, auditory learners, reading preference learners, and tactile learners. Visual learners understand concepts when the ideas can be linked to an image. A visual learner understands mathematical relationships better when the values can be plotted on a chart or graph. Auditory learners pick up new concepts faster through hearing speech, such as when a person who may have struggled with a reading assignment has no difficulty understanding a class lecture on the same subject. Reading preference learners seem to have no difficulty absorbing ideas expressed in writing and understanding concepts faster if allowed to read on their own rather than spend time on other methods of learning. Tactile learners, or kinesthetic learners, learn fastest when a concept is connected to an activity; they are truly hands-on learners.

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