I do not use learning styles in my classroom. There is no literature that exists that prove they enhance learning. See the following articles - just few in a bevvy of articles and reviews that speak to this point:

Riener, C., & Willingham, D. (2010). The myth of learning styles. Change: The magazine of higher learning, 42(5), 32-35.

Dembo, M. H., & Howard, K. (2007). Advice about the use of learning styles: A major myth in education. Journal of college reading and learning, 37(2), 101-109.

Olson, J. K. (2006). The myth of catering to learning styles. Science and Children, 44(2), 56.

Such approach (to dictate) was very popular in the past, but  often is not a good sign today. A lot depends on the topic. Let us take mathematics first. I remember very good lectures on calculus in my university where every symbol and word was drawn by professor on the blackboard and students needed only to copy and then to understand. They had an access to books but books were longer and less clear than those lectures. In this case it was really good. I would also appreciate similar approach in explaining some new software where the manual is 500 pages but professor gives 100 pages, most important in 99% of the cases. Again saving student's time and brains.

If the text about less exact sciences (like philosophy or literature) is dictated, there may be a doubt that professor either knows not much more than that or never thought whether the truthful approach is unique. But again, in some cases a good professor gives students compact information allowing not to read many books instead.

Nowadays those methods might not work. Because we have much more information technologies. If there exist printouts or web version of those lectures, many students will choose not to go to the class but to read at home instead. There should be something extra in the lectures to make students going to the class. For example, professor may add new information changing a bit his course every year.

You ma y also read this https://gianfrancoconti.wordpress.com/2015/06/25/six-useless-activities-foreign-language-teachers-do/

Identifying students’ learning styles and planning lessons accordingly

Research has clearly shown that learning styles and multiple intelligences are invalid constructs totally unsupported by theory and research. Moreover, there is not a single shred of evidence to show that teaching students based on their alleged learning style actually enhances their learning. Teachers should not waste valuable teaching time administering questionnaires or other ‘tests’ in an attempt to identify students’ learning style or ‘dominant intelligence(s)’. Most importantly, they should not bother planning lessons or remedial learning programs based on the findings obtained.

In view of the invalidity of these constructs, labelling students as visual, kinesthetic or other may lead them, especially the younger ones, to form a self-fulfilling prophecy that may ultimately be detrimental to their learning.

Variety is key when it comes to learning styles (even though there has been some research out there that has debunked a lot of the writing on multiple intelligences).  I find that as a former k-12 teacher and a current teacher trainer working with pre-service teachers, modeling is key.  I try to, not only discuss the importance of incorporating a variety of learning styles in pre-service teachers' lessons, but also model these strategies in my own lessons.  One of the biggest criticisms in teacher ed is that many institutions tout the importance of variety, and the problems with focusing solely on lecture/rote learning, while we tend to teach our college students solely using these outdated methods. 

I found that after exposing future teachers to the research on group/collaborative learning, it is important have the students practice a variety of collaborative learning strategies together.  I have found that my courses have more impact regarding pre-service teachers seeing the importance of choice, when given choices in their own assignments.  To me, it is less important to focus on the constructs of learning styles and multiple intelligences, and more on variety as an inherently good feature of learning, no matter the setting or level.

Along my teaching experience I encourage my students to practice the language by doing different communicative tasks.Learning by doing is my proposal, following the syllabus based on the learners´ needs.

Dear professor Soku,

To me, learning and teaching is co-constructed; students and I usually negotiate styles that will suit our idiosyncrasies. For example, I'm quite inductive, but if my students show in our first meeting that they prefer deductive teaching as they can understand and learn better that way, we then have both in the classroom.  This way, both parties don’t have to sacrifice their styles, and can feel well-accommodated.  Also, both sides have a chance to experiment with different styles that they may later find stimulating and productive.

Hope this is relevant.

Best regards,

Cameen

Using dictation in Mathematics classes wtould be very hard both to the teacher and the student. What I do is construct lecture notes and upload these in our Edmodo groups. The students download the lectures into their smart phones, tablets or laptops. Some make hard copies. So they have time to read the lectures before our scheduled meetings and the discussions during the class meetings will be easier and saves us more time. We just concentrate on examples where details are important and for students to follow the solutions as they are being formed in class.

In addition to the unidirectional teaching methods (e.g. lecture, demonstration), I implement interactional teaching techniques: brainstorming, workshop, role playing, storytelling, group discussion, case study, debate and simulation. I implement several teaching approaches, which include: project-based pedagogy, educational module, group work and self-learning. I use several teaching methods outside the lecture hall, for example: assignments, projects, term papers and field/technical visit trips. I have developed homework, web-based materials, problem solving methodologies and problem solving traits. I implement several teaching technologies, which include: MOOC, Moodle and E-learning. I urge my students to contribute to the ongoing research projects to gain more scientific experience and have access to practical and experimental issues. I implement the results of the research projects in terms of cutting-edge research in teaching my students and to develop training programs for the graduate engineers to keep them linked with their college, provide them with the state-of-the-art and the scientific frontiers, and allow experience exchange and technology transfer among them. Furthermore, I have committed myself to transferring my experience to the Senior Teaching Assistants and Teaching Assistants.

For more info, please see my Teaching Philosophy:

http://scholar.cu.edu.eg/?q=samer/blog/2015/02/teaching-philosophy

http://scholar.cu.edu.eg/samer/biocv

Dear Dennis Soku,

Professionals in the field of language teaching and applied linguistics suggest use of various teaching methods and strategies. You need to reflect upon your learners academic and social needs so as to design and develop materials- However, learners' learning style should be kept at the top for the overall management of classroom teaching practice.

Students have an initiation for learning ,observation their curiosity from their childhood & we all know that our mother is greatest teacher .

In the initial primary stage teacher have a prime & high responsibility for student .It is not only the teaching & method of practice in class room but teachers should observe the behavior of student which he brings from his family ,& it is at this stage that teachers with the keen observation must find the potentiality & weakness of student especially in his temperament ,behavior & his progress of his growth.

If the student having taken care right from the parenthood & their teachers of the primary level ,must headway of the progress can be located & which becomes the lime light for the student with the passage of time.

Subsequently with the grown up student it is their responsibility with their moral code & conduct influencing the students,-classmate ,friends,& their movement in the social fabrics .

Dear Dennis,

Teachers need to diversify instruction to accommodate a wide range of student abilities and interests. There are a number of theories that have contributed to the topic. One is applying Jerome Burner’s theory of modes of learning: learning through pictures /models observing (iconic mode),  learning to think through abstract terms-spoken or written words (symbolic mode), and learning through action/hands on activities (enactive mode). Another approach is to implement Gardner’s multiple intelligences (linguistic, interpersonal, logical, musical, etc.). Overall, tt is important to understand students' preferences, the learning enviornment, and instructional resources avaiable in order to implement effective instruction.

The theories and methodologies proposed are all excellent and valuable. They provide the basis for how and why, but rarely provide particular methods.  However, in the end, I think it really just comes down to being attentive and engaging the students. This can be achieved by calling students by name, leaving the lectern and walking among the students, giving small exercises during a break, moving the chairs around, being sure that there is adequate air exchange and the the lighting is appropriate, starting the class with a guided discussion in lieu of quizzes (keeping track of who could answer questions by referring to the assigned reading on index cards), approach the lecture as explanatory and exploratory rather than presenting facts and information (they can get that from the reading). Other techniques include having students give brief presentations, leading a discussion, etc. The idea is to avoid passive lectures. This of course requires practice and extra preparation to be effective. But that's what we are paid for.

I hope this is helpful.

I do not use learning styles in my classroom. There is no literature that exists that prove they enhance learning. See the following articles - just few in a bevvy of articles and reviews that speak to this point:

Riener, C., & Willingham, D. (2010). The myth of learning styles. Change: The magazine of higher learning, 42(5), 32-35.

Dembo, M. H., & Howard, K. (2007). Advice about the use of learning styles: A major myth in education. Journal of college reading and learning, 37(2), 101-109.

Olson, J. K. (2006). The myth of catering to learning styles. Science and Children, 44(2), 56.

My doctoral student has just submitted her thesis entitled: "Exploring learning and teaching styles of mathematics at university in South Africa". You can reach her here:Sarah Coetsee she is an expert on learning styles.

You ask two questions. One about learning styles and Kimberly's answer about learning styles being a myth is not quite the whole story. Individual brains do develop with a greater capacities in every combination of  V-visualisation, A-listening and Kinaesthetic - muscle memory. Kimberly is right about long periods of teaching using only one style inhibiting the learning of some learners and favouring others. The second question is about using a transmission lecture style. This is very easy preparation for the lecturer but has the great potential to lack engagement for the learners. As suggested by Terrance it is more effective to break up the lecture in the ways he suggests to try and include elements of V,A and K in every lectures. In this way the whole working memory of all learners will be engaged, although of course this means the lecturer will have to put a bit more thought into planning the lecture.

This report from the Learning Skills and Research Centre gives a fair treatment of learning styles in my opinion. 

http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/LSRC_LearningStyles.pdf

The report paints a nuanced picture, but does highlight that little evidence exists for the effectiveness of  learning style interventions, when they are compared in terms of effect size (intervention studies tend be biased towards positive outcomes). As such I tend towards Kimberley's point of view. 

You can download a couple of my papers on the subject here on Academia. if you do not find them, email me !

It is necessary to identify what are the learner´s style. We can apply a test to identify them, and according to this select our activities to develop with our students.

Dennis: I think as  the colleague Mohammed A. Al-Nofli of the Ministry of Education of Oman that teachers need to diversify instruction to accommodate a wide range of student abilities and interests. And the importance of the implementation of Gardner’s multiple intelligences (linguistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, spacial, logical,  etc.).

This precise that is necessary the constant stimulus to the activity of the students, the individualization of their activity and the correction of their results. It is necessary to propitiate the creative thought.   

It is important to propitiate the affective feeling in the understanding of what is studied, the student it will only this way be motivated for the process of teaching learning.   

The conductism provided “programs of individualized training,   

defined by operative objectives, in those that became trained to the students, under the epigraph of technical and study methods, prescribed chains of operations, basically motórics, as rereading, to repeat, to write summaries, to carry out outlines, etc.

Best regards

There are a couple of important issues that affect how this question can be answered. The first is that there is not much independent definitive research (i.e., by researchers other than the theorists themselves) that indicates support for Learning Styles theories. There is also little, if any, research that shows any efficacy for instructors matching a “teaching style” to “learning styles.”

There is, however, extensive research that supports the notion that Active Learning (“student-centered learning”) results in overwhelmingly better learning outcomes and achievement than a lecture delivery. The point is that if classroom activity is engaging to students, provides multiple avenues for access and assessment, and includes strong elements of student-to-student, student-to-content, and student-to-instructor interactions (rather than a passive reception of information), students will learn better.

There are numerous articles and books that provide many instructional strategies for classroom Active Learning. Is it more challenging to design learning experiences for students and alternative assessments than it is to stand and talk, and then give a big test on the talk? Of course it is! But if your goal is for students to learn and apply your information, no matter what the subject area, rather than listen/regurgitate, then the effort is well worth it. Good instructional design for all student learning tops by far any deliberation about learning styles.

Yesterday I was very surprised to get 5 up-votes for my simple answer. Today I am even more surprised that I and Barbara got 2 down-votes for very simple conclusion: dictating can be the best option, but not always. I guess that this means that there are people with opposite opinion: dictating is the best option!

I have to admit that my opinion may be biased. While I am familiar with universities in several countries both for studying and teaching, these were universities where both professors and students were good. What do I mean by that? A good student has good abilities, is willing to learn and he/she respects professor. A bad student may have bad abilities and/or no interest for studying. A good professor knows his subject well, respects students and is willing to give them the best he knows and in a way that makes their studying process not over difficult but enough to understand the things they need to know. I guess that you can easily define now what do I mean by bad professor.

I think that dictating is a Nash equilibrium in the environment of bad students and bad professor, maybe even for bad students and good professor (but in the last case the quality of lectures will be higher). If students are not willing to learn and will not understand anyway, why to care?

Learning styles required to attend the 3 groups (auditory , visual and kinesthetic ) through exercises whose production is spread to cover each of the styles . Some students find in learning facilities not commonly practiced. Therefore the examples and exercises focus on covering the three styles.

The best way to know if the results are improved education , skills assessment is used in solving problems that require the use of them and compare with a traditional method used in the past and measuring changes

Learning Styles

• Perception (Sensing/Intuitive)
• Input (Visual/Verbal)
• Processing (Active/Reflective)
• Understanding (Sequential/Global)

Teaching Strategies / enabling styles

• Elaboration Strategies
• Organizational Strategies
• Critical Thinking Strategies
• Metacognitive Strategies
• Peer Learning and Help Seeking Strategies
• E-Learning Resource Management Strategies

http://www.leishman-associates.com.au/ascilite2011/downloads/papers/Alharbi-full.pdf

Teachers should take into consideration a variety of learning styles and make efforts to teach in ways that make true learning available to all students. Once teachers are familiar with these learning styles, classroom activities and study habits can be adjusted to accommodate the styles of any group of students.

Learning styles are generally divided into three basic groups. There are the auditory learners, visual learners and kinesthetic or tactile learners. In addition to these basic groups, some educational theorists also recognize verbal, logical, social and solitary as additional styles. 

What do you mean with "learning styles"? If you mean "auditive", "visual", ""haptic/motoric": just forget the question. Such styles do not exist.

You might be interested in the áttached article.

Student centred learning requires active engagement with students. Examples include question and answer, tutorials, debate, reflective inquiry, etc. Students' learning can also be strengthen with a combination of learning strategies and resources. Doing that helps in taking care of the individual differences in students.

Student learning styles should coincide with the teaching style of the lecturers. The lecturer at the very start of the teaching should scrutinize the learning taste of the students, which may depend on the theme of the subjects and the student genders. There is no unique formulation to follow up entirely. In some cases, there should be some sort of compromise between the students and the lecturer so as to cool down the confrontation that may be exerted either from students of the lecturer. That is to say to convert confrontation into mutual understanding between two parties. One way or other, is to engage students with some proper related amusement while in the classroom listening to the lectures. Grasping the attentions of the student is one of the problems to at least listen what is being lectured. One of the reasons may be due to the reluctance of student towards learning. To avoid this problem, one simple way is to crack jokes by the lecturer between the main talks in order to sweeten the lecture. 

In my way, to achieve above-said coincidence between learning and teaching, I try to crack a joke related to the subject material and some time may very common prevailing amongst the students. Another way may be to allocate some few minutes listening to their student community problems that are special to them only, that to sympathise and share their problems the way they like. 

My question goes beyond the school's perspective: Does anybody knows research about the sociocultural lifestyle, the lifestyles of different sociocultural milieus as frame for learning styles. How do you see this relation? My personal experience is that at-risk learners do have a learning habitus which is based on the way of learning in their sociocultural milieu. And this learning habitus does not get conform which the typical teacher guided instruction.             

Cedar and Willingham (2010: 32-35) assert, ‘there is no credible evidence that learning styles exist’. However, they further postulate that they have no evidence that learning styles do not exist. Doherty and Maddux (2002) state ‘no universal definition has been accepted’. Wan, et al. (2012: 314) claims that, ‘learning styles may play a role in e-learning’.

These assertions quantify the academic dilemma concerning learning styles. There are numerous affirmations supporting what one could argue, equates to anecdotal evidence on the validity of learning styles.

What part Learning styles play in learning, is the subject of much academic debate. Numerous models and questionnaires can be found in the literature, Moran (1991), states there are at least 21 different models. Fleming’s VARK Learning Styles (nd), Honey and Mumford’s four stages (1999), Grasha and Reichmann (1974) scale, Curry (1983) model – metaphor of the onion, or the more contemporary work of Jackson, (2011) on conscientious achievement, all argue that there is a body of evidence to support the validity of learning styles. This lack of empirical evidence is of little assistance, learning preferences can be established from a learner perspective, but learning styles does not essentially offer any coherent exactitude.

It can be seen that not all learners approach learning in the same way, e.g. some prefer visual images while others prefer verbal explanation. The idiom to prefer a particular mode can be quantified, as students will state such preferences. With learning styles, scientific evidence does not corroborate the assumptions for credible validation. One could hypothesise that if learners feel that a particular learning preference suits them, this in itself promotes confidence to support their learning. Grasha (1996) suggest that learning style are the ‘individual’s preferred way of learning’.

There is clearly an initial difficulty in identifying a learner's learning style in the first place. While students might indicate a preference how valid is that preference? Ask undergraduate PE students (as I do) and they are likely to reply that they are kinaesthetic learners - how do they or I (as their teacher/lecturer) know? Good teachers will provide a variety of tasks to encourage written, verbal, and physical engagement. 

I like your comment Nick ,we should provide a variety of tasks to encourage written,verbal and physical engagement for  learners.

Identifying and trying to accommodate all the possible  learning styles of children in a class is quite a task.I teach in Primary so I try to ensure that my lessons have an activity that will involve watching a video for the visual learners and an activity that will involve moving around the class and  listening or playing games for the kinaesthetic and auditory learners.

This is quite an uphill task by the way but I am sure in higher education it is even more of a challenge than I find it .

I help out adults who are diagnosed with Dyslexia late on in life. to initiate their learning style i would firstly plan a class in the first few week for a multi-sensory sessions. as time goes on, my clients over take the control the session but still complete the planned sessions what i have done for them. what they have come to me is Nicola can we do this..., then i plan the sessions around the topic they want to do. this gives them more control and improves their self-esteem and reduces the depression. hopefully i shall be doing my doctorate on my sessions in the next few years, showing how to initiate on how to develop a program with emotional and a multi-sensory sessions.

It's not clear what is meant by "learning styles" however, whatever it is that my students are doing, my goal in teaching is to be responsive.

There educational theories that assert categories for certain learning behaviors and provide guidance for targeted responses. In my experience teaching, the range of possibilities in behaviors that students present is far greater than can be neatly assigned to a category.  I'm far more interested in engaging the person in front of me, than in discovering the category to place them in, being responsive in my way of thinking involves creating the response to the student and his or her particular needs, as opposed to providing a predetermined response based on his or her category.

You can use their learning styles to determine how much multimedia to put into the PPT as discussed in my article: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264347484_How_Much_Multimedia_Should_You_Add_to_PowerPoint_Slides_When_Teaching_Online?ev=prf_pub

Also remember to accommodate for the cultural differences in learning among your students as highlighted in this paper:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263046162_One_Style_Does_Not_Fil_All_Facilitating_Cultural_Differences_in_Teaching?ev=prf_pub

best regards,

Debra

Article How Much Multimedia Should You Add to PowerPoint Slides When...

Article One Style Does Not Fit All: Facilitating Cultural Difference...

Thank you all very much for schooling me on current views on the three major learning styles (i.e. Auditory, visual and kinesthetic).

Lecturers who use multimedia in their classroom and those who effectively use the chalk or the white board indirectly address these three major learners in their classrooms (i.e. Auditory, visual and kinesthetic). But our colleagues who dictate their notes to students do not address the three main bodies of students in their classrooms, but they have stated under ‘‘specific objectives’’ of their course outlines that ‘‘at the end of the period the learner will be able to…’’. This expression gives me the impression that the lecturers’ focus is on each learner as an individual. If this is so, then his learning style is also implied. An observation has shown that students fail terribly in subjects taught by this type of teaching style. Again, broad sheets of examinations over the years have revealed that students' performance in courses taught using the dictation style were lower than performances in other subjects which used multimedia and chalk board styles. I get the impression that the theory will have to be re-visited and more work be done in this area.

I agree with Khalsa on the notion of Active Learning which puts its emphasis on student-centeredness.  Students need to be taught inductively where they have a chance to work through projects and create their own knowledge through engaging with the texts/projects. This will assist in bridging the gap between theory and practice. If students are not afforded the opportunity to practice what they have learnt, they will not be able to learn the skills associated with that theory. For an example, teaching a second language to students cannot be achieved only through teaching the rules of grammar. Communicative competency should also be included in order for students to learn a second language in context,

I teach the learning styles inventory not by lecture; rather, I have each of my physicians complete the learning style inventory.  Afterwords, I divide the floor in the classroom into four quadrants and have each physician go to the quadrant they best fit into.  They discuss how they learn with each other and then I have threm proceed to another learning style quadrant to determine how their learners interacted and so forth.  At the end, physicians find this tool useful in demonstrating how people learn differently.  This takes about an hour and a half.  The value in doing it in this fashion exposes the learner to taking the LSI, then participating in each of the quadrants and learning how everyone learns somewhat differently, applying it to their role in medical education and sharpening their knowledge and skills of the LSI.  This is extremely helpful when you are engaging learners in llearning about the LSI and demonstrating ways to adapt one's own learning style to another's learning style.

NWT Induction and Mentorship Program

https://www.ece.gov.nt.ca/files/publications/newteachers/nwtteacherinductionbinder_may2008_eng.pdf

the learning style of the student will already be in place, as the student will already be using it. i say let the student show you how they prefer to learn. i am dyslexic and i have a preferred way of learning which gets the best out of me in a session. teachers have tried other methods but to unveil they did not work and we return to the method which work best and low and behold more work and better results. you can look at research which says do this and do that but the best people to tell you are the people who suffer from the condition. if they do not know which method is suitable for them, them this is when you try different methods on them until the right method is right. a questionnaire might say they could be a one method, but they may prefer another method. don't give up.

Learning styles is not a myth but may not lead to differences in achievement of students. The findings of the study only showed that differences exist among learners but there are a few students with a strong  preference for one or the other style of learning.  All except one student was found having visual l learning style. This finding has implications for teacher to use more and visuals to support their inputs.One measure of learning style  only include sample test items to measure an ability. But the study  led me to further probe into- are there differences in the achievement at graduation level of students with varying styles of learning. The results again indicated that there were no significant differences in the achievement of students with different learning styles.

 I fully agree that   a teacher needs to actively involve students in teaching learning using variety of activities and thus cater to the needs of different learners and in turn maximize learning as per the latest connotation  attached to learning i.e constructivist theory of learning

@ Tulsi,

Great! Thank you for revisiting learning styles, your findings and recommendation. I appreciate.

It is important to understand form the onset that we all have different learning styles. The teachers/lecturers role to centralise the teaching in such a way that it caters for the majority of learners' learning style. In order to do that the teachers should try and teach a concept using different approaches, using illustrations (various forms of manipulatives if it is at foundation phase), different experiments in science to address the same concept, concrete examples, discussions, sourcing information from students to explain the concept/s in their own words, maximazing on student participation in the lesson or lecture. These are some of the many ways of addressing students' different learning styles. One point that is not addressed by most literature on learning styles and how to maximise learning in  classrooms is the essence of assessment. Different forms of assessment will appeal most effectively and enhance understating and learning to different  learning styles. The teacher/lecturer must ensure that there is variety in the assessment of concepts. This means that both instructional approaches and the assessment of concepts should be varied, engaging, challenging and appealing to as many of the learning styles in the classroom as possible.

 though not all reseach support  that there exist significant relations between learning styles and learners, there are differences apparently, which should be focused on during the process of  instructing.

Hello

Please see some publications in my profile. You may find something interesting.

Kind regards

NP

Thanks, I will.

Please see this link for more information:

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01908/full

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01908/full

Yea, that is true! However, this kind of teacher-centered methods need to be transformed to participatory kind of teaching-learning process, addressing the learning styles of the majority of students. As the saying goes, " Learning is the business learners!"

there have different between students it refer to how to respond and how to reserving the Subject i see we should use the learning style to closes(near) the Individual differences

Hi Dennis Soku, learning styles can be used as a tool to aid within the learning process of an individual. Within Further Education (FE) LPQ, are used to get a feel of the variety of different learners within the classroom. Kimberly A. Lawless &  Gurupreet Khalsa have a point, about the lack of evidence to support learning styles within the classroom or on-line learning.  But any tool, that can assist the teacher, to make learning more learner-centricity for individual then consideration should be taken in to thought.   The use of personalisation, Active Learning (“student-centered learning") as mentioned by Gurupreet, would be a good point to start looking. 

Please have a read of the following below:

structuring

http://www.umassd.edu/dss/resources/facultystaff/howtoteachandaccommodate/howtoaccommodatedifferentlearningstyles/

http://www.crlt.umich.edu/sites/default/files/resource_files/CRLT_no10.pdf

http://amle.aom.org/content/4/2/193.short

http://psi.sagepub.com/content/9/3/105.short

Hope that helps.

Rob.

As teachers we need to keep in mind students´ affective factors that influence on language learning process, and terms as scaffolding and teacher mediation are crucial to understand this process.

What I do is give them different tasks and even different evaluation option so they can freely choose the ones they feel more comfortable to work with. And since they are not imposed but chosen, I get better results from them.

You shouldn't. Learning styles are a fallacy. Provide learning experiences that expose students to a variety of media forms (which is what Learning Styles actually are about), because rich media engage learners in different ways. But really, sometimes one just have to battle your way through an article that is dense. 12 000 words of difficult, barely comprehensible  text. There is no way that  that text can be presented in a way that accommodates a "learning style".

I would really advise members to read Kirschner & Van Merrrienboer (2013): "Trying to accommodate learners with different learning styles with different methods is a waste of resources"

Dear Duan Van der Westhuizen, I don't agree with your understanding of learning styles as fallacy!

Dear Berhanu

Perhaps if you explained why, I could consider your opinion?  Is there any evidence that pedagogies that facilitate learning "accommodating" learning styles across the socalled spectrum, leads to improved student performance?  Unfortunately, "I don't agree" doesn't cut it!

I am entering this conversation a bit late. Was trained by Malcom Knowles, Jerry B. Harvey and others that tend to think that we cannot teach anyone.  However, we can create learning environments in which any one can learn.. What I often observe is the lack of presentorship on the part of the person heading up the class, be they known as a teacher, instructor, professor, etc. People gravitate to being entertained during the process. Reading a power point presentation to the audience holds very little attention.

 Organizations in business & government cultures focus too much on the process and too little on the outcome. In my experience those in the Millennial age group (18 to 33 years old, born 1981–1996 ) which tend to be the subject here, mimic practicing  adult learning styles, especially the self-directed learner, but only in areas they seem to have an interest perhaps due to peer relationships. Many of them are in college or are recent grads, and paying off heavy student debt burdens. Unfortunately, despite having the highest levels of educational attainment of any American generation, the group is falling far short of their peers in other countries.[1]

   They are relatively unattached to organized politics and religion, linked by social media, burdened by debt, distrustful of people, in no rush to marry— and optimistic about the future. They have also taken the lead in seizing on the new platforms of the digital era—the internet, mobile technology, social media—to construct personalized networks of friends, colleagues and affinity groups.[2] Millennials are also the first in the modern era to have higher levels of student loan debt, poverty and unemployment, and lower levels of wealth and personal income than their two immediate predecessor generations (Gen Xers and Boomers) had at the same stage of their life cycles.[3]

 The effort to create a learning environment for any pupil is futile unless improvement of the individual can be connected to improvement of performance.  Performance is a measure of the results achieved. Performance efficiency is the ratio between effort expended and results achieved. The difference between current performance and the theoretical performance limit is the performance improvement zone.

 Performance is an abstract concept and must be represented by concrete, measurable phenomena or events to be measured. Baseball athlete performance is abstract covering many different types of activities. Batting average is a concrete measure of a particular performance attribute for a particular game role, batting, for the game of baseball

 In the early 1970s several influential books were produced which argued that there is something particular about the way adults learn, and that research and practice in adult education should reflect these particularities. These included Houle’s ‘The design of Education’ (1972), Kidd’s ‘How Adults Learn’ (1978), and perhaps most influentially Knowles’ ‘The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species’ (Knowles 1973; Knowles et al. 1998).[i]

 While there may not be any single grand narrative that explains all the social processes involved, there are still real and tangible outcomes of adult learning in terms of encounters that can be described more or less accurately, meanings that people construct for themselves, and changes that people experience.

 Brookfield (2000) suggests one possible resolution of this which acknowledges the value of the concept of ‘lifelong learning’ (seeing learning as a continuum throughout the lifespan), but also takes into account the distinctiveness of learning in adult life in modern Western cultures.[ii]

 Although it is misleading to see adulthood as a completely separate time of life, there are some capacities that appear to be more visible in adult learners in contemporary society. These include the ability to think dialectically and contextually, moving back and forth between general and particular, objective and subjective; the ability to employ practical logic, reasoning within a particular situation in a way that springs from a deep understanding of the context of the situation and pays attention to its internal features; and an ability to become aware of how we

Know what we know and ‘learn to learn’.

 Adult learning takes place in specific social contexts, and is engaged in for specific purposes. The way learning develops is directly related to the combination of factors in these specific settings and purposes. Therefore there may not be a singular ‘right’ model of adult learning that can be applied in teaching adult literacy numeracy and other disciplines.. The important thing is to understand the particularities of the contexts and practices in which adult learners are engaged 

Gibson (2000) offers a different perspective and suggests that online learning could be the “disorienting dilemma” that triggers the transformational process. “Emerging new roles and responsibilities for members of these online learning communities call into question definitions of teachers, learners and knowledge”. (Gibson, 2000, p1) In addition, past values, beliefs, and assumptions are challenged while at the same time the learner is not only trying to master new content but also a new way to learn. Research suggests that learners can be supported through this process by the support of a sensitive instructor and limited modifications to the learning environment.

 Instructors can be supportive of this often-experienced “disorienting dilemma” in several ways. For example, it is important for the instructor to have the syllabus and schedule completely prepared before the start of the class (Dennen, 2002). The syllabus provides students with a structure for the course and explains the teacher’s expectations. (Muirhead, 2002) In addition, an effective instructor writes with good online tone (friendly, polite and professional) and should consistently respond to students’ questions in a timely manner. (Dennen, 2002)[iii]  [iv]

 Myth: Education and Learning is Primarily Done in the Classroom 

Perception:  Because students traditionally have done most of their learning in classrooms and teachers have been trained in a lecture-centric model, even with blended learning, classrooms are where most learning should occur.

Reality: Interactive, collaborative technologies enable education to transcend traditional brick- and-mortar classrooms and exist just about anywhere students (and educators) can work together. AgLearn has been somewhat successful in this area.  These encounters can occur in the cloud,[v] in a course management system or via chat. They also can cross state and national boundaries, linking students from different cultures and parts of the world. Moreover, courses can be shared more easily when there aren’t local resources available — even just across town. A school could expand its curriculum or at least supplement classes with those being offered nearby without requiring buses or other transport. This allows districts to supplement classroom learning with rich and varied experiences. When this works well, the teacher is still the leader and coach, but the learning takes place on a broader playing field in an individualized student fire. The value of the cloud in addressing the trends of mobile, social, and data is in delivering experiences that appeal directly to your employees and partners, allowing them to drive maximum productivity. The cloud enables this regardless of location or device—leading to higher user adoption and improved productivity with lower training cost in a student friendly environment

There are also generational learning differences and differences in how adult learners learn. {Malcolm Knowles}.  In current educational systems (schools, corporate business) Neither group is fully addressed

.   “Humans have spent millennia trying to discover the proper way to educate another human and to this day…there still is no one right way.” This is in part because of adult learning styles and lack of creation of learning environments to match those styles. 

“Would you rather have your teenager in sex education or sex training?” (Knowledge vs. performance.) Most would prefer sex education because they aren’t trying to teach anyone to be good at sex in fact, they’d rather you didn’t do it at all. So maybe education is a good term to use when you don’t want someone to able to do something with the information you present. Learning at Light Speed Weblog News about fast learning

 1.) Being burned by a match is learning. Put your finger in the flame and you get painfully burnt (real results)

2.) Sitting in the classroom is an education.  Lecture -Charcoal, salt peter and sulfur when combined with friction and oxygen burst into flame (rationale of science behind the result)

3.) Being taught a repetitive task is training. Take the match, place head against rough surface, strike and it ignites. Repeat  (the how to)

[1] Aimee Picchi/ MoneyWatch/ March 13, 2015, America's Millennials: Well educated but unskilled

[2]. March 7, 2014 PEW Report Millennials in Adulthood Detached from Institutions, Networked with Friends This report focuses on Millennial adults. However, the youngest Millennials are in their teens and no chronological end point has been set for this group yet. ↩

[3].On other measures of economic well-being such as personal earnings and household income, Millennials do not appear to be doing worse—and in some cases are doing somewhat better—than earlier generations. See Pew Research Center, “The Rising Cost of Not Going to College,” February 11, 2014.

[i] Models of adult learning: a literature review

[ii] Fidishun, Dolores (2000). Andragogy and Technology: Integrating Adult Learning Theory As We Teach With Technology

[iii] Dennen, V. (2002). Supporting Online Instructors’ Pedagogical Needs. Virtual University. Teachers College, Columbia University

[iv] Muirhead, B. (2002). Enhancing Interactivity in Online Graduate Classes. Virtual University. Teachers College, Columbia University.

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Your question contains a truth and a fallacy.

It is true that reading lecture notes to students is an inefficient method of teaching because it is a receptive mode of learning only reaching a limited range of the powers in working memory to mull over the messages to construct an individual understanding. Working memory (search Baddeley working memory) has a oral capacity or inner voice, a visuospatial capacity or mind's eye, as well as links through the episodic buffer to banks of previous experience including kinaesthetic. So a lecture style mainly focusses on the oral capacity and totally ignores the kinaesthetic.

The concept of a learning style is the fallacy as we all learn through the 3 capacities of working memory although due to genetics and experiences in life, one of the capacities may have become more efficient and resilient in processing information but optimal learning requires the use of all three simultaneously.

So Kimberly perhaps you do stand corrected? You decide.

I like the insightful and considered responses here. Kirschner and Van Merrienboer identifies three urban myths in Education. The first has to do with the classification of learners (wherever they are along the continuum of life-long learning). Whereas I'm pretty sure that lots of quantitative data may support Samuel's views on the differences between generations, that may only hold true for the US, and then only to some extent. Certainly it's been shown that Prensky's "digital natives" simply don't exist universally. Certainly in my country (South Africa), the inequality in society means that I as a white 50 year old man is much more of a (digital) native than the average black kid. Some countries offer free higher education, and students are nor burdened by the kinds of debt that you are speaking of. In yet other countries students are very much involved in politics. I think my point is: Yes, good points, but ... it is contextual. 

In the circles where I move there is not much time spent on Knowels's andragogical theories. We speak of Adult learning, yet another contentious concept.  

To me, the greatest work in education that needs to take place is the alignment of  pedagogy and assessment practices. There seems to a continued practice that teaching is about information transfer, and assessment benchmarks how well transfer took place. I would like to side with Bruner, and the concept of "learning to be: Learning to be” requires “that the practices of the knowledge domain (discipline or profession), which include the dispositions, attributes, competencies, activities, skills, procedures and values of the knowledge domain, and how to best utilise the conceptual frameworks of the domain to identify and solve problems or address “real-life” issues” are targeted. I now paste directly from a slide of a conference presentation that I made:

• We need pedagogical liberation
• We need to abandon fundamentalist views on teaching
• the transmission model is ill-equipped to teach creativity, critical thinking and innovation
• From knowledge exchange to knowledge creation
• Engagement with Authentic learning and assessment
• Teaching should be seen as learning activity design

Unfortunately, the use of Technology in teaching and learning and assessment seems to mostly mimic transmission approaches. As Gibbs said: "There is far more lecturing going on than can reasonably be justified by the evidence concerning the efficiency of lectures , especially bearing in mind the nature of the educational goals we claim to be striving for"  

I am some agreement with Daun about traditional teaching.

 What I do in what I call presentations as opposed to “teaching”  is all about creating environments in which students can make their own “a ha moments” which becomes an individual  learning for them not a teaching. I am about creating learning environments.

 Susan asked: How do you implement students’ learning styles in your teaching?

My approach is all about creating the environment and understanding my audience. Whether veterinary medical professionals, technicians, students (I was the Veterinary Technician Program Director at UN-L some years ago responsible for re-accreditation of the program) or my 4-H, Explorer post high school students. What are the common denominators, life experiences, level of competence and language, and what elements grab the attention of all four learning styles, Malcom Knowles described.

 One of my mentors was Jerry Harvey. In His paper: Learning to Not Teach by Jerry B. Harvey The George Washington University. One of the most important skills I have learned as a university professor is how to not teach. Published in: Journal of Management Education · 1979  presents several concepts I embrace. Several of his points have remained with me:

•  Teachers require learners in order to survive but that learners don't require teachers.
• I won't be responsible for what they learn or whether they learn it

In a learning environment, students either "make it big" or "fail miserably." In a teaching environment, most people fall into the middle (Some say that their performances form a bell-shaped curve. )I have concluded that well-shaped distributions of performance in academia are artifacts of an environment in which teaching is stressed. In a learning environment, performance is generally bimodally skewed, with most persons performing very well, a few performing very badly, and almost none falling in the middle.

Although I am more anxious in a learning environment, I also have a lot more fun. More events in the classroom are genuinely funny.

The more I learn, the more I enjoy competence. The less I teach, the more I experience competence in myself and others. I love to be around competent people because I learn a lot from them and I'm more competent in their presence.

So for me, I approach presentations as entertaining events, often in changing and challenging settings, real visuals and visuals created in one’s mind as in reading a novel. I use music, audience interaction, questioning and voting- they have so much to share. I insert stories about the points on the power point- but never read the power point to the audience (hey they can read and are usually way ahead of the presenter anyway). I often use anecdotal stories from my own experience to personalize the learning experience.  I use exercises that are designed to have multiple levels and have done so in meetings with over 500 attendees. For Example: Level one might be to solve a problem or form an opinion starting in small groups –combining groups until down to a few groups which present their answers to the entire audience. (of course there may not be a right answer). Level two is to make the group aware of the dynamics they experienced throughout the process. The dynamics presented the learning environment. The knowledge content became part of the experience which makes it real to the individual learner.  Classic Example: The Drawbridge Exercise … On the surface a problem solving situation, underneath a consensus exercise and going further the discovery of all the elements that make up getting to a consensus can be explored using the events that just occurred in which the learners participated actively. And, learning styles are also exhibited in so doing.  Often called an ice breaker, it can be transformed into a much more in-depth experience not as an ice breaker but a design for passage of knowledge for which the learner is responsible and gains competency.

Sorry I cannot give a long response here. Many thanks to all those who did - I have enjoyed reading all of your thoughts on this topic.

My own 'take' on learning styles is that they are useful reminders to teachers that classes are not like Nero's idea of the proletariat (one head) but they consist of a  varied and differently talented group all idiosyncratic in their ways of approaching learning.  

The logical concomitant of this is that we have to get outside our own preferred styles if such exist and manage teaching and learning so that all students can enjoy the experience.  I use the word enjoy deliberately, because learning experiences without joy in its widest sense probably do not last..