Learning Styles: Fact and Fiction

Buff, Derek. “Learning Styles: Fact and Fiction- A Conference Report”.

Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. 28 Jan. 2011.

https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/2011/01/learning-styles-fact-and-fiction-a-conference-report/

This article reviewed keynote speaker Linda Nilson’s presentation at the Lilly Conference on College Teaching in 2011. In her presentation, Nilson, argued against the use of the matching hypothesis, and instead pointed us to the use of the Felder Silverman Model. Nilson, like the author of the last article I reviewed, argued that the matching hypothesis proved useless in the classroom as it has very little predictive validity. Although a student may prefer to learn visually, that does not necessarily mean that they will learn better this way. Nilson instead suggests that we should focus on four cognitive processes; active vs. reflective, sensing vs. intuitive, visual vs. verbal, and sequential vs. global. Rather than predicting how a student will learn best, these cognitive processes focus more on how they will approach learning activities. Throughout the article, Buff draws on Willingham and Peshler, the main reference of my previously reviewed article, as resources to back his own beliefs. Buff, like Willingham, Peshler, and now Nilson believes that learning is best approached through a variety of the three learning styles. He uses his study abroad experience in Ireland as an example, explaining that he could not have learned the history of Ireland through one medium. In order to fully understand the concept, he not only needed the textbook, but also a film, and field trips. One medium would not have brought his complete understanding to fruition. I think that as a group we could do a lot with this article. The article references so many authors we have already encountered in our research, as well as provides a link to the keynote speaker, Linda Nilson’s slideshow. At the end of the article, Buff even threw in a link to a funny piece about “nasal learners”. Although we could not possibly use it in our research, it could really get a laugh during our presentation, and maybe even help to prove our point as to why the learning styles theory does not work!