Learning Styles - the Debate

I got into a little debate on one of the discussion boards this past week.  The debate revolved around whether or not there was evidence to support the notion of learning styles.  I fall onto the side that believes everyone has a particular learning style that they are partial too.  I am not of the belief however that we have to cater to just that learning style for that student (this is where I part ways with those who believe in complete learner centred schooling).  I think that can be dangerous and promote the glorified sense of entitlement that has become a prevalent issue amongst today's youth and young adults.  That aside, I found it interesting that shortly after engaging in this debate, this topic came up in our readings.  Chapter 11 of the Oliva and Gordon text discuss Styles of Learning on pp. 275-277.  They recognise that some students are more audiory, others are visual, some are kinethetic.  It is important for teachers to recognise that these differences exist and that our students need to have information presented to them in a variety of ways and teaching styles.

How I have seen this in practice has been pretty remarkable.  There is one boy I am thinking of in particular who is 'full of beans'.  He has so much energy.  Traditional school is not made for him.  He is constantly moving.  He has a lot of difficulty focussing in, he is easily distracted.  Then one day our activity involved cutting different describing words out and matching them to different characters of a story.  I had never seen this child so engaged!  He was so completely focussed it blew me away.  How could this be the same boy?  And it dawned on me.  He's kinesthetic.  He soaks up these experiences and learns this way.  Visual and auditory just didn't work for him.  While I can't make every lesson kinestheic, I certainly made sure that I had more of them as the year progressed.

Now, I know that one example does not make up a study.  I used this example as a recent example of how I have seen evidence of learning styles mattering in the education of a child.  There have been many, many other students that I have taught that I could have used as an example too.  It just hits home to me how important it is that we know our students and find out what is going to engage them, and how going about engaging them is going to work best.