My View on the Learning Styles Debate

The previous post included a You Tube video of Doctor Daniel T Willingham on the learning styles debate. A lot of what Doctor Willingham says certainly stacks up, particularly the comments on the lack of any emperical research demonstrating how learning styles improve student learning outcomes.

However, there is plenty of hard evidence on the engagement of students.  I strongly believe that a varied teaching programme, in which the teacher uses many approaches, will be more interesting and engaging to students.  My fear is that research by the likes of Doctor Willingham could lead to teachers approaching a one size fits all teaching methodology, thus taking some of the fun out of the classroom.  This could possibly lead to some students becoming less engaged and, in turn, achieving less.