Learning Styles in the Age of Differentiated Instruction

Abstract

The concept of learning styles has tremendous logical and intuitive appeal, and educators' desire to focus on learning styles is understandable. Recently, a growing emphasis on differentiated instruction may have further increased teachers' tendency to look at learning styles as an instructionally relevant variable when individualizing instruction in increasingly heterogeneous classrooms. We discuss the overlapping concepts of individualized instruction and differentiated instruction, briefly review the evidence base for learning styles, and argue that instruction should indeed be individualized and differentiated. We conclude that there is insufficient evidence, however, to support learning styles as an instructionally useful concept when planning and delivering appropriately individualized and differentiated instruction. The idea that people learn things differently has tremendous intuitive appeal. It is not difficult to argue, for example, that among the myriad skills people master over their lifespan, some things are learned more quickly than others, skills are mastered with greatly varying amounts of practice, and the acquisition of some skills demands different types and levels of instruction and support. Moreover, different people learn to read, write, solve mathematical computation problems, hit a baseball, and bake a cake to hugely discrepant levels of success or mastery. An understandable outgrowth of this generally accepted logic is that humans must have some discernible way or method of acquiring information or mastering skills that suits them best: a learning style. In education, there has been no shortage of controversy about learning styles, with fundamental questions centering on quite basic issues. Do learning styles exist? Can learning styles be assessed and established reliably? If so, does the assessment of learning styles lead to instruction that serves students better? A huge volume of literature appeared in the late 1970s through the 1990s regarding learning styles, with much of the literature focused on debate about whether science supports the construct and its utility for educators. More recently, the notion of learning styles has received perhaps unintended attention as the concept of differentiated instruction has become a mantra for schools and classrooms nationwide. Differentiated instruction, broadly defined as "varying

Factors in Instructional Decision-Making, Ratings of Evidence and Intended Instructional Practices of Australian Final Year Teacher Education Students

“…Although learning styles instruction (0.41) was close to the hinge point, Hattie (2009) was critical of procedures and interpretation in many of the meta-analyses. Further, several other reviewers (Kavale & Forness, 1999;Landrum & McDuffie, 2010;Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, & Bjork, 2008) have failed to find convincing evidence to support the use of learning styles in education and consequently it was classified as a non evidence-based practice for the purposes of this study. In addition, the concept of multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1993) appears to be widely discussed in education but was not examined by Hattie.…”

Flexible Grouping as a Means for Classroom Management in a Heterogeneous Classroom

“…Despite the disagreement over whether learning styles are an appropriate means to individualize classroom instruction (Landrum & McDuffie, 2010), they seem to be suitable for classroom management in a heterogeneous classroom. It has to be noted, however, that the studied group was culturally rather homogeneous; heterogeneous here refers only to a group with both general education and special education pupils.…”

“…Although research in the field of learning styles has yielded mixed results (see Romanelli et al, 2009), there is no doubt that individual differences in learning exist (Riding & Sadler-Smith, 1997;Smith, 2002). However, the issue of whether or not learning styles are an appropriate means to individualize classroom instruction has also been raised (Landrum & McDuffie, 2010).…”

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words: A Phenomenological Study of Misconceptions of Grade 7 Mathematics Teachers on Differentiated Instruction in the Philippines

“…They provide flexible grouping of students (George, 2005) by interest and different levels of learning modalities (Manning, Stanford, & Reeves, 2010); various learning opportunities based on students' readiness levels, interests, and their learning profiles (Landrum & McDuffie, 2010;Cobb, 2010); and guided learning activities to match students' abilities and skills (Dalhouse et al, 2009). …”

“…Tomlinson (2005) suggested that it is necessary for teachers to provide various opportunities in accomplishing specified goals, so that each learner can progress to the highest degree possible. Teachers utilizing DI make use of strategies that address students' strengths, interests, skills, and readiness in flexible learning environments (Landrum & McDuffie, 2010).…”