Learning Styles—Making Too Many “Wrong Mistakes”: A Response to Castro and Peck

An exploratory trial exploring the use of a multiple intelligences teaching approach (MITA) for teaching clinical skills to first year undergraduate nursing students

“…A further reason is that learning styles can evolve over time, which can 37 lead to inconsistencies into their measurement (Coffield et al 2004;Rayner 2007). It is further argued that learning style advocates fail to recognise the students' aptitude / ability and confuse it with their style (preference) (Sparks 2006 In an attempt to identify nursing students' learning style preferences, Rassool and Rawaf (2008) carried out an exploratory study in south-west London, UK, with a group of second year nursing students (n=110) undertaking the mental health branch of RN education. All students completed the learning style questionnaire (LSQ) (Honey & Mumford 2000) as a baseline assessment.…”

Learning Styles—How Making Too Many “Wrong Mistakes” Is the Right Thing to Do: A Response to Sparks

“…We further believe that, although research and validation efforts should be ongoing, if the individual diagnosis is comprehensive and discerning, and if all the safeguards we recommend are in place, the use of the MLAT to aid in determining if a student has a FLLD is both ethical and appropriate. (p. 175) FALL 2006 Conclusions and Further Research Sparks (2006) has commented that there are many different reasons, besides learning styles, for students to do poorly in foreign language classes and we agree wholeheartedly. We only have to add that the same is true for learning difficulties.…”

“…What is under discussion is if matching teaching with learning modalities is a worthwhile endeavor; that is, does this matching produce any noticeable effects in learning? Sparks (2006) referred to Willingham (2005) and his emphasis in teaching to the content's best modality as opposed to matching the teaching with learning styles. Part of Willingham's theory is based on the notion that memory is stored independent of any modality.…”

“…The MLAT (Carroll & I Sapon, 1959) was originally designed to test the ability to learn foreign languages and it has been used to try to ascertain language specific problems. Sparks (2006) has claimed that we made unsupported assumptions about the MLAT. In the program where our research was conducted, the MLAT is used as part of an assessment battery and it is in no way the only measure used to evaluate and accommodate students.…”

The Effects of Learning-Style Based Activities on Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills and Self-Efficacy Perceptions in English Foreign Language Classes

“…According to their review, teachers should pay attention to the modality in which they present new material. In a similar vein, Sparks (2006) claims that identifying students' learning styles and matching instruction with styles does not improve learning in foreign language classes and argues that learning style models confuse ability with style.…”