Seb Schmoller sends me a couple links from an old newsletter of his on learning styles. I had linked to one of them - Coffield, et.al. on Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning : A systematic and critical review - in 2008, but the link has since gone dead. So last week I uploaded a copy of the report to my own website. The other is to a shorter and more accessible review, Should we be using learning styles?: What research has to say to practice. The upshot of the reports is that learning styles inventories are not to be trusted. That's still pretty much the state of play today.
That does not mean an end to differentiated learning - indeed, another link Schmoller sent in the same email sends me to a coruscating work on the potential to achieve breakthroughs in adult learning with technology. It's worth a look. You'll encounter many of the topics discussed in this newsletter. For example, new technologies support "increasingly immersive, engaging and personalised learning experiences, counteracting the rather poor reputation of much current e-learning content," and funding priorities should, among other things, "harness computers to support individualised and differentiated learning" through "projects for the design, development and delivery of a large-scale, open, online course to develop the knowledge and skills of learning professionals" and "projects that support the development of peer assessment systems that enable learners to provide structured feedback and support to other students."
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