Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Believe it or not, "learning styles" don't exist

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Sure, let's revisit this old debate and its one-note protagonist, Daniel Willingham. Here's my (definitive) response: The research doesn't tell us that learning styles don't exist, it tells us that differentiated instruction based on learning styles does not significantly improve educational outcomes. These are two completely different theses the conflation of which presumes a specific instructivist educational methodology based on content delivery rather than individual learning and learning experiences. That's why most people's intuitions conflict with this conclusion; most people learn by experience, not by being taught specific content in a classroom, and the nature of experience varies according to the individual.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 22, 2024 8:34 p.m.

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