No Such Thing As Learning Styles

I an previous post (Billions of Intelligences? --Brain Rules Chapter 3)
I discussed developmental molecular biologist and research consultant John Medina's theory that types of intelligences are not limited to the 7 made famous by Howard Garndner. Further, intelligences are not limited to many others that have recently been described in the popular literature of education and business, i.e, Emotional, Social, etc.

According to Medina, there are in fact billions of intelligences. Each person having their own unique intelligence. As I previously wrote...

Okay, so we know Howard Gardner’s theory on multiple intelligences. Gardner believes that there are at least 7 categories of intelligence: intrapersonal, interpersonal, musical/rhythmic, bodily/kinesthetic, verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, and spatial. If you are good at one there is no way to tell if you will be good or bad at any of the others. So this is the view of the theorist.

The neurosurgeon has a theory too. Instead of 7 intelligences, the neurosurgeon believes in there may be billions. In other words, one intelligence for each person on the planet.

Several intelligences vs. Billions?  How does that impact education? Your lesson plans have to account for not just 7 intelligences or learning styles, but one for each of your students.

“…because on two brains are wired identically. Not in terms of structure. Not in terms of function. For example, from nouns to verbs to aspects of grammar, we each store language in different areas, recruiting different regions for different components. Bilingual people don’t even store their Spanish and their English in the similar places.”

In another previous post (Intelligences, Intelligences, and More Intelligences)
I wrote...

Intelligence is a buzzword these days. I came across this quote from Karl Albrecht in his new book Practical Intelligence.

“These ‘intelligences’ are now becoming increasingly familiar in the conversation of the popular culture. There is talk of ‘spiritual intelligence, ‘moral intelligence,’ and ‘emotional intelligence.’ In the business world it’s ‘executive intelligence’ and ‘organizational intelligence.’ In pop literature, there is ‘sexual intelligence.’ I suppose we’ll eventually hear about ‘financial intelligence,’ ‘real estate intelligence,’ and ‘gardening intelligence.’"  

Doug Belshaw posted this great video which explains that the theory or certain learning styles is most likely wrong, at least viewed from the cognitive psychology or neuroscience perspective. It is loaded with some very interesting examples. Please take a moment to watch. It is well worth it.
As Doug points out, "good  teaching is good teaching."

Comments

[Stephan]

Great points are made. As an instructor in higher education, I can say that the concept of learning style has turned into nothing more than an excuse. Some students are fond of saying "that's not my learning style" when they fail to meet curriculum requirements. It is really nothing more than a transference of blame.

Ask a student to clarify what their learning style actually is, of course they cannot quantify it and you receive something which simply attempts to promote convenience (for them).