Mythbusters Educator Edition: Learning Styles

The realm of Education has been long filled with the "newest and greatest" fads, gimmicks and methods. One of the many fads has related to student learning styles. Scientists proposed that students either exhibited one of the three learning styles: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Learning styles relates to how a student learns best. Students who exhibit the learning styles learn best by listening, seeing and doing, respectively. These are all how students learn best and as teachers we are supposed to work with the students to make the best learning take place. Many educators around the nation have students take tests which state which learning style they are. I remember taking numerous test such as these in high school "to know myself as a learner". Researchers have debunked these based on the lack of evidence and I agree.  

The first article that I found which debunk learning styles was found on Mind/Shift. The website states that the scientific research on learning styles is so weak and unconvincing and it is not justify incorporating learning style assessments into general education practices. In other words, students and educators should focus on other ideals, such as having students see information in a variety of formats. For example, flash cards, where students see the information in a pictorial and verbal format. Another article stated that leading experts believe the learning styles myth is not just a misconception but likely causing harm to students. The learning styles approach encourages teachers to teach students' according tho their intellectual strengths rather than their weaknesses In reality, students need to correct and compensate for their shortcomings, not avoid them. 

I do not think that learning styles are true. I myself learn using all three of these "styles". It is an educators job to tap into students ability and stretch their ability to learn in a variety of formats. As a future educator, I am responsible for knowing which education "fads, gimmicks and methods are worth wild. 


Sources:

1. Association for Psychological Science. "Education: Learning styles debunked." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 December 2009. .
2. http://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/
3. http://www.wired.com/2015/01/need-know-learning-styles-myth-two-minutes/
4. http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/04/13/do-students-have-different-learning-styles/

Need for Policy

In order to keep the Nation's students safe, the government and school policies regarding technology need to work cooperatively. Schools need to check with government agencies to find domain names and URLS of sites with inappropriate content(adult, mature, violence, non-academic, etc) and create or find security programs to block access to said sites. Schools should also invest in developing or finding a program in which alerts them when this content is accessed. 

Schools also need to invest time into teaching their students how to properly safe use the Internet inside and outside of school. Students are already aware of the benefit technology has to their learning, however, are uneducated about the risks careless searching and misuse of how technology can harm them later. The harms can include, but are not limited to, copyright laws, identity theft, pornography, etc. 

Schools need to be a safe place for students to go. School officials need to be aware of threats being made online to schools. It is imperative officials find programs in which certain key words can be searched to find if any material or content matches said key words. With recent school-shootings or violence in mind, it is important for school officials to take threats seriously whether technology is or is not involved. If/when I have children of my own, I do not see myself sending them to school if death threats have been made at their school. Death threats...and technology need to be taking seriously!