learning-styles

Differing definitions and models of pedagogy
Within the general literature of education, definitions
of pedagogy abound, but they can be placed on
a continuum, from definitions which concentrate
narrowly on teaching techniques to those which deal
with broader issues such as the significance of culture,
power, social structure and identity. The treatment
of pedagogy in the learning styles literature leans
heavily towards psychological rather than sociological
definitions of the term. For example, when Kolb,
a psychologist, is discussing the implications of his
research for ‘training design’, he envisages the following
four roles for the teacher, whom he prefers to call
the ‘facilitator’ – communicator of information,
guide or taskmaster, coach or helper, and role model
(2000, 17). Zukas and Malcolm (2002), who are
both adult educators working within a different
paradigm, identified in the literature the five pedagogic
roles of assurer of quality and efficiency, facilitator
of learning, reflective practitioner, critical practitioner
and situated learner within a community of practice.
It is fascinating that, when both are discussing the main
identities of the teacher, the two approaches have only
one role in common, namely, the facilitation of learning.
Rather surprisingly, Simon was content to use
The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of pedagogy
as ‘the science of teaching’ (1999, 39), which suggests
a concern to establish the general principles of teaching
and learning. But for adult educators such as Zukas
and Malcolm (2002, 215), pedagogy is not primarily
concerned with a well-developed repertoire of teaching
skills, but with:
a critical understanding of the social, policy and
institutional context, as well as a critical approach
to the content and process of the educational/training
transaction … the most important elements of pedagogy
are the relations between educator, student and
institution, the social context, purpose and ethical
implications of educational work, and the nature
and social role of educational knowledge
Leach and Moon (1999, 268), clearly influenced
by Lave and Wenger (1991), go further in arguing that
pedagogy should be concerned with the construction
and practice of learning communities:
Pedagogy is more than the accumulation of techniques
and strategies: arranging a classroom, formulating
questions, developing explanations, creating
a curriculum. It is informed by a view of mind, of learning
and learners, of the kind of knowledge that is valued
and above all by the educational outcomes that
are desired.
The literature is replete, however, not only with
different definitions, but also with a variety of models
of pedagogy and approaches to it. The range extends
from those adopted by cognitive psychology (eg Eggen
and Kauchak 2001), to sociology (Bernstein 1996),
workplace learning (Fuller and Unwin 2002) and adult
education (Boud 1989). Teachers, tutors and managers
working in the post-16 sector are likely to have been
influenced to varying degrees by these different
traditions, research interests, theoretical frameworks
and languages; and yet these are the groups which
remain to be convinced that learning styles have
important implications for their pedagogy. In the
absence of an explicit, coherent and agreed theory
of pedagogy, any attempt to convince practitioners
of the usefulness of learning styles will have to take
account of these conflicting and implicit traditions
in different sectors within post-16 learning.
This report is not, however, the place to provide
either an introduction to the vast literature on teaching
and learning in the post-16 sector or a detailed
explanation of all the various traditions within pedagogy
in the UK which have relevance for post-16 learning.
That would amount to another research project, which
would examine the history, the theory, the practice
and the current status of humanistic pedagogy, critical
pedagogy and andragogy (the teaching of adults),
to mention but three. Instead, we outline briefly two
significant contributions: one from psychology (that
of Jerome Bruner) and one from sociology (that of Basil
Bernstein), which have yet to be integrated into one
comprehensive socio-psychological theory of pedagogy.
Bruner’s (1996) main argument is that educational
reform necessarily involves changing the folk
pedagogical theories of not just teachers, but also
of students. The significance of Bruner’s contribution
is that he shifts the focus from different types
of learning style to four alternative models of the minds
of learners. To Bruner, it matters profoundly whether
teachers see students as either empty receptacles
to be filled with propositional knowledge; or as
apprentices in thinking who acquire ‘know-how’ through
imitation; or as sophisticated knowers who grasp the
distinction between personal and objective knowledge;
or as collaborative thinkers who can learn through
participation how their own and other people’s minds
work. Bruner wants all ‘four perspectives to be fused
into some congruent unity’ and wants all teachers
and students to become more metacognitive,
to be as aware of how they go about teaching and
learning as they are about the subject matter. In his
own words, improvements in pedagogy are predicated
on teachers and students understanding the minds
of learners and on ‘getting teachers (and students)
to think explicitly about their folk psychological
assumptions, in order to bring them out of the shadows
of tacit knowledge’ (1996, 47; original emphasis).
A pressing issue for this review is whether it would
be more beneficial for the quality of learning in the
post-compulsory sector to recommend that Bruner’s
advice be followed rather than administering a learning
styles instrument to a group of students and then
discussing the outcomes with them.