learning-styles

Our recommendation in favour of increased
self-awareness should not, however, be interpreted
as support for more individualised instruction, as
Kolb (1984) has argued. The benefits of individualised
teaching are often greatly exaggerated, although many
teachers will admit that it is extremely difficult to ensure
that learners are benefiting from specially tailored
approaches when there is a large class to manage.
In a synthesis of 630 studies, Hattie (1992) found
an average effect size of only 0.14 for individualised
teaching in schools. This trivial result strongly suggests
that in general, it is not a good use of teacher time
to try to set up, monitor and support individual learning
programmes where there are large groups to deal with.
It should be noted that the potential of ICT to support
individualised instruction has not been fully evaluated.
However, the key point is that individualised instruction
is not likely to work if it means more unsupported
individual learning. Whether or not skilled individual
or small-group teaching support can improve the
situation is an unanswered question, but the near
zero mean effect size for team teaching (also reported
by Hattie) does not provide grounds for optimism.
Within post-16 learning, the extent to which tutors can
offer individualised programmes varies considerably.
Individualisation is both more appropriate and easier
to organise, for example, in an evening class on tailoring
than in an A-level history class.
A lexicon of learning for dialogue
On the grounds of robustness and ecological validity,
we recommend that the concepts, developed by
Entwistle (Section 7.1) and others, of deep, surface
and strategic approaches to learning, and by Vermunt
(Section 7.2) of meaning-directed, application-directed
and reproduction-directed learning styles, be adopted
for general use in post-16 learning rather than any of the
other competing languages. It needs to be remembered,
however, that the instruments were designed for
university students and need to be redesigned to fit
the extremely wide range of contexts within post-16
learning. The potential and pitfalls of creating
a dialogue with students about, say, the implications
of adopting a surface approach to learning have
been discussed in detail in Section 8. Here we
simply want to reiterate that the tutors/trainers who
involve their students/staff in dialogue need to be
knowledgeable about the strengths and limitations
of the model they are using; to be aware of the dangers
of labelling and discrimination; and to be prepared
to respect the views of students who may well resist
any attempts to change their preferred learning style.
In a project designed to put the concepts of ‘teaching
thinking’ and ‘metacognitive awareness’ into practice,
Leat and Lin (2003) found that having a language
to describe the new pedagogy and specific roles for
teachers to experiment with were critical to success.
If this recommendation is adopted, some formidable
barriers will need to be overcome; for example,
ACE tutors, work-based trainers and college lecturers
will need a different form of initial teacher training
and staff development to enable them to explore
critically the more promising models and instruments.
Similarly, middle and senior managers throughout the
learning and skills sector will need a critical
understanding of learning styles and how dialogue
about learning between tutors and students can lead
to wider institutional change. Management skills need
to be expanded from an understandable concentration
on finance and accountability to embrace a critical
understanding of the central role of teaching and
learning in the reform of post-16 education and training.
Pedagogy on its own is not enough
Both McCarthy (1990) and Entwistle and Walker (2000)
have spotted the potential of learning styles to act
as an agent for broader change. Open-ended dialogue
between tutor and students may begin by identifying
forms of support such as courses on study skills
and, with a tutor alive to the possibilities of growth,
it should lead on to a discussion of the curriculum and
assessment. If this in turn encourages tutors to discuss
among themselves how they can improve students’
approaches to learning, then the door is open for
course teams, initial teacher trainers and continuing
professional developers to use the topic of learning
as a springboard for broader cultural change within the
organisation. What may begin as a concern to respond
more appropriately to variation in patterns of students’
learning may provoke a re-assessment of the goals
of education or training, the purposes of assessment
and the relevance of certain aspects of the curriculum.
If learning styles are to be used to improve practice,
we recommend that they are employed in the hope
that an exploration of pedagogy may well usher
in far-reaching change. As Leat and Lin comment
(2003, 410): ‘as teachers become more confident in
their practice so they are more likely to demand access
to school policies and procedures’.
The positive recommendation we are making is that
a discussion of learning styles may prove to be the
catalyst for individual, organisational or even systemic
change. We also want, however, to stress the limitations
of an approach which may restrict itself to changes
in teaching techniques; for, as Lave and Wenger
(1991, 100) have argued, the most fundamental
problems of education are not pedagogical:
Above all, they have to do with the ways in which the
community of adults reproduces itself, with the places
that newcomers can or cannot find in such communities,
and with relations that can or cannot be established
between these newcomers and the cultural and political
life of the community.