learning-styles

It may be argued that it is important to provide for all
types of learning style in a balanced way during a course
of study in order to improve the learning outcomes
of all students. Yet the problem remains: which model
of learning styles to choose? Many courses in further
and adult education are short or part-time, making the
choice more difficult still.
This particular example reinforces our argument
about the need for any pedagogical innovation
to take account of the very different contexts of post-16
learning. These contextual factors include resources
for staff development and the need for high levels
of professional competence if teachers are to respond
to individual learning styles. Other pressures arise
from narrow ideas about ‘best practice’, the nature
of the teaching profession (so many part-timers) and
the limited opportunities for discussing learning in
post-16 initial teacher education programmes.
We also wish to stress that pedagogy should not be
separated from a deeper understanding of motivation
and from the differing values and beliefs about
learning held by staff within the various traditions
in further and adult education and work-based learning.
For example, if teachers and students regard education
as being primarily about the accumulation of human
capital and the gaining of qualifications, they are more
likely to employ surface learning as a way of getting
through the assessment requirements as painlessly
as possible. Moreover, the way that staff in schools,
further education and higher education teach and
assess the curriculum may be encouraging ‘surface’
or ‘strategic’ rather than ‘deep’ learning.
The tentative conclusion from some researchers
(eg Boyle et al. 2003; Desmedt et al. 2003) is that
while the dominant pedagogy in higher education
with its emphasis on analytic processes is encouraging
‘surface’ or ‘strategic’ learning, and while tutors
commend ‘deep learning’ but at the same time
spoon-feed their students, the world of work claims
that it is crying out for creative, ‘rule-bending’ and
original graduates who can think for themselves.
In particular, Desmedt et al. (2003) in a study of both
medical and education students concluded that,
because of the curriculum, students are not interested
in learning, but in assessment.
Decontextualised and depoliticised views
of learning and learners
The importance of context serves to introduce
a further problem, which is best illustrated with an
example. One of the items from the Sternberg–Wagner
Self-Assessment Inventory on the Conservative Style
reads as follows: ‘When faced with a problem, I like
to solve it in a traditional way’ (Sternberg 1999, 73).
Without a detailed description of the kind of problem
the psychologist has in mind, the respondent is left
to supply a context of his or her choosing, because
methods of solving a problem depend crucially on the
character of that problem. The Palestinian–Israeli
conflict, the fall in the value of stocks and shares,
teenage pregnancies and the square root of –1 are all
problems, some of which may be solved in a traditional
way, some of which may need new types of solution,
while others still may not be amenable to solution
at all. Crucially, some problems can only be resolved
collectively. Nothing is gained by suggesting that
all problems are similar or that the appropriate
reaction of a respondent would be to treat them all
in a similar fashion.
Reynolds, in a fierce attack on the research tradition
into learning styles, has criticised it not only for
producing an individualised, decontextualised concept
of learning, but also for a depoliticised treatment
of the differences between learners which stem from
social class, race and gender. In his own words, ‘the
very concept of learning style obscures the social bases
of difference expressed in the way people approach
learning … labelling is not a disinterested process,
even though social differences are made to seem
reducible to psychometric technicalities’ (1997, 122,
127). He goes on to quote other critics who claim
that in the US, Black culture has been transformed
into the concrete, as opposed to the abstract, learning
style. His most troubling charge is that the learning
style approach contributes ‘the basic vocabulary
of discrimination to the workplace through its
incorporation into educational practice’ (1997, 125).
There is indeed a worrying lack of research in the
UK into learning styles and social class, or learning
styles and ethnicity, although more of the latter
have been carried out in the US. It is worth pointing
out that when Sadler-Smith (2001) published his
reply to Reynold’s wide-ranging critique, he did not
deal with the most serious charge of all, namely that
of discrimination, apart from advising practitioners
and researchers to be alert to the possible dangers.