Learning Styles

Rating:
Summary: Education based on individual differences
Review: This is a good, overall introduction to different aspects of teaching and learning. The authors have surveyed the field and, much influenced by Drs. Rita and Kenneth Dunn's pioneering work, came up with the "synthesized learning style model". It is a broad framework that includes 5 learning systems: 1. emotional (need to be), 2. social (need to belong), 3. cognitive (need to know), 4. physical (need to do) and 5. reflective (need to reflect). Readers should first check through the 25 items of "Teacher Belief Systems" on p. 17 to see if they are really open to adopting such student-centred attitudes and behavior. Short of doing a formal "Learning Style Inventory", the authors listed numerous questions for identifying the "Interactive Observational Style" based on the 5 learning systems. There were references to impressive, successful outcomes when traditional teaching was transformed into learning-styles education. However there will always be the big challenge, esp. in established schools, in finding enough principals and teachers with the same mind and heart to implement education based on indvidual differences. (There is a useful annotated bibliography at the end. Given the fast development, esp. in neuroscience applied to learning, the list should be updated already.)