There's a lot of talk lately about 'Anti-Learning Styles' proponents like
Daniel Willingham, a cognitive psychologist who says "cognitive psychologists know they (learning styles) don't exist." Huh? Here he is being interviewed in the
Washington Post.
But a good question raised by his discussion is whether too much burden is placed on teachers to teach toward different learning styles rather than students to identify how they learn best (or how they learn worst). The essential thing for teachers is to be aware of the need to present information in different forms (redundancy) - words and pictures - and consider working memory for students who have trouble keeping up with the class. But many types of instruction can't be easily translated into kinesthetic terms - what makes more sense is if students know how they learn best - so that they can translate information (words into pictures or picture into words) into their prefer learning and memory route for long-term storage.
Several papers to share with you - sorry they're not available free access, but found them in the EBSCO database through my public library. From Exley's British Journal of Special Education • Volume 30 • Number 4 • 2003 "The effectiveness of teaching strategies for students with dyslexia based on their preferred learning styles"-->
It shouldn't surprise us that if a children learn more efficiently in their areas of strength after all the data that multisensory instruction benefits dyslexic students with reading and spelling.
But the educational literature is rife with differences between dyslexic and non-dyslexic thinking styles...probably part of the reason so many dyslexics are frustrated in conventionally taught schools For instance, from Perkin and Croft's
The Dyslexic Student and Mathematics in Higher Education:
"One question was asked the dyslexic and non-dyslexic students who participated in the explanatory studies was 'are there any areas of mathematics which you understand but for which you frequently obtain incorrect answers?' Only one of the non-dyslexic students answered yes and attributed this to 'sloppy arithmetic', moreover, two students explained that if you understand mathematics you obtain the correct answer. Whereas 10 (out of 12) of the dyslexic students answered yes to this question, the topics that were cited were the use of statistical tables, operations involving rows and columns of figures, and multi-stage operations.
Another question we posed was 'do you use mind maps for mathematics?' and this also produced a very marked difference in response between the dyslexic and non-dyslexic students. NONE (my caps) of the non-dyslexic students used mind maps and many could not comprehend how they might be used for mathematics and asked if this was possible, whereas seven of the dyslexic students drew mind maps for themselves and made comments such as 'they are an invaluable part of my learning process', or 'they are essential for revision'. "
This translation of information into diagrammatic / spatial relationships or visual icons seems to a particularly common feature of the dyslexic thinking style, yet at least at present it has received little attention in the formal dyslexia education literature.
One last article excerpt (
The Meaning of Dyslexics' Drawings in Communication Design...the authors commented on the observation that some 24% of dyslexic university students had chosen design schools (Zdziensky, 1996) while on the other hand avoiding further education or training that would require extensive essay writing (Ott, 1997). They sought to examine whether any differences could be seen between dyslexics and non-dyslexics drawing pictures to represent conceptual terms. The dyslexic group were quicker at drawing pictures (15 min vs. 20 min), had higher rates of using divergent symbols to represent opposing concepts (70% dyslexics vs. 40% non-dyslexics, associated with higher levels of creativity, at least suggested by Guilford, 1962).
Drawings of dyslexics:
For more on Dyslexic Thinking and Design, check out this free access article:
Dyslexia as a Resource for Design pdf
But a good question raised by his discussion is whether too much burden is placed on teachers to teach toward different learning styles rather than students to identify how they learn best (or how they learn worst). The essential thing for teachers is to be aware of the need to present information in different forms (redundancy) - words and pictures - and consider working memory for students who have trouble keeping up with the class. But many types of instruction can't be easily translated into kinesthetic terms - what makes more sense is if students know how they learn best - so that they can translate information (words into pictures or picture into words) into their prefer learning and memory route for long-term storage.
It shouldn't surprise us that if a children learn more efficiently in their areas of strength after all the data that multisensory instruction benefits dyslexic students with reading and spelling.
But the educational literature is rife with differences between dyslexic and non-dyslexic thinking styles...probably part of the reason so many dyslexics are frustrated in conventionally taught schools For instance, from Perkin and Croft's The Dyslexic Student and Mathematics in Higher Education:
"One question was asked the dyslexic and non-dyslexic students who participated in the explanatory studies was 'are there any areas of mathematics which you understand but for which you frequently obtain incorrect answers?' Only one of the non-dyslexic students answered yes and attributed this to 'sloppy arithmetic', moreover, two students explained that if you understand mathematics you obtain the correct answer. Whereas 10 (out of 12) of the dyslexic students answered yes to this question, the topics that were cited were the use of statistical tables, operations involving rows and columns of figures, and multi-stage operations.
Another question we posed was 'do you use mind maps for mathematics?' and this also produced a very marked difference in response between the dyslexic and non-dyslexic students. NONE (my caps) of the non-dyslexic students used mind maps and many could not comprehend how they might be used for mathematics and asked if this was possible, whereas seven of the dyslexic students drew mind maps for themselves and made comments such as 'they are an invaluable part of my learning process', or 'they are essential for revision'. "
This translation of information into diagrammatic / spatial relationships or visual icons seems to a particularly common feature of the dyslexic thinking style, yet at least at present it has received little attention in the formal dyslexia education literature.
One last article excerpt ( The Meaning of Dyslexics' Drawings in Communication Design...the authors commented on the observation that some 24% of dyslexic university students had chosen design schools (Zdziensky, 1996) while on the other hand avoiding further education or training that would require extensive essay writing (Ott, 1997). They sought to examine whether any differences could be seen between dyslexics and non-dyslexics drawing pictures to represent conceptual terms. The dyslexic group were quicker at drawing pictures (15 min vs. 20 min), had higher rates of using divergent symbols to represent opposing concepts (70% dyslexics vs. 40% non-dyslexics, associated with higher levels of creativity, at least suggested by Guilford, 1962).
Drawings of dyslexics:
For more on Dyslexic Thinking and Design, check out this free access article: Dyslexia as a Resource for Design pdf