Fascinating article in NYTimes today about how kids learn!

[hlee]

I thought you'd find this article of interest...fascinating stuff about learning styles and how they don't make as much difference as teachers (and homeschooling parents!) might think as well as other helpful info about how kids learn best:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

 

Enjoy!

[Alessandra]

I missed this in my paper -- thanks for posting!

[Virg]

Awesome post! Thanks! :)

[Guest]

Thanks for the link. I found this perplexing, as so much in my experience with dd conflicts what the review of lit claims. Also, I wondered exactly how they were measuring "learning" -- much of it seemed to be on retention as measured by testing. Well, was that testing multiple choice? Essays? Two different kinds of "learning" are involved in answering in those ways. How long was retention measured? Over two weeks vs. two days? What about a year or more later? What about what adults remember or do not remember of their schooling?

 

Also I was curious whether there was a parallel between how they said studying was best done (mixing locations, mixing subjects or types of information/problems) and how teaching was done. Is most learning done during study time (i.e. homework or cramming for tests), or in class? What is the relationship?

 

Anyone else have other thoughts, or maybe think the article was spot on as far as their experience, compared to my reaction?

[hlee]

I'll look forward to any responses to KarenAnne's post. I'm a fairly new homeschooler, this is only our second year, so I'm still learning! I'd be interested to know what others think!

[Corraleno]

Thanks for the link. I found this perplexing, as so much in my experience with dd conflicts what the review of lit claims. Also, I wondered exactly how they were measuring "learning" -- much of it seemed to be on retention as measured by testing. Well, was that testing multiple choice? Essays? Two different kinds of "learning" are involved in answering in those ways. How long was retention measured? Over two weeks vs. two days? What about a year or more later? What about what adults remember or do not remember of their schooling?

 

Also I was curious whether there was a parallel between how they said studying was best done (mixing locations, mixing subjects or types of information/problems) and how teaching was done. Is most learning done during study time (i.e. homework or cramming for tests), or in class? What is the relationship?

 

Anyone else have other thoughts, or maybe think the article was spot on as far as their experience, compared to my reaction?

 

I'm also curious about the research design, because I remember reading the study they reference on "learning styles," and it was so poorly designed it would have been comical if not for the fact that it probably convinced some people that "learning styles" don't exist. The way the conclusions were worded in that study — something along the lines of how teachers "really don't need to worry about tailoring their curriculum to individual students" — made me think that was their agenda going in. :glare:

 

Jackie

[cathmom]

Anybody who thinks learning styles don't exist has never homeschooled several children with different ones!

 

Although I do think it makes total sense to vary the place that you are learning. It's just not always practical.

[Mallory]

I think that the nice thing about homeschooling is that we teach individuals.

 

So it doesn't matter if out of 500 students in this group who get taught by learning style, compared to this group of 500 who don't that there are no statistical differences, IF we have the one individual who it really does make a huge difference for.

 

That said, I've not noticed that any of my kids lean strongly toward any specific learning style. And I think that it is probably confirmed that most people can learn effectivly in more than one learning style.

 

I also think this article agrees, or at least confirms, that if you plan a lesson to fit in with several learning styles than it is going to be remembered better. Going over your math facts by moving manipulatives, writing them, and jumping to the answers is going to get that info in your brain better.

[Guest]

I've been chewing this over during the day, and I'm wondering whether any of these psychologists who study learning have worked with homeschoolers. I would think there is a huge difference between trying to teach toward different kinds of learners in a classroom of twenty or thirty or even forty kids -- which would mean you'd have to do little tidbits here and there with pictures, graphs, etc. (I don't even include kinesthetic learners because what passes for hands-on learning is in general so lame) -- and what you do in homeschooling, where you completely tailor a program to work with a child's strengths and figure out how to compensate for their weaknesses in terms of learning. Some kids write standing up, listen to read-alouds while riding a scooter in circles, recite times tables while jumping on the trampoline... you can't do that in school, so it wouldn't even be under consideration in these studies as related to "learning styles" and teaching to a kid's neurological bent.

 

I also remember reading in passing in the novel Christy a scene where she was teaching poverty-stricken kids in rural Appalachia to read. There was a sentence something along the lines of "Holding them on my lap while reading with them seemed to make them learn twice as fast." This made me remember in turn a study I read about several years ago which had people reading while their brains were being scanned, and "emotion" centers would light up when they were reading particular words. There is a huge emotional component of learning which we haven't even begun to address, and which none of the studies touch on as far as the article tells us. So there's another area in which homeschoolers might be off the charts of what has been examined: we read while our kids are in our laps, we do school outside under trees, we read favorites over and over again, the kids learn in emotionally safe environments.

 

It would also be interesting to compare retention of schooled kids -- once you agree on how that's going to be assessed and over what time period -- with kids who have a say in their work methods, their assignments, even their content.

 

Anyway, all this is going through my mind and I really wonder whether any of these learning psychologists would want to take a look at homeschoolers and how that would change what they find.

[Guest]

Well, I personally see all this as interesting but that is as far as it goes. There's always some research or other going on, and each is in a controlled environment in order to support the intended findings. This is another reason why I never follow any philosophy completely, I just take what I see works for us and drop the rest ;). I like the idea of changing the study locations but that's about all I got out of this. Psychologist, are not educators and as such I don't see them as experts in how kids learn. It seems these days they want to make themselves to be experts in everything. Each child is an individual. As home educators we see that even in our own kids that were born and raised in the same family. Learning styles makes so much more sense to me and has worked for us so that is what I am sticking with :).