Learning style reflection

The biggest issue I have with all the different tests and methods of determining your learning styles is that they tend to try to make it too black and white. Perceptual Modalities examines how one takes in information through your senses, Multiple Intelligences with its seven modalities, Mind styles with its four basic learning styles, Learning Styles Indicator with its four types and Myer Briggs' sixteen personality styles all try to pinpoint one's learning styles. Until 2000 I was not aware of my learning styles, yet I still completed high school and three degrees. My study of learning styles confirmed what I already knew on a gut level. After teaching for eighteen years, it had become very evident to me that no matter what method I used to teach a subject, there were a handful of students that would need me to adapt the lesson before they would get it. As my experience in teaching improved, I noticed that I tended to use a larger range of lesson styles hence making me a better teacher. My pride made me think that what was missing was not a learning style or a lesson style but a student's maturity in being able to learn in a multitude of styles. The best students are the ones who have learned to learn no matter what their learning or lesson style. Felder (2008) states "To overcome these problems, professors should strive for a balance of instructional methods (as opposed to trying to teach each student exclusively according to his or her preferences.) If the balance is achieved, all students will be taught partly in a manner they prefer, which leads to an increased comfort level and willingness to learn, and partly in a less preferred manner, which provides practice and feedback in ways of thinking and solving problems which they may not initially be comfortable with but which they will have to use to be fully effective professionals." However for two hundred years the educational system has not changed to meet the students' needs. The students have been forced to change to meet the system. From a personal point of view, my first three degrees which were done via the traditional lecture style university class did not even come close to the best way for me to learn. Since distance learning and my master's degree I have found a system which better fits my learning style.

Felder, R. (2008, November 13). Learning Styles. Retrieved February 08, 2009, from Resources in Science and Engineering Education: http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Learning_Styles.html