Effective Teaching

Teachers should not teach to students’ perceived learning styles.

According to “Ask the Cognitive Scientist”, which includes meta-analysis, the combination of data from different studies by Kavale and Forness, “tailoring instruction to students’ modality is not effective; across these many well-designed studies, such tailoring had no educational effect.” (Willingham 4) If the tailoring has no educational effect, teaching to students perceived learning styles isn’t worthwhile. Willingham mentions that the “possible effects of matching instructional modality to a student’s modality strength have been extensively studied and have yielded no positive evidence”. Willingham makes a further point that “if there was an effect of any consequence, it is extremely likely that we would know it by now”.

Willingham’s take home message is that that “teachers should focus on the content’s best modality- not the students” based on the way the mind uses and stores information.

Modality examples consist of whether the child hears it, sees it, or touches it. Teachers must utilize the content’s best modality. I thought the Civil War unit example by Willingham was great suggesting the inclusion of music used to inspire the troops, maps of battlefields, and an opportunity to handle the pack and equipment the troops carried to appreciate the sacrifice of those who served. I remember one of my middle school teachers who engaged our class by enhancing class instruction and readings on the Civil War with the movie “Glory”. As Cub Scouts, we had the opportunity to perform a battle scene of Gettysburg which was a motivating, learning experience for us.

Teachers should not teach to students’ perceived learning styles because of the lack of educational effect of doing so.

Teachers should master and instruct accordingly to the content’s best modality.