insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 21 - November 2016 | Page 103

EDUCATION

WHY URBAN MYTHS ABOUT EDUCATION ARE SO PERSISTENT – AND HOW TO TACKLE THEM

BY JAMES WILLIAMS
One of the most persistent ‘ edumyths ’ is learning styles – the idea that there are a number of styles of learning , such as visual , aural or kinaesthetic – and that certain children respond better if teaching is directed towards their preferred learning style .
Learning styles have been far too easily accepted by some schools and teachers despite the lack of evidence of their effectiveness and , despite learning styles being debunked , the concept still forms part of the formal school-based training of a number of teachers across a number of subjects . So why , in the face of such damning evidence , are edumyths still accepted and used by schools and teachers ?
CAT OUT OF THE BAG Studies from the fields of psychology and medical education have highlighted the futility of learning styles as an effective teaching approach . A systematic and critical review of learning styles catalogued 71 different learning styles models , 13 of which were identified as ‘ major models ’. Education scholars , Myron Dembo and Keith Howard , concluded in a 2007 paper on the use of learning styles in education :
“ Learning style instruments have not been shown to be valid and reliable ; there is no benefit to matching instruction to preferred learning style , and there is no evidence that understanding one ’ s learning style improves learning and its related outcomes .”
THE SPREAD OF EDUCATION LEARNING MYTHS From the ubiquitous ‘ Brain Gym ’ that flourished in schools in the late 1980s and early 90s , to the idea that some people use one side of their brain more than the other , or the ‘ fact ’ that we only use 10 % of our brain , exactly how these myths spread is a complex and difficult process to understand .
The blame has been laid at the door of university initial teacher training courses , as well as commercial companies , individual ‘ education consultants ’ and some teachers . Even the Department for Education ( DfE ) peddled the view that universities promoted ' useless ' theories in teaching and learning .
Yet , a survey by the Wellcome Trust , reported by the charity , Sense , about science showed that teachers : “ Commonly come across neuromyth-based methods by word-of-mouth – from their institutions ( 53 %), individual colleagues ( 41 %), and from training providers ( 30 %), who are often linked to those promoting neuromyths .”
ARE MYTHS NECESSARY ? Myths quite often have some basis in reality . For learning styles , there ’ s no doubt that people will report a preference for how they learn , but this does not mean they learn better using that style . Learning styles also gain traction in the education community because of a general conflation with a push to deliver content in the classroom in a variety of ways . How information is presented to children needs to be varied , if only to stop boredom kicking in . The best teachers have a variety of approaches that mix and match the best learning experiences for their children .
At this point , it ’ s worth remembering the Hawthorne effect : simply doing something different can have an effect and that effect can be a positive one , but the effect may not be real .
TRAINING IS KEY The move to sideline or even remove universities from initial teacher education and increase school-based teacher training programmes may have the opposite effect to that hoped for by the DfE . Instead of edumyths and ‘ useless ’ theories dying out , they might become more prominent and even more difficult to remove from teaching . Once misconceptions are implanted , they are very difficult to remove , and , if teacher education shifts further towards a school-based model of delivery , the potential for implanting misconceptions increases exponentially .
Teachers need two things to improve their practice and eliminate what doesn ’ t work in favour of what does . First , training in how to look beyond the attractive yet empty claims of the peddlers of educational snake oil and second , time to undertake effective , professional on-the-job training that has been shown to be both reliable , rigorous and effective .
James Williams is a lecturer in Education at the University of Sussex . www . sussex . ac . uk / profiles / 153595t
@ edujdw
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