While a teacher in Brooklyn, actually East New York, I took several of my graduate courses at Brooklyn College through the teacher's union education program. One course focused on the "learning styles" of children. We were taught, for the entire semester, about different learning styles that our students had, and taught that if we didn't cater to these different and individual learning styles, our students would suffer. We were taught how to assess students, asking them questions and watching their facial, eye and hand movements in reaction to our questions. If a student looked up to the right...she was "accessing visual memory" and if the student looked down to the left she was "accessing auditory memory." Or it may have been the other way around, I don't remember. But the point is we assessed all of our children and then addressed their learning styles in their IEP's (Individual Education Plans).
Like so many interventions in education this one was simply based upon someone's idea they had at breakfast that morning, and was supported by little and poor research. Really poor research. (One thing we never were required to take in graduate school - in the education department - was a course in statistics ...or research design for that matter, so we were easy victims to the woo science of education). As the years went by I realized individual children might have specific learning disabilities, or actual physical disabilities that made learning certain information difficult, but individual learning styles? No, not really. And finally this theory of how to educate our students is falling by the wayside under the pressure of real science, real research and a basic understanding of what learning really is. Here is what one recent paper on "Learning Styles" concluded:
"Our review of the literature disclosed ample evidence that children and adults will, if asked, express preferences about how they prefer information to be presented to them. There is also plentiful evidence arguing that people differ in the degree to which they have some fairly specific aptitudes for different kinds of thinking and for processing different types of information. However, we found virtually no evidence for the interaction pattern mentioned above, which was judged to be a precondition for validating the educational applications of learning styles. Although the literature on learning styles is enormous, very few studies have even used an experimental methodology capable of testing the validity of learning styles applied to education. Moreover, of those that did use an appropriate method, several found results that flatly contradict the popular meshing hypothesis.nWe conclude therefore, that at present, there is no adequate evidence base to justify incorporating learning-styles assessments into general educational practice. Thus, limited education resources would better be devoted to adopting other educational practices that have a strong evidence base, of which there are an increasing number."
For more about this click here.
Here is an excellent video about learning styles and current research. IT's pretty good at explaining this issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIv9rz2NTUk&tracker=False
I write about this because many parents still consider schools to be failing them if they don't cater to their child's particular "learning style." This is especially true in the past few years as so much money and effort has been put into teaching children with autism disorder "visually" because people think that children with autism are "visual learners." That's not true, and what's worse is this "visual learner" idea has infiltrated the general education classroom.
We learn about art by looking at it, but we understand it by thinking about it. Same with reading, same with math. What we all need to understand is that learning is about thinking, and we might use different methods to understand something,to get information about it, to see or hear it, but these are not the same as different "learning styles" or different styles of thinking. We all think, pretty much, alike.
That goes for children with autism and Aspeger's as well. Sooner or later it comes down to a very similar process of thinking something out. And while some individuals may use visual tools or auditory tools to help with memorization and other specific cognitive processes, they are not really visual or auditory learners in the sense some educators want us to believe. When we ask a child to look at a photo and tell us what is going on, or alternatively to read or listen to a story and tell us what is going on, the cues and prompts may be different in each case, but the learning and thinking is not. So it's difficult to sit through a discussion at an IEP and hear how student X is a "visual learner." He isn't! People make some assumption that this student has superior visual abilities, well, his visual abilities and skills may be higher than auditory, true, but he is not a "visual thinker." Thinking is a complex cognitive process and for all of us it's pretty much the same. The video clip listed above gives a great example of this, and in spite of the fact that some proponents of "learning styles" have spammed the site with negative feedback, the science is strong and learning styles are not supported by most research.
Now does this mean that visual supports are not appropriate for children with autism or Asperger's disorder? NO! Visual supports are great, and honestly, just this past week I had to convince three parents to return to using visual supports with their children who they thought had grown out of them. Figuring out and using visual supports is a critical component to success with these children. I use visual supports all the time. I need a pencil and paper to figure out math problems, I take notes in meetings, I draw and write out plans and use pen and paper to try out different ideas when rebuilding my house. My daily calendar is a visual support. My to do list. I am surrounded by visual supports that provide an external way of planning, seeing and explaining my ideas. My learning and thinking, however, goes on in my head...supported by external visual and auditory (I listen to a lot of books on CD or MP3) input. The visual supports we provide are external devices, sometimes used to help with input, sometimes output. But when your child uses a PECS board to tell you they need to use the toilet, or wants to go outside, or likes something and wants more (maybe even you!) the learning and thinking didn't go on visual on the PECS board. The PECS board or other visual communication system was the input or output device that supported your child in communicating and ultimately understanding. We can't understand and think about things that can't be communicated. And visual supports are communication supports.
I decided to write this and provide the explainatory video because too often parents and school get into protracted arguments when every single learning situation isn't somehow reflective of the idea that their child is "a visual learning." I even have kids tell me this. Research shows that specific handicaps aside, learning is just learning. How you get the information into your child's mind is a different matter, but we shouldn't confuse the two.
Thank you for reading my blog, provided to you on your visual communication support system (computer, ipad, or maybe even printed out). You now can either agree or disagree ....but that happens in your head, not in the computer.
This web page is not meant as a medical aid, not meant to provide specific advice, treatment protocols or diagnosis. Please see your medical doctor or register psychologist for specific advice. You can also visit my web page at www.relatedminds.com.
Here is an excellent video on learning styles: click here.
For more information on this Click here.
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