Today's?NYT has a great story in the Science section, Forget What You Know About Studying, confirming what many of us have suspected ? and people like Daniel Willingham have known ? for some time; that the ?learning style? movement is mostly bunk and that tests are good.
Citing a review of the research published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, the Times story says:
Take the notion that children have specific learning styles, that some are ?visual learners? and others are auditory; some are ?left-brain? students, others ?right-brain.? ? [The] team of psychologists found almost zero support for such ideas. ?The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing,? the researchers concluded.
It quotes Robert Bjork, a psychologist at the University of California, saying, ?we walk around with all sorts of unexamined beliefs about what works that are mistaken.?
The conclusions about tests are equally wonderful ? for those of?us who have held fast to our faith in them against the anti-testing currents.
?Peter Meyer
