Green Child Magazine Back-to-School 2014 | Page 15

Individual ized Learning

One Style Does Not Fit All
|by Lawrence Williams

Each of us tends to prefer one way of learning
to another. Some learn best through reading.
Others prefer to hear information spoken before
they can make sense of it or remember it. Some
need to see diagrams or demonstrations in order to develop understanding. Still others need
to physically touch, manipulate, move, and experiment in order to relate to a given subject. In
addition, there are various other ways of learning beyond these. For example, some children
might benefit from a social environment filled
with group activities; others need ample time
for reflection.

One Style Does Not Fit All

In previous generations, learning styles were not
even acknowledged, much less accommodated.
From one perspective, one could even say that
the very concept of “learning disabilities” arose
(and continues to arise) from an inability of
some teachers and administrators to recognize
and deal effectively with the different learning
styles of children.
The concept that prompted much of the current
debate over learning styles arose in the 1970s,
with the left-brain/right-brain theory of neurological functioning. This prompted educators

to view students as either left-brained learners
(those that tend to approach things in a logical,
linear or verbal manner) or right-brained learners (those that approached things in a more
creative, spatial or holistic manner).
Gradually, however, this view began to lose favor, as further research indicated that the learning process involves a very complex interaction
of both hemispheres simultaneously. Nevertheless, educators recognized that the left-brain/
right-brain concept, though incomplete, was
true to a certain extent, that children do learn
differently, and that teachers had to move beyond the purely logical-verbal approach traditionally used in schools and learn how to teach
in ways that could appeal to a broader range of
learning styles.

The Treasure Trove of
Multifac eted Inte ll igenc e

Recently, research on learning styles has increased considerably, and our understanding of
these differences has grown. Two of the most
prominent theories are those of Robert Sternberg of Yale and Howard Gardner of Harvard.
In The Triarchic Mind, Sternberg proposed that
there are three types of intelligence. He calls

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