learning styles - does anyone know ?

[Katiestar]

What percentage of people are visual learners ,what percentage kinesrhetic learners etc ?
I need to know for some work I'm doing and getting lots of different answers when I google.

[Donk]

Thankyou Karamazov - you beat me to it, and made a far better post than I would have!
And thankyou Scienceteacher - for prompting me to go and look back at my notes.

If you want to look at the reports by Coffield et al, they are available for download from this website
here
Click on Publications and search for Coffield(don't follow the most downloaded links, they don't work).

[seeker]

But be very careful before you tell your child what sort of learner they are considered to be, or you'll spend ages saying stuff like "I realize that you're a kinesthetic learner, but you still have to read the bloody book/listen to what you're told!"

[Katiestar]

Thankyou very much for your answers.I have thought of an idea for an educational resource.It worked brilliantly with my own children but I realise thet might all have the same learning style and it might not be so good for others.
Peersonally I am a very strong visual learner I think.i love a diagram !

[edam]

Oh yes, of course 'non-academic' children deserve a bloody good education. It's just that kineasthetic always sounds like a euphemism!

I have no idea what sort of learning style I'd have out of A and V - which one means 'good at learning from books and writing essays'? I have to write stuff down or I just can't remember it. But that is probably exacerbated by my job (I'm a journalist).

[pointydog]

You don't really get anyone who is just a visual learner, or a kinaesthetic one.

I'd do some more research. Far far too simplistic

[pointydog]

ah, I see donk is on the ball

[snorkle]

So what exactly is a "right-brained" learner? Twas an expression used today in one of the dcs school reports & I'm puzzled.

[Donk]

Left Brain learner = verbal sequential approach
Right brain learner = Visual holistic approach

This is a very simplistic description. Originally the physiology of the brain was thought to explain 'left' and 'right' styles, but left brain functions have been found in the right hemisphere and vice versa, so they are now thought of as metaphors for different thinking styles and functions.

Coffield et al's report rated highly two more sophisticated developments of this - one being Herrmann's whole-brain model. (see earlier link for details) This gives 4 learning modes, of which people prefer 2, but can function (and should be encouraged to) in all 4.

[pointydog]

Just catching up. Good link, maverick. And what a wonderfully apt analogy - learning styles are like horoscopes.

[snorkle]

Thanks Donk. I'll have to read your link I think. Being a very practical person I shall take it all with a large pinch of salt, but it is very clear to me that, whatever bits of their brains they use, my two dcs learn very differently to each other.

[Donk]

Snorkle, the website I linked to, whilst working this morning, appears to be down at present...

[melpomene]

Also, people's preferred style may change as they grow older. I've heard that the percentage of kinaesthetic learners is higher amongst younger children, and that seems to make sense.

I'm mainly visual, I think. Dh is more auditory and sometimes he'll read things aloud to me; it drives me bonkers as I just want to grab the computer/book so I can read it for myself.

[BoffinMum]

VAK represents lazy pop psychology for lazy thinkers. It is also linked with harmful social class prejudice, IMO. For example, working class boys are invariably over-represented in the kinaesthetic category. I ban my students from using these terms now, as there is zero evidence for them.

[samanthar]

www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22535838-5012895,00.html

How many have girl going both ways, swapping every time she stops?

[Donk]

According to that I come out "right brained" (although it does sometimes go the other way) - on the other hand I am a scientist by training (physics teacher), with a love of languages, and definitely NOT a risk taker... which would all put me heavily in the "left brained" category.
But then the simplistic left-brain right-brain approach is not supported by research (if my link is working - yea! it is! (I just checked)

Re VAK - quite agree BoffinMum

[samanthar]

Thanks Donk, dp refused to believe me that she changed directions.

Nice, finally, to find a thread on one or other education forum here, not carping on about state / private et bloody cetera so thanks everyone

[edam]

round of applause for boffinmum!

[kickassangel]

one school i was in did a load of training on VAK, and the guy who came in made us do a test. he predicted that we'd end up grouped in faculties, with science & maths at one end, and art at the other. he was astounded to find we all bunched in the middle of the 'scale' he set up.
we worked in a very tough inner city school where we had to constantly use VAK, sing dance & anything else to keep attention on the learning. i still think the best teachers are ones who can use any of the approaches & mix them up. naturally i'm rarely visual, but learnt to use diagrams & the board behind me to help those who want soemthing to look at. it is useful to be reminded to change our approaches, as tis all too easy to slip into a rut which we're confident with

[BoffinMum]

Ta Edam!

Kickass, don't get me going on CPD cowboys and patronising, harmful staff development courses ...

Varying teaching approaches and planning lessons thoughtfully is always a good idea, just to stop pupils getting bored. You do not need pseudo-science to give this credibility. It is just GOOD TEACHING FGS!

I wish they really spent proper money on CPD and paid for teachers to do higher degrees in psychology, subjects they taught in etc - then we'd really get some good academic results in this country across the board.