I have to say that I was disappointed by Sternberg's piece, although in all fairness I will need to see his upcoming edited handbook. Perhaps the evidence therein is more compelling. Unless I'm missing something, however, he reports here only one direct piece of evidence for the matching/meshing hypothesis of learning styles (namely, that hypothesis that people learn best when their learning styles are matched to specific teaching styles):
Here is what he writes: "The first finding was that institutions differ widely in the styles of thinking that they reward. For example, in the study, one tended to reward a conservative style (characterizing people who like things to remain more or less the way they are) and tended to penalize a liberal style (characterizing people who like things to change), whereas another rewarded exactly the opposite pattern. The correlations of styles with academic success were statistically significant in both schools, but in opposite directions." This finding is intriguing and perhaps suggestive, but it doesn't strike me as providing an especially strong test of the matching styles hypothesis. As I understand it, tests of the matching styles hypothesis require an experimental design in which individuals with certain learning styles (e.g. primarily visual versus primarily verbal, as noted by Jim Clark) are randomly assigned to teachers with different teaching styles (e.g., emphasizing visual concepts versus verbal concepts), and their learning outcomes are measured using the same indicators. A significant statistical interaction, especially a disordinal (cross-over) interaction, would provide evidence for the matching styles hypothesis. But in the study described by Sternberg, the level of analysis is the institution, not the teacher (I believe logicians refer to this to infer of inferring the latter from the former as the ecological fallacy), and consequently the results seem open to a host of alternative explanations: surely, the two institutions differ from each other in myriad ways in addition to the learning styles they emphasize. Moreover, it seems implausible that the two institutions used the identical outcome measures to assess learning (unless the outcome measures in question were standardized tests). Sternberg has elsewhere harshly criticized the recent Paschler et al. review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest for its overly strict and exclusive criteria for evaluating the learning styles hypothesis. Perhaps there is some merit in this criticism; I do not know. But this does mean that we should loosen the standards for methodological rigor to the point at which we claim as evidence for the matching styles hypothesis quasi-experimental findings that are open to a host of rival explanations. It's one thing, perhaps, to say "Well, it's too early to shut the door completely on the matching hypothesis" (and given the well-known statistical difficulties of detecting interactions, I wouldn't necessary disagree), but it's quite another to say that the hypothesis has been well-confirmed. ...Scott Scott O. Lilienfeld, Ph.D. Department of Psychology, Room 473 Emory University 36 Eagle Row, Atlanta, Georgia 30322 slil...@emory.edu; 404-727-1125 -----Original Message----- From: Jim Clark [mailto:j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca] Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 1:16 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: RE: [tips] learning styles Hi I read this when it came out as well. I don't think that Sternberg's model corresponds much with the traditional literature on learning styles. That some people might prefer an unstructured exploration of a topic and others prefer learning the facts (very loose paraphrase of some of Sternberg's position) seems quite different from ideas such as visual versus verbal learners. Does one want to use the label Learning Styles to cover all possible Aptitude by Treatment interactions? If this characterization is correct, the largely null findings in the traditional LS literature may not say much about Sternberg's model. At the same time, Sternberg does seem to cite primarily his own work, which leads me to wonder whether others have replicated and reproduced his findings? Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca >>> "Lilienfeld, Scott O" <slil...@emory.edu> 29-Sep-11 12:09:00 PM >>> Hi All ..was initially assuming that this thread was in response to Sternberg's recent piece, but I guess not. I tend to disagree with Sternberg on many things, but for what it's worth, here's his contrarian position: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2011/09/27/essay_on_different_teaching_and_learning_styles ....Scott Scott O. Lilienfeld, Ph.D. Department of Psychology, Room 473 Emory University 36 Eagle Row, Atlanta, Georgia 30322 slil...@emory.edu<mailto:slil...@emory.edu>; 404-727-1125 ________________________________ This e-mail message (including any attachments) is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message (including any attachments) is strictly prohibited. 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