Ever heard of learning modalities? Learning modalities are learning preferences, usually grouped into three main categories: auditory, visual, and motor/kinesthetic. Basically, the theory behind learning modalities is that each person has a preferred learning method, based on his or her preferred sensory input. For a long time, it was thought that the best way to teach children was to teach to their preferred modality – show information to visual learners, speak information to auditory learners, and give manipulative learning tools to motor/kinesthetic learners, etc.
Well, guess what? Apparently there is no empirical evidence to support the practice of teaching to student learning preferences. The practice has what is called “face validity,” meaning that it appeals to intuition and makes sense to us logically, but it doesn’t hold water empirically (when tested.)
I have used learning preference to help direct my tutoring for years with considerable success. Perhaps it was simply the additional intervention, not the method, that worked? Perhaps learning modalities are a factor in learning, but shouldn’t direct classroom instruction? Maybe they are better used for consideration when working one-on-one with a student?
Which bring me to No Child Left Behind, a groundbreaking federal law with both very good and very bad implications for schools. NCLB requires that public schools utilize data-driven, empirically-proven methods of teaching. The thinking is that the lack of data-driven teaching methods utilized up until now shoulders some of the blame for our failing public school system. Like learning modalities, many of the teaching methods being used in schools hold appealing face validity, but are shown ineffective when put to the test.
I am not usually someone who needs scientific validation to utilize a particular technique; I am willing to try different things with different students and see what works. Overall, however, I think the movement toward scientifically-validated teaching methods is a very good thing. I would love to hear from any teachers on this.
