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Peps

@pepsmccrea.bsky.social

3.1K followers 32 following 440 posts

Keeping you (teachers) informed // Director of Education, Steplab // Author of Evidence Snacks, a weekly 5-min email read by 25k+ teachers → https://snacks.pepsmccrea.com 🎓

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Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · Jan 22

🚨🚨 NEW TODAY

For the last 18 months, I've been working on a top secret documentary to capture & deconstruct some of best teaching in UK.

Why We Made It & How To Access It (For Free):

↓

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SQ0...

(Why And How) We Made A Documentary Unpacking Great Teaching

YouTube video by Peps Mccrea

www.youtube.com

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Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 16h

SUMMARY

• One reason learning styles may be so popular is due to their ‘moral appeal’.
•They align well with our admiration for individuality, choice, and natural approaches.
• However, applying such liberal ideals to the process of schooling may limit our ability to achieve liberal outcomes.

👊

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 16h

🎓 For more, check out this analysis of the wonky moral intuitions that underlie the learning styles myth:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...

Why the learning styles myth appeals and how to persuade believers otherwise

Many teachers and researchers, among others, continue to believe, despite the lack of evidence, that learning will be more effective if educators matc…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 16h

In these reactions, we are merely reflecting the deeply held moral positions of our society. However, despite the best of intentions, when we let such gut feelings get in the way of the evidence, we risk thwarting the very values we seek to advance.

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 16h

and why some folks—including me—can find ourselves experiencing an negative emotional response to things like consistent routines, centralised curricula, and choral response (at least until we better understand the cause and effect of the classroom).

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 16h

Liberal overreach explains why notions such as student-led education, personalised learning, and inquiry teaching have such intuitive appeal (irrespective of their efficacy)...

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 16h

This represents a particularly pernicious form of means-ends conflation, which we might call ‘liberal overreach’.

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 16h

For example, the more we provide students with choices during their schooling, the more we may inadvertently limit their ability to make choices in the future (because they’re not always in a good position to make wise decisions about the what and the how of their learning).

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 16h

However, we find ourselves in a logical pickle when we fail to recognise that sometimes applying liberal ideals to the process of schooling can limit our ability to achieve liberal ideals as the outcomes of schooling.

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 16h

Through this lens, the allure of learning styles begins to make sense. It reflects our desire to protect and promote the uniqueness of our students and to honour their natural inclinations.

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 16h

We live in a society that places a high value on individuality, personal choice, and the inherent superiority of natural traits.

Understandably so—these are the cornerstones of liberal democracy and romanticism, the grand narratives upon which many Western nations have been built.

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 16h

The myth of learning styles is pervasive across society (and even education). But what exactly makes it so attractive?

One compelling—albeit more theoretical than empirical—argument is that such concepts hold a modern-day ‘moral appeal’.

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 16h

🚨 LIBERAL OVERREACH

When applying our values backfires:

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Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 7d

SUMMARY

• The idea that we should tailor our teaching to student learning preferences is unhelpful.
• A better (yet still related) maxim is to focus instead on the best medium for the message.
• Students with SEND stand to gain the most from evidence informed approaches.

👊

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 7d

🎓 For more, check out this review of the evidence around learning styles, from Professor Daniel Willingham:

www.aft.org/ae/summer20...

Ask the Cognitive Scientist: Does Tailoring Instruction to “Learning Styles” Help Students Learn?

www.aft.org

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Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 7d

What about students with SEN (Special Educational Needs)?

Well, SEN is an unhelpfully broad label… but in general (aside from highly specific needs), students with SEN need this approach more than ever...

because they are often less equipped to compensate for wonky teaching.

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 7d

For me, our best bet is the idea that we should tailor the modality (speech, text, gesture etc.) of our teaching to the needs of the CONTENT, rather than the preferences of our learners.

Aka, the best medium for the message.

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Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 7d

One way we can help counteract this unhelpful idea is to have a more informed idea on hand to replace it with.

(without a replacement, we just end up reverting)

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 7d

I’m pretty sure everyone reading this will be aware of this, despite studies showing that upwards of 80% of the global education profession still believe in learning styles 😱

www.frontiersin.org/journals/ed...

(you are in the minority)

Frontiers | How Common Is Belief in the Learning Styles Neuromyth, and Does It Matter? A Pragmatic Systematic Review

A commonly cited use of Learning Styles theory is to use information from self-report questionnaires to assign learners into one or more of a handful of supp...

www.frontiersin.org

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 7d

AND it can prompt teachers (and parents and students) to assume that visual learners are smarter, creating unhelpful expectations around student abilities ⤵️

www.nature.com/articles/s4...

Beware the myth: learning styles affect parents’, children’s, and teachers’ thinking about children’s academic potential

npj Science of Learning - Beware the myth: learning styles affect parents’, children’s, and teachers’ thinking about children’s academic potential

www.nature.com

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 7d

There are indications that it can be actively harmful.

For example, it can perpetuate a fixed mindset, where students believe their abilities are static rather than adaptable.

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 7d

Not only is there no evidence to support this idea

(formally known as the ‘meshing hypothesis’), which makes it a poor use of teacher and student time (which could be spent on things which do support learning)

but...

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Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 7d

Learning styles—the idea that individuals differ in the mode of instruction that is best for them, and that we should tailor our teaching accordingly—is one of the most pervasive myths in education.

Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 7d

Tailor to lesson content, not student preferences.

An alternative to the learning styles myth:

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Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 14d

SUMMARY

• A shared ‘pedagogical toolkit’ can be a powerful thing.
• It entails agreeing to a limited suite of tools, and how you’ll use them.
• Achieving alignment across staff has the potential to help your students learn more and your colleagues lives easier.

👊

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Peps @pepsmccrea.bsky.social · 14d

And for the ultimate customisable toolkit, check out the fandabulous Steplab:

→ steplab.co