Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This pretty much sums up my views on the whole learning styles debate: first, "The argument is that in the absence of such evidence, don't waste time and money trying to match your teaching style to everyone's learning styles," which is fair enough, but second, " regardless of the existence or impact of learning styles, a phenomenon that enjoys universal recognition is that of learner preferences." Once you're outside a strict instructivist mode, learner preferences matter, because the learner has more control over the learning process. "Indeed in a controlled environment, learner preferences don't really matter. The participants are forced to do it whether they like it or not, or they somehow feel obliged to comply," writes Ryan Tracey. "Outside of the controlled environment, however, learner preferences do matter."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 3:56 p.m.

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