There are always trends and fads in any field. Education is no different, there is always the leading research or technique that gives insight into the way students learn and are engaged in the classroom. Unfortunately under further review and research, many of these tend to be proved false. They either have no data supporting it, have negative results, or prove harmful because the technique itself harms the students, the system, or it takes valuable time and resources away from proven methods.
Among these fads include: learning styles (audio, visual, kinesthetic), Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences (and using them to teach students differently) and that different teaching strategies result in a scaled amount of remembering information. Many of these ideas are still "controversial" because there are so many proponents that support and teach these ideas. I am a double major in Comprehensive Science and Arts for Teaching and Special Education so I have had many teaching courses, but I am also a Psychology minor so I have also have a lot of supplementing course on how the mind works, cognition, and learning. There is so much research that shows that these theories are actually false but they are still being taught as fact!
In my teaching course and some of my Psychology courses the were designated for teaching I was actually taught all three of these theories as fact. I had to become a master of them, learned how to incorporate them into my teaching, and the like. However in some of my other courses and especially other Psychology courses I was taught how these were debunked and taught the research that was done for all of them. They were taught along other theories that have no empirical evidence in their research such as facilitated communication, Luminosity (and other memory improving games), and Brain Gym. It is a little disconcerting that at the same University I am taught contradicting ideas. I always sided with the research evidence. This new research that I did this week on these three topics was not surprising to me at all because I had already read so much on the topic. I do not support any of these theories. The only idea that I still think is not the worst is the connecting between learning mediums and retention. The main disagreement I had with the fad was that it gave specific percentages without research and did not allow for the many variables. I see no harm however, with agreeing with the fact that a combination or reading, seeing, and doing could harm retention. I still believe that the more that you experience and do experiments in the topic the more you will come to understand it. I still do not think that there is a hard and fast rule about percentages of retention and that any one way is better than another for everyone.
This won't be the end of teaching "fads" and there will always be people who fully support them and want everyone to incorporate them into their teaching. I may be one of them in the future for a certain technique. I will just always have to try to stay on top of research and find how the research is conducted and see if there is any empirical supporting evidence. If a colleague or administrator wants to make me incorporate them into my teaching I would probably see if it has merit or it would be detrimental in my classroom. I might be able to use some of the ideas. Although they may not be supported for having the stated results, they could at least not take anything away from my classroom and might be something different. If I really don't believe in it, I might be in a position where I would try to back up my current teaching strategies and perhaps share the research that doesn't really support their techniques to show them that I am not comfortable using something that has negative support.
I agree with you that it is interesting that in a majority of our psychology classes we learn these fads to be "myths" while like you said in our education classes we are taught them as to incorporate the fads into our classroom. I like how you mentioned that you would still use some of the myths into your classroom if required to do so if it didn't hurt your class. I think that although much research has been conducted on these topics both supporting, and debunking them there are bits and pieces to each myth that can help in the classroom. I think that it is important to differentiate instruction while trying to present information in a variety of ways to reach out to a wider population of students. I think it is important to to stick to your ideas and opinions while still keeping an open mind with these topics. I am sure that we, as educators will run across colleagues and administration who still believe in these myths. I agree that if the idea doesn't make a negative impact on our classroom then we could incorporate bits and pieces into our lesson plan to see if we do notice an differences. On the other hand if one of the myths is believed to actually distract from learning or create a negative impact, I believe that we could show research to others to inform them of the negativity that the myth is having on the students. That way other teachers might change in order to better their students.
ReplyDeleteYes, like you said, if it doesn't do harm or it is already incorporated into your lesson in a positive way it can be used. Whenever the topic of harmful fads comes up I always think back to facilitated communication and how detrimental that was to students, their families, and education. Because of that I will always be cautious about fads until I can do research.
DeleteI like how you bring up the idea behind learning styles just being a fad for right now. I think that is very true. If we give it a few years, something new will be researched and widely spread between those in the education field. I have a hard time completely throwing out the idea of learning styles because I do feel that people may have an easier time learning material if it is presented in their learning style way, but it is also important as future educators to remember that all students can learn despite how material is delivered. It is our job as educators to harness our students' potential, help them see that potential and then guide them while they use that potential to learn new ideas and information.
ReplyDeleteOne thing, though, is the time lag for better ideas to come along, and the 'half-life' of the bad fad. For example, the link I share about "learning styles debunked" is from 2009. TWO THOUSAND NINE!!!!!!!!!! That's six years, and we're still seeing this stuff around. If a drug was proven ineffective, or dangerous, would there be a six year lag before it was pulled?????
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