Working with Complementary Styles Can Boost Performance

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The evolving context of learning: Are our learning styles evolving, too?

A man in our class prefers to make notes of everything that is being taught and read them
later, in solitude for better retention. A woman in our class prefers group study where she
can bounce off different thoughts and ideas and hear the opinions and thoughts of others as
well. When it comes to cooking, my sister prefers to follow the recipe instructions exactly
and needs to see a video tutorial of the recipe while my mother prefers a more guesstimate of
the ingredients and frequently puts together recipes that are not formally written somewhere.
Learning styles and preferences, are different for different individuals. In their
comprehensive review, Rolfe and Cheek describe three prominent learning style theories,
namely, modality styles, flexible styles, and instructional styles. It is important to understand
learning styles so as to match instructional strategies to the same for enhanced learning.
Thesis statement - In the age of online education, open access to learning resources, flipped
classrooms, experiential learning, and other advanced methods of knowledge accumulation
and retention, instructor learning styles where learners adapt to the context seem to make
more sense than the modality styles.
Messick explains learning style as the beliefs and preferences of an individual to acquire,
process, and retain information. The modality styles theory talks about four distinct learning
styles based on sensory perceptions such as “visual/verbal, visual/non-verbal,
tactile/kinaesthetic, and auditory/verbal” (Rolfe, and Cheek, 176). The instructional learning
styles theory suggests that learners do not confine their preferences to one dominant style of
learning but adapt their retention strategies to suit the given learning context for optimal
learning. So, while someone who prefers to hear lectures or engage in group discussions for
comprehension of a topic, in the absence of such an avenue, he/she would find online
tutorials or videos or discussion forums where he/she can still engage in a group exchange of
ideas that would aid individual comprehension.
The idea of having a learning style based on sensory modalities sounds intriguing yet limiting
to some extent. In a heterogenous group of students with varying sensory learning styles, it
would be difficult to design instructional strategies that suit everyone. However, adopting a
common approach based on a majority also has its share of concerns. When it comes to adult
learning, instructional theory seems more pragmatic since adult learners would be more self-
aware and hence able to adapt their learning preferences to the limitations of the context.
When looking at classroom strategies, instructional theory provides more flexibility to the
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