KMN

So, I’m compiling a hopefully comprehensive list of learning to learn strategies. As part of that, I searched on meta-learning strategies. And, in two of the top listed sites, I found, indeed, articles on meta-cognitive strategies. And, a myth. More specifically, one that continues to bedevil our industry (and, relatedly, education). I mean, we’re a quarter way into the new century! I sadly feel like KMN (Kill Me Now).

So, the first site had an article that asked “What meta-learning techniques improve skill acquisition?” After first saying why and what, both good things, the very first recommendation is “understand and adapt to your learning style”. What? I mean, this is such a debunked theme that it’s almost ludicrous. I did comment, but yikes.

So, then going through my other tabs opened from the search results (a meta-learning strategy, btw ;), I find another list. This site has an article listing Examples of Metacognitive Strategies. And, it was only item 5 that was “awareness of learning styles”. Still, here’s a myth pretending to be a valid strategy. Here I couldn’t comment, but I did send a politely worded recommendation to pay attention to the research. (And got a response saying they’d moved on from that position. Ok, but then why did I find it when I did the search?)

In both cases, pointing to an approach that has been deeply investigated and resoundingly dismissed undermines anything and everything else they have to say. Why should I trust what you tell me when I know part of it is wrong? There was other good, and bad, advice in the articles, but sorry, you’ve lost my ability to think you know what you’re talking about.

Yes, I get that the idea of learning styles feels right. Anyone who’s taught recognizes that people learn differently. But…what people think is good, and what actually works, has essentially zero correlation. Yes, you should have different representations. This is to increase access, not to address learning styles, however. And deliberately designing for styles is clearly a waste of money. For instance, creating three different versions of the content for say, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners, wouldn’t be justified.

A step back provides this lesson: know what you say before you say it, and don’t say wrong things unless you want to lose credibility. Which is kind of a meta-comment, but that’s a separate issue ;). I don’t really want you to KMN, but…sometimes it feels like we are moving backwards. Can we return to using what’s demonstrably known as a basis? Sure, science gets upgrades, and so sometimes is wrong (flat earth, anyone?) when it moves to a better explanation, but it’s still better than a basis of dogma.