I reckon the benefits of learning styles as it is tailored based learning for students keeping in mind their preferences. Some may learn maximum using visuals, whereas other advantages more from the auditory style. Some students prefer the reading/writing style, and some might go for the kinesthetic style. But in all this, I see a drawback that by teaching students using ‘only’ their desired studying method would bound their ability to prosper and accommodate to changing environments. The paper mentioned above discusses that no scientific evidence backs it up, which worries me a bit more as a classroom follows one learning style and not all students will be same. So, this opposition in learning needs requires bringing the balance in an optimum way by catering all types of styles in such a way that all students should take full advantage of it.
It should be educator’s job to train students in such a manner that they should also know how to overcome their weaknesses and difficulties. Students should be taught in a productive way so that they also learn how to familiarize and adjust in the situations where they think they can’t gain much. A teacher should ensure that their students learn to become accommodative as in today’s world everything is dynamic, and business is becoming global. At a higher level of education, students would see a wide variety of techniques used to instruct them and so they should be proficient in utilizing all of them rather than just sticking to their chosen style.
In my opinion, going after just one studying technique limits a student’s potential to grow, progress and adjust. A student should not hold back from any mode of knowledge. I do agree that it saves time and energy if information is absorbed in one’s preferred way but at the same time, the restraint it puts on one’s progression is significant in the real world. I would conclude on a quote by Ronald H. Forgus, “Perception is an active process of locating and extracting information from the environment and learning is the process of acquiring information through experience and storing information. Thinking is the manipulation of information to solve problems. The easier it is to extract information (perceive) the easier our thinking process becomes.”
