Activity 4.4: Dispelling Three Myths About How Learners Process Information

Activity 4.4: Dispelling Three Myths About How Learners Process Information

Question:  Kirschner & van Merrienboer (2013) refers to “young people who have been immersed in technology all their lives” (p.170) as digital natives . The assumption is that because these youth spend so much of their time immersed in technology of all kinds, that they are competent in this field and should be encouraged, and in fact, trusted to have control over their leaning through technology. How is it possible that these digital natives are not as “technologically savvy” (p. 170) as one would think?

Quotation:  The quotation I chose is from the Kirschner & van Merrienboer (2013) article Do Learners Really Know Best? Urban Legends in Education. “To summarize, the idea that learners with different learning styles should be taught with different instructional methods is a belief for which very little, if any, scientific evidence exists. There are fundamental problems with regards to the measurement of learning styles and the theoretical basis for the assumed interactions between leaning styles and instructional methods, and, last but not least, substantial empirical evidence for learning styles hypothesis is missing” (p. 175).

Personal Connection:  Kirschner & van Merrienboer (2013) argues that humans are incapable of multitasking, “the simultaneous and/or concurrent performance of two or more tasks requiring cognition or information processing” (p. 171). Our brains only allow us to move quickly, between different tasks, or task switching. Trying to do two or more things at the same time, can lead to “poorer learning results and poorer performance of tasks” (p. 172). I have been amazed by my son’s ability to watch a ball game on television, listen to booming music, and chat in multiple windows with friends on Facebook and Google Gmail on his laptop or Netbook, all at the same time! After reading this article, I discovered that it is not possible to process all of this input at once, and that we are actually task switching. Educationally, this could be a serious issue, when students try to read, write, or do mathematics while they listen to music, which is quite common now that most kids have and MP3 players with ear buds. Many adolescents I teach believe they can concentrate better on their homework while listening to music, when in fact there is evidence to the contrary.

Outside Connection:  Kirschner & van Merrienboer (2013) discusses the myth that students have certain learning styles, which teachers and curricula must aligned to each child’s strength. One problem with this myth is that many people have multiple learning styles and do not fit into one distinct category. Howard Gardner, (1983) in his book, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, proposed that all people have nine kinds of intelligence, in combinations unique to each individual. He believes that teachers should be teaching material so students can learn in a variety of ways, enhancing all intelligences, and become well-rounded, lifelong learners. His nine intelligences include Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Musical Rhythmic, Bodily/Kinesthetic, Spatial, Naturalist, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Existential (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/education/ed_mi_resources.html).