Willingham

    Cards (6)

    • Willingham’s theory: his criticism of learning styles
      Learning styles describe the different ways in which people learn best, according to their individual needs/skills/attributes
      As there is no firm evidence base for learning styles, Willingham (a professor in psychology from the USA) proposes that only tried and tested research should be used to inform teaching and learning
      • Willingham’s learning theory
      • Meaning and context are more important than trying to determine what a child’s learning style is (knowledge comes first)
      • Transferring short-term memory into long-term memory is an essential component of learning  
      • Practice must be consistent and regular to turn skills which require effort and concentration into automatic processes (practice is not dependent on learning styles)
      • Children who can delay gratification have better outcomes than those who cannot: this is known as self-regulation 
      • Neuropsychology can be used to guide and determine learning
    • Research which supports Willingham’s learning theory
      • Baddeley & Godden (1975) found that deep-sea divers who learnt information underwater recalled it best when underwater i.e. context gives meaning and cues to enable retrieval
      • Rosenshine, Meister & Chapman (1996) - the best strategies for learning via reading is to consider what is already known and how it relates to the text (knowledge comes first) and then regularly assess one’s understanding of the text (self-explanation)
      • Willingham (1998) - learning grows directly out of motor control processes in brain areas such as the prefrontal cortex and the cerebellum:
      • fMRI scans showed that mental practice can produce an interaction of conscious and unconscious processes in motor skill learning
      • In short, the brain is hardwired to encourage learning and to turn it into automatic responses which require little energy so that new information can be learnt
    • Evaluation of Willingham’s learning theory
      Strengths
      • There is good research support (as outlined above) for Willingham’s theory which means it is high in validity
      • Neuroscientific methods (see Willingham’s use of fMRI in his study) is an objective method which should ensure reliable data
    • Evaluation of Willingham’s learning theory
      Weaknesses
      • Research which is lab-based and scientific misses the human element and is low in ecological validity
      • Self-regulation as a predictor of future behaviour seems like a vague variable: there are many reasons for an individual’s academic success which makes this aspect of the theory rather limited