Willingham's Learning theory.

• On the myth of Learning styles Willingham argues that although learners might express a preference for the way that they learn, it makes no difference to their learning when tested under experimental conditions .
• Willingham suggest that the confusion arises from the fact that people have different abilities.
• Willingham also suggest that a persons ability ,background knowledge and interest in the subject has a more influential effect on learning than learning styles. Willingham also believes that that the idea of learning styles has persisted for so long because because people don't distinguish between peoples learning styles and peoples abilities.
• He also suggest that the idea has persisted for so long due to 'confirmation bias '.When we are evaluating our beliefs , we tend to take notice of information that supports our views and ignore the information that contradicts it , even thou there is a lot of contradictory evidence .
• Willingham believes that thinking about the meaning is the most important thing in learning .This means that children will learn the information more deeply and be more likely to recall it from long term memory . Willingham believes that 'drilling;' information into students is damaging as it is boring and makes them dislike school and learning .
• He also suggest that teachers should be very careful what they set for homework and consider whether it will actually benefit the students ,as it will affect what they remember .