Modality
http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/ae/summer2005/willingham.cfm
It is a widespread misconception among educators and the general public that students are best taught in their strongest modality. It is true that children have strengths in different areas and prefer different modalities. The teacher’s instructions in the students’ strongest modality does not provide for higher educational achievement. There has been much research on the relation between instruction in various modalities and student retention. It has been discovered that students retain information independent of modality. Meaning is the most important factor in retention. What is most important is that the instruction is given in the content’s best modality. If you are asking the students to remember the greatness of an Egyptian pyramid you would want to show the students a visual cue. If you are asking the students to remember a fact or reading then they should be given the content in auditory format.
This article completely changed my perception of teaching instruction. I had always strongly believed that students learn best when instructed in their preferred modality. In my personal experience I feel like I retain content more when it is presented to me in a visual or kinesthetic format, because I have a greater strength in those modalities. But from this article I have realized that tasks in the classroom are inherently meaning based. The best modality for the content is the best to use to instruct the students in for them to retain meaning. Teachers do not need to be so concerned with figuring out how to teach material in different modalities to comply with every student. Content should be presented in the most forward way that allows the students to most easily and strongly extract meaning and understanding.
This article was very interesting to me. I really think that all teachers should read this article. It is vital to students to have straightforward, thorough instruction given to them when completing any task. But the teacher does not need to worry about adapting their instruction to children’s personal learning preference. I am still not completely convinced that modality of preferred instruction has no affect on the students retention. I personally feel like I learn and retain knowledge a lot better when it is presented to me visually or kinesthetically. I guess that may be true in some contexts, but in the classroom it does not affect my achievement.