Learning Styles: Fashion Fad or Lever for Change? The Application of Learning Style Theory to Inclusive Curriculum Delivery

Abstract

As the UK has moved towards a mass higher education system, there have been pressures to change the curriculum and how it is delivered. At the same time, there has been a growing emphasis on widening access and on an inclusive approach to education. Recent renewed interest in learning styles to some extent reflects these developments. But are some classifications more useful than others in developing an inclusive approach? This article takes four classifications of 'learning styles' and looks at how they relate to curriculum values. They are field dependence/independence, holistic/sequential, styles linked to the experiential learning cycle, and 'deep' and 'surface' learning. The author also draws on research at Sheffield Hallam University into the learning styles of GNVQ students, and on experience as a teacher educator in the post-compulsory sector.