Why is this? Mainly because there is very little evidence of anything related to learning and brain cognition. Research on the brain and how it works is still in its infancy and neuroscientists are not going to definitively say that the current body of research proves or disproves any theories. Not yet.

Yet, as teachers, we are all aware that learning styles – or learning preferences – do seem to exist. They have an effect on learners, and ways of learning information are often unique to each student.

I’ve listed the common theories of multiple intelligences, brain-based learning, and learning styles as related to the Myers-Briggs personality indicator in my book, Special Needs in the General Classroom – 500+ Teaching Strategies for Differentiating Instruction. The idea behind Myers-Briggs is that certain personality preferences may also have specific learning preferences.

Despite current arguments against it, Myers-Briggs has been heavily researched and, therefore, a good deal of evidence, both for and against its use, exists.

A concern I see expressed most consistently against learning styles is that teachers, students, and parents should not learn or teach only to a student’s perceived learning style. To that, I agree. One should know themselves and how they learn best. When we and our students know how we learn, we also know that we learn in a variety of ways – NOT just one way.

Teachers do not need to teach differently to each child in the classroom based on each student’s perceived learning style. In my opinion, that’s simply ludicrous and impractical, and it is not consistently possible.

Rather, it is important that teachers employ a variety of strategies in their classroom, sprinkled throughout their lesson planning. By doing so, the teacher is more likely to meet the needs of all learners in the classroom. Some experts call this Universal Design for Learning. Some call it Tier One.

I call it common sense.

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Tier One of RTI requires the use of best practice, research-based teaching methods. Research- based strategies, as discussed in Robert Marzano’s Dimensions of Learning, are implemented in the differentiated classroom to provide the best teaching practices for Tier One, thereby reducing the need for interventions.

Given my experience teaching at the high school level as both a special education teacher and a co-teacher who worked within the inclusion model, as well as my experience coaching in middle schools and high schools around the country, I have become convinced that every secondary classroom needs to begin at Tier One: differentiating instruction so that all students can learn.  When teachers differentiate instruction, 80-90% of students are successful in meeting achievement benchmarks. (Hanson 2009)

1. The verbal linguistic, auditory delivery of information where students are expected to passively sit in their seats and take in information while trying to copy notes at rapid speed does not work for all students.
2. The students it does not work for are the students who are not responding to education and are doing poorly in the classroom as well as on their state tests. While this method may work for some teachers and some students, it does not work for the majority of our struggling student population.
3. A consequence of the lack of differentiation at the secondary level is that students who move on to college, whether to engineering coursework or technical school, primarily learned only one mode of studying. When they become college students and are met with challenging coursework, they often lack the study skills to support them in the more rigorous academic environment. This is why we often find that our most successful high school students don’t meet expectations at the college level.

The reality is that until we differentiate instruction at the secondary level, a basic requirement of Tier One RTI, we are shortchanging all our students: English-language learners, students with special needs, trade bound students, or students heading off to college.

Excerpted from RTI Strategies for Secondary Teachers by Susan Gingras Fitzell.

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