ABSTRACT

This chapter shows that the field of education is able to offer only a partial and fragmented understanding of what constitutes learning, what learning is influenced by, and what the mechanisms of learning might be. Outside the debate over testing, a dominant approach to learning itself in education foregrounds different learning styles, the ways that these 'styles' influence students' learning and, therefore, how teachers' practices should respond. Critical analysis of learning styles highlights the way that learning styles models assert for each individual a singular learning style, rather than gradations of each, and notes how this harks back to prior notions of personality 'types'. In much curriculum, pedagogy and assessment research the focus is on what is learnt, through what processes, and with what outcomes. Still, the chapter is unknown about the molecular mechanisms that drive the particular functioning of particular cells and new biosciences are themselves diverse and proceed with different orientations to learning.