I'll post my thoughts about the article, but I wanted to discuss a tangentially related point--science (and science claims) are all around you. I'm interested in science and scientific arguments, so I'm always listening and paying attention, and you should try to tune your mind and eye and ear to pay attention as well.
One example: this morning as I was listening to NPR, a story came on about learning styles. I grew up with this idea that I learn in a particular way--am I better at auditory or visual tasks? for example. It turns out that the science this idea is based on is problematic. I liked the quotation from one of the scientists interviewed, that anytime someone proposes the idea that there are fundamental differences to the brain, that is problematic. (We'll discuss this idea later in the semester).
The general idea is that we have particular strengths, but that good instruction will ask students to learn in different kinds of ways and switch up the teaching style to keep everyone engaged and interested. At the end of the day, what allows kids to learn better is simply keeping their attention on a topic or task.
Now I feel a lot better about never being able to understand what my learning style is--it turns out, I use them all, and hopefully I can use them all as we learn together.
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