{"id":7597,"date":"2018-10-11T17:42:25","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T21:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.brainstation.io\/?p=7597"},"modified":"2019-09-25T10:16:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T14:16:00","slug":"why-learning-styles-are-a-myth-and-how-we-really-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/blog\/why-learning-styles-are-a-myth-and-how-we-really-learn","title":{"rendered":"Why Learning Styles Are a Myth (and How We Really Learn)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, thirty eminent professors and doctors of psychology and neuroscience published an<\/span> open letter<\/span><\/a> in The Guardian declaring the concept of learning styles a \u2018neuromyth.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n

What these scientists were so bothered about is the theory that individual learners have a predominant style or modality through which they learn most effectively. This idea originates from a couple of different sources. One is psychologist <\/span>David Kolb\u2019s 1984 model<\/span><\/a> of the experiential learning cycle, which categorizes learners into Assimilators, Accomodators, Divergers, or Convergers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another source is the VARK (Visual, Auditory, Reading, Kinesthetic) <\/span>questionnaire<\/span><\/a>, created by school inspector Neil Fleming in the early \u201890s, which asks people how they prefer to receive information. <\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever the point of origin, the concept of learning styles has become ingrained in popular culture. A 2013 study by the Wellcome Trust found that 76 percent of teachers in the UK used learning styles in their teaching. In 2014, another study claimed over 90% of teachers in five countries (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Turkey, Greece, and China) believed individuals learn better when receiving information tailored to their preferred style. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even the British Council and the BBC have bought in, urging teachers on the <\/span>TeachingEnglish website<\/span> to match their student\u2019s learning styles, including being: <\/span>right- or left-brained<\/span>, analytic vs. dynamic, and visual vs. auditory.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s Wrong With Learning Styles?<\/span><\/h2>\n

In 2009, <\/span>Harold Pashler and his team<\/span><\/a> found there was \u201cvirtually no evidence for\u201d learning styles. Surveying an enormous body of literature, Pashler\u2019s team found that hardly any of it actually used sound experimental methodologies to test the theory; the few studies that did do so contradicted categorization into \u2018learning styles.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Pashler\u2019s results were corroborated most recently <\/span>in this study by Polly Hussman<\/span><\/a> and her team. Hussman had over 400 anatomy students take the VARK questionnaire, then monitored the students\u2019 study habits and course results. Most students\u2019 study strategies did not match their professed \u2018learning style,\u2019 and even when the two aligned it didn\u2019t correlate with higher course achievements. \u201cAnother nail in the coffin for learning styles?\u201d asks the title of Hussman\u2019s published findings. <\/span><\/p>\n

Clearly, there are differences in aptitudes and abilities amongst learners. It\u2019s also true that people express preferences for verbal or visual teaching methods, for example. But it turns out that these preferences are simply not predictive of people\u2019s actual aptitudes. As <\/span>David Kraemer\u2019s team discovered<\/span><\/a>, how people think they learn does not match how they actually learn. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to a study published by British Journal of Psychology, students who claimed to be visual and verbal learners thought they would remember pictures and words better, but those preferences had no correlation to what they actually remembered best. The \u2018learning style\u2019 simply meant was that they liked words or pictures better. <\/span><\/p>\n

To make matters worse, there is evidence that the myth of learning styles is actually causing harm, encouraging teachers to teach to students\u2019 intellectual strengths rather than their weaknesses,\u201d as Scott Lilienfeld wrote in <\/span>50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, How<\/span> Do<\/span><\/i> People Learn?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Psychologist Daniel Willingham suggests that <\/span>all kinds of learning<\/span><\/a> should be promoted and practiced, so that students can strengthen an array of skills, then use whatever is most effective for the problem at hand. \u201cIt\u2019s much better,\u201d he says, \u201cto think of everyone having a toolbox of ways to think.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

One way to do this, is to promote \u201cactive learning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In his book <\/span>Creating Courses for Adults: Design for Learning<\/span><\/i>, author and professor Ralf St. Clair pulled together a number of theories to create what he calls a \u201chighly coherent working model\u201d on learning. St. Clair believes that:<\/span><\/p>\n