Myths of Learning Styles

I told you I would research the background of the NPR finding that considering learning styles is an unproven myth. I was going to try to find the scientific studies that showed that we really don’t have unique learning styles. I didn’t have to look far, because the NPR article itself referred to the two prominent review articles. Review articles are just a review of all the scientific studies that have been published.

This article in the Guardian makes it clear that not only is the concept of preferred learning styles incorrect, but its acceptance could be damaging for the student, because embracing “learning style differences” can put the student in a “fixed” mind frame of “this is the way my brain works, and I have to accept that.” Studies show otherwise… brains are “plastic”, they can change when we focus them in a different direction. The next article was more of a scientific inquiry.

In “Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence” I take away this:

• We are not good at determining if we understand something. This is well-documented and called the Dunning Krueger Effect.
• Thus we are not good at determining if something had been effectively taught to us. We also saw this in the “say the wrong thing” video by Veritassium – again the result of scientific studies, as this was a PhD thesis in Physice Education Research.
• Thus we are not good at determining if someone is a good instructor or if a technique used to teach us something is an effective technique.

For these reasons, we can not determine if we have a learning style. It’s been universally shown, for instance that quizzing is a good way to learn and remember things. If you are at all interested, please read the last page (117) of the article start from the beginning of the page, not the summary.