Nine in 10 teachers believe students learn better in their preferred learning style. They do not.
When researchers matched lessons to whether students preferred words or pictures, matched students scored no better.
Veritasium · The Biggest Myth In EducationMore than nine in 10 teachers think students learn better when taught in their preferred learning style. Researchers polled almost 400 teachers in Britain and the Netherlands, and over 90% said students learn better that way.
Well-designed tests find no such benefit. In one computer-based study, researchers classified students as visualizers or verbalizers, then assigned them at random to study electronics through written definitions or annotated diagrams. Students taught in the style that matched their preference scored no better than students taught in the opposite style. The result held when researchers repeated the test with 61 adults without a college education.
A 2009 review of the research called the gap between the popularity of learning styles and the lack of evidence for them striking and disturbing.
Questions people ask
What do people mean by learning styles?
The most famous version is called VARK, for Visual, Auditory, Reading-Writing, and Kinesthetic. It claims that people learn best when instruction matches their preferred sense, such as diagrams for visual learners or lectures for auditory learners. The idea is about preference for how material is presented, not about ability or intelligence.
If matching does not help, what does help students learn?
One well-supported finding is that almost everyone learns more when words and pictures are presented together than from either alone. Researchers also find that learning improves when students actively think, use memory strategies, and confront common misunderstandings. In other words, what matters is the thinking the material requires, not the sense it arrives through.
Why does the idea feel so true?
Partly because a good diagram helps almost everyone, and a person who already thinks of herself as a visual learner takes that as proof. The idea also fits a broader cultural belief that everyone is unique and should be taught differently. Once people have a label, they tend to notice the hits and forget the misses.