Learning Styles Don't Exist

Professor Daniel Willingham describes research showing that learning styles are a myth

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  Education

[Matt Way]

Ok video, but I disagree with the title. If it was 100% accurate, then all students would learn consistently well comparatively when presented with the same information, which is clearly not the case. It should be changed to "All currently defined learning styles are ineffective", or something along those lines.

[Daniel Willingham]

no, because there can be reasons other than styles that account for differences in learning. . . e.g., abilities.

[Matt Way]

no, with your title you are claiming that if you took two people, there is absolutely no way to deliver particular information which would cause a varying difference in their comparative success. You haven't proven this at all.

[Daniel Willingham]

"Learning style" has a more particular meaning than "any factor that leads to different outcomes with the same input."

[jessicamichaelwells]

I have noticed that I learn certain content in certain ways. Some things I grasp better if I see a visual, some if I hear the concept, and others if I am actually doing the act of (hands on). I think that it is safe to say that learning styles do exist. Even you have said that people do learn in different ways. Can we not say that there are different ways (styles) of learning and most people have the ability to use all styles, but some prefer some styles over others.

[Daniel Willingham]

If we could trust our intuitions about what we observe, we wouldn't need the scientific method.

[Daniel Willingham]

Similar studies have been conducted with more meaningful material, but I would also argue that your question represents a bad way to think about it. You've more or less said "you haven't disproved it with more complex material. . . ." implying that VAK is therefore believable. Rather than asking for evidence that it's been disproved, you should offer evidence that it's been proved. If it hadn't been tested at all, that's not a good reason to believe it.

[amadgambler]

The idea of strict learning styles is a nonsense, but what is more important is the understanding of individuals and the way you can motivate and reach them. If I plan a lesson to include different learning styles then I'm being lazy and should really be paying more specific attention to what my class are like, what inspires them and what gets them going, more often than not this is down to teacher enthusiasm, topic and level of challenges, however a lesson is presented.

[moochymom]

Why simplify the job of the teacher? A quality teacher will be able to meet all the learning needs of all learners. Ever heard of Universal Design for Learning?

[Michelle Fung]

Because students don't only have ONE learning style. Many students have multiple styles, so what are you going to do? Place them in 3 different Science classes? Moreover, it's better to appeal to other styles in addition to the dominant one(s) to provide a more holistic approach to learning. Thinking students have only one style is assuming that students are all static. It's already clear that some people can't sit still for 3h in a lecture, whereas some just "absorb" the info immediately.

[uqbal1]

Different teaching styles might stimulate different levels of interest. Modern foreign languages textbooks are usually much more colourful than Latin books and modern languages are better learnt. Similarly, a visual person will be more attracted by a book with a lot of images than a auditory one. But if, for some reason, both the visual and the auditory person study the same book with the same interest, the results do not vary, as prof. Willingham says.

[Richard Smith]

If so many of you are convinced that learning styles actually exist and that teaching to them improves student academic achievement levels, then why not recommend that all the visual learners be placed in one class, tactile learners be placed in another class, and the auditory learners be placed with their compatriots, etc. This would simplify the job of the teacher and make certain that each student would always receive the instruction best suited to his or her own particular needs. Gotcha!!