![]() ![]() “…a learning style that might be desirable in one situation might be undesirable in another situation due to the multifaceted nature of complex skills” – “Do Learners Really Know Best? Urban Legends in Education” I would never expect to learn geography only by reading about it, or cooking just by watching videos of Jamie Oliver. I might enjoy watching videos more, but thinking that it helps me learn better is to confuse enjoyment with effectiveness. In the same way, you may enjoy learning by watching videos but actually perform better on tests when you study by using something like the Feynman technique (we’ll get to how to figure out the way you learn best in a moment).Įven looking at my own experience, I’ve found I learn best using the learning style best suited to the material. To paraphrase an example from the above article, you may prefer pizza, but kale is objectively better for you. – “Do Learners Really Know Best? Urban Legends in Education”Īnd this makes sense. “The individually preferred way of learning is often a bad predictor of the way people learn most effectively what people prefer is often not what is best for them.” Kirschner et al. put it this way in a 2013 paper on common education myths: – Christian Jarret, “All You Need to Know About the ‘Learning Styles’ Myth, in Two Minutes”įurthermore, using a “preferred” learning style (as opposed to an optimal one) can actually be detrimental to learning. “…usually the most effective way for us to learn is based not on our individual preferences but on the nature of the material we’re being taught – just try learning French grammar pictorially, or learning geometry purely verbally.” Just Google “learning styles” to see how ambiguous the situation is.Įven more important than the disagreement about the number of styles, however, is the problem with the larger “learning styles” model.Īs Christian Jarrett explains in the Wired article mentioned above, most studies on learning styles reveal that people perform best when the learning style they use is most appropriate for the material they’re learning, not the style they prefer: One literature review identified as many as 13!Īnd even within each of the learning styles models, there’s no clear agreement about what each of the styles means. How many learning styles are there? Turns out, it depends who you ask. Some say three, as I was taught, but others say four or even seven. If you haven’t already, you may want to subscribe! The Myth of Learning Styles Want to listen to an audio narration of this article? Just click play below:Īdditionally, you’ll find this narration included in the College Info Geek Podcast feed. I promise you, it’s fascinating stuff, so let’s get started! So instead, today’s article is all about debunking the myth of learning styles and focusing on what really matters: learning techniques. By the end of this post, you’ll know what you actually need to focus on to learn and recall material. In it, psychologist Christian Jarrett explains that the idea of different learning styles simply isn’t supported by existing research. I’d actually planned to write a pretty straightforward article on the different learning styles and how knowing yours can help you study better, but then Thomas pointed me to this piece from Wired. So you can imagine my surprise when after nearly ten years of believing in it, I learned that the traditional idea of learning styles is wrong. I’ve always loved this neat explanation of three learning styles, and I’ve even used it to justify why I struggled with subjects such as math (“it’s just not visual enough,” I’d complain to my mom, even though the very visual subject of geometry was one I struggled with the most). I carried that knowledge with me through the rest of school and never questioned it. Once the counselor guided us through the test’s complicated rubric, I found that my learning style was visual. We nodded our heads, picked up our pencils, and took the test just like any other. This test will help you determine which style comes most naturally to you.” ![]() “There are three learning styles: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Standing before the class in our monthly “guidance” session, she gave the following proclamation: I first learned about learning styles from my middle school guidance counselor. An Alternative View: Learning Techniques. ![]()
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