In an attempt to improve student learning and performance, schools invest resources in talks and workshops that teach teachers how to design their classes to fit learning styles (kinesthetic, visual, auditory, etc.) of his students.
This theory, popularized in the 70s and 80s, is today propagated as one of the great discoveries of modern education and proposes that all students can learn equally if they receive the appropriate teaching style.
But there is a pretty important problem. The theory of learning styles is considered one of the biggest myths in psychology. If this theory were true, student performance should improve in educational contexts that take their learning styles into account, but research has not found such a relationship.
What do the studies say?
The results of various studies demonstrate, time and time again, that there is no evidence to support that learning styles can improve academic performance. We published a complete article that explains the scientific deficiencies of this theory. .
On the other hand, proponents of learning styles argue that the lack of evidence is because this research has only focused on learning within the classroom, when in reality students do most of their learning outside of school.
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To settle this issue once and for all, a group of researchers developed an interesting study published in the journal with hundreds of university students from the anatomy department. All participants took an online survey, which allows them to know their learning style preference: visual, auditory, writing/reading and kinesthetic.
With the result, students were urged to use the dominant learning style. At the end of the academic year, the researchers accessed the final grades to evaluate whether or not there was an association between their grades and the dominant learning style used inside and outside the classroom.
As expected, the results are not at all favorable to the concept of learning styles: academic performance was not correlated in any way with the students’ dominant learning style or any of their outstanding learning styles. In fact, the majority of students (67%) failed to study in a manner consistent with their preferred learning style. Students who were able to use their preferred learning style also did not obtain better grades than students who did not use their preferred learning style. On the other hand, specific study techniques that had nothing to do with learning style (class notes or practicing with the microscope) were found to be related to better academic performance.
It is a huge waste of resources to try to train teachers and professors to tailor all their programs to each student’s learning preferences. Instead, teachers and professors must receive training that allows them to train their students to develop flexible learning skills that they can use depending on the characteristics of the topics and subjects to be addressed.
Original study reference:
Husmann, PR and O’Loughlin, VD (2018), Another nail in the coffin for learning styles? Disparities among undergraduate anatomy students’ study strategies, class performance, and reported VARK learning styles. American Association of Anatomists. .
Fountain: