Learning Styles Do Exist!

This post is a response to Learning Styles Do Not Exist

Chris, say it isn’t so!

Learning styles most certainly exist!

Before I dig into some important points, I agree with you about the lack of validity of the kinestetic/auditory/visual breakdown as discussed in the video. Different learning tasks will require learners to activate different sensory pathways and any learner can be successful in learning content or procedures given enought time and exposure. Falling into the “I can’t do it because I’m a ________ learner” is simply the learner being lazy.

What I must disagree with is the overall statement that, “Learning Styles Do Not Exist.” It seems that learning styles have recently come under fire, as they do every few years. The article by Pashler et al is but one in a series of articles that attempt to debunk learning styles. Their conclusion, however, is interesting:

“we conclude therefore, that at present, there is no adequate evidence base to justify incorporating learning styles assessments and general educational practice. . . However, given the lack of methodologically sound studies of learning styles, it would be an error to conclude that all possible versions of learning styles have been tested and found wanting; many have simply not been tested at all. Further research on the use of learning-styles assessment in instruction may in some cases be warranted, but such research needs to be performed appropriately.”

The latter part of their conclusion is quite important. Any teacher who has taught long enough recognizes that students learn in different ways. Think back to when you first learned to suture. Were you a learner who had to watch the teacher? Or did you read a book first? Or perhaps you had to get hands-on with the pig’s foot, needle driver, and suture? Did you need to wrestle with the content alone or did you need to discuss with your friends? Did you need a checklist worthy stepwise approach or did you “just do it?” Perhaps you had to do one of the above when you preferred a different method of learning?

Recognizing that learners do vary in their preferences, I do not believe that we should dismiss learning styles outright. Richard Felder, professor of physics and co-creater of the Felder-Silverman Learning Styles Index recently wrote a thoughtful response to the Pashler study. In it he identifies some critical questions:

• Do students with different assessed learning styles respond differently to specific forms of instruction?
• Does instruction that matches a student’s learning style lead to greater learning?
• Can instruction be improved by taking learning styles into account? If so, how?

Important points made in response to the first two questions include:

• Learning styles are a continuum, and are not exclusive to one extreme or the other
• Learners with any style can still be successful
• Students taught in a style discordant with their preferred style perform worse than students matched to a learning style

As instructional designers, the third question is the most important. Felder makes the point right away that attempting to design instruction matched to each learner is, “for all practical purposes, impossible.” Optimizing one learner will lead to mismatched instruction for other learners. A point not stressed by Felder that directly ties into optimizing learning is that optimal learning requires stress. As I discussed in Neurobiology and Medical Education, too much stress leads to anxiety and too little leads to boredom. It is plausible that being perfectly matched will detract from learning by decreasing the stress threshold. So what should we do instead?

• Choose one learning style index to apply and try it out.
• Seek balance in your teaching. Try to provide instruction that varies between matched and mismatched in order to allow students to experience stress and growth, as well as develop skills to learn in uncomfortable settings.
• Teach your students about their preferences. This will allow you to coach them in the development of coping skills (introverts will dislike group projects and will benefit from reflection time).

References and links

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