This morning on WBUR (Boston’s NPR affiliate) ran a segment in the back-to-school theme titled “Think You’re An Auditory Or Visual Learner? Scientists Say It’s Unlikely”. The whole audio piece is worth a read, but here is a clip.
Psychologist Dan Willingham at the University of Virginia, who studies how our brains learn, says teachers should not tailor instruction to different kinds of learners. He says we’re on more equal footing than we may think when it comes to how our brains learn. And it’s a mistake to assume students will respond and remember information better depending on how it’s presented. For example, if a teacher believes a student to be a visual learner, he or she might introduce the concept of addition using pictures or groups of objects, assuming that child will learn better with the pictures than by simply “listening” to a lesson about addition.
In fact, an entire industry has sprouted based on learning styles. There are workshops for teachers, products targeted at different learning styles and some schools that even evaluate students based on this theory.
This prompted Doug Rohrer, a psychologist at the University of South Florida, to look more closely at the learning style theory.
When he reviewed studies of learning styles, he found no scientific evidence backing up the idea. “We have not found evidence from a randomized control trial supporting any of these,” he says, “and until such evidence exists, we don’t recommend that they be used.”
Willingham suggests it might be more useful to figure out similarities in how our brains learn, rather than differences. And, in that case, he says, there’s a lot of common ground. For example, variety. “Mixing things up is something we know is scientifically supported as something that boosts attention,” he says, adding that studies show that when students pay closer attention, they learn better.
And recent studies find that our brains retain information better when we spread learning over a longer period of time, say months or even a year, versus cramming it into a few days or weeks. Rohrer and colleagues nationwide are currently researching what teaching methods work best for all students, but only using the evidence.
I think this is very interesting because I’ve used the argument of learning styles before. Then again it is has been my experience that people are horrible at understanding themselves. Maybe instead of learning styles, I might have said learning preferences. The idea being students might feel more comfortable learning in a particular way, which may make them more receptive. The idea of providing material through lots of media seems even more appealing now because it requires the students to come out of their comfort zone. I also appreciate the nod to retention and the importance of spreading learning out.