The Myth of “Learning Styles” [CC]

What kind of learner were you told you were in elementary school that changed the trajectory of your learning forever?

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Wow! You scrolled to the bottom! Thanks for reading this far & also for being here! Glad to have ya :)

[strabbie]

omg, I also had the experience of writing down how I learn on a piece of paper, then being approached and dismissed by the teacher who literally asked us...

[ronjaj.addams-ramstedt]

If anyone wants to fall into a rabbit hole regarding learning styles: 'A psychometric analysis of reliability and validity of the index of learning styles (ILS)'
By Ahmed Al-Azawei, Patrick Parslow, Karsten Lundqvist
International Journal of Psychological Studies 7 (3), 46-57, 2015

AFAIK the Felder-Solomon model of learning styles is the only one that has been validated at least partially convincingly. It is possible that it measures (young) adult STEM learners best, though.

It saved my sanity as an engineering student and still today enables me to guide my own learning. YMMV

[deirenne]

The bit at the end about learning better when you teach is something I connected to on a deep level, because it immediately brought me back to middle school and teaching other students science topics they didn't understand during the class, but they knew I did and I was "so good at explaining and teaching this", because what they didn't know was that I basically learned myself those things way better than anything I'd study by myself. Having two perspectives tackling an issue, having to reapproach something and explain it differently, having someone poke holes in my understanding and dig deeper, it all forced me to think more about the topic, actually ask myself how and why something is the answer, rather than my normal "idk, I just know it is", and all that repetition with variation meant that in the end, it was helping me at least as much as I was helping them. I even made mnemonic techniques for other people, which I never bothered to do for myself, but I still remember the galvanic series for metals and that shit was almost 15 years ago, just because I made up a story with words having the first letters as the metal symbol XD I would never do that for myself, I just logiced myself into remembering most of it jus as metal, but my friend couldn't, so I made an accesibility tool for her and decade and a half later I can still tell that story.

[tracirex]

slightly off topic, but wondering if you would be interested in looking at Elaine Arons Highly Sensitive Person empire to see if it holds up to scientific standards.

[rivercrystal]

I have autism and adhd and I've just found your videos. All of your points in this video are spot on and amazing, good job.

[ForestLearnsThings]

I love hearing your explanation at 30:01! I think this has some similarity to the way I explain my own learning process! I have a sort of web of information in my brain, and the more concepts a new concept sticks to, the easier it is to learn (I think this is at least somewhat true for most everyone). Sometimes it's hard to pick-up new knowledge, not because it's "difficult" but because I need more of a "framework" or "scaffold" where that information can slide into place. This can cause me to take longer to understand some concepts compared to other people, because I seem to have a need for more context around pieces of information, but I also think this helps me build "deeper roots" in topics and makes it easier to create new connections. Interestingly, things relating to my special interests don't seem need *as much* of a scaffold, because my brain just loves to stick to them anyway.

Also, I used to be really into learning styles and personality tests before I knew I was autistic and had ADHD. It's wild looking back at the communities I used to frequent, because a lot of them appear to be full of autistic people who don't know they're autistic. Forums specifically for people who are the INFJ type in the Myers-Briggs system feel a lot like forms made for "highly sensitive people." INFJ was the best tool I had for describing my experience as an autistic person when I didn't know I was autistic. Similarly, I think stuff like "learning styles" and the concept of giftedness can be appealing to educators who resonate with some of those ideas because they are seeing something that reflects some of their own experiences. My aunt is a music teacher who gets into this stuff, and she once let me borrow her text book about teaching "gifted-children" and raved about how it helped her understand that she wasn't "weird" she was just "gifted." (Side-note, the text-book was horrendous and was essentially like 'You can't be disabled! You're smart enough to produce a profit in the future!')

(I planned to write a short comment, but I guess I had a lot of thoughts haha).

[victoriacrawford]

I worked in educational publishing in the 1990’s, and I remember when Gardner’s styles were getting discussed in the press. I wasn’t an actual educator so I just assumed there was something to it. Sure, if kids need different types of instruction, by all means! So talk about learning styles *for teachers* made some sense to me.

And then… I remember being completely bewildered when I attended educational conferences and trade show vendors were selling items to teachers to support them in teaching CHILDREN about these different so-called learning styles. I was immediately suspicious — why would learners need to know all about this? Wouldn’t they just need to use them to, you know, learn? That’s when I clocked that this was just a fad. I could understand a teacher needing to know about these styles (if they existed) but there wouldn’t be a reason for all kids to have to know about all different learning styles. (Especially if they aren’t real! 😂)

Now I’m a reading interventionist and use research-based approaches for dyslexic students. These students definitely benefit from multi-sensory learning because reading brains (which we each have to painstakingly assemble, we didn’t evolve to read) use neural pathways to connect different parts of our brains that we did evolve for specific purposes (sight! hearing! language!). Not “styles, ” not “preferences, ” rather, our basic neurological wherewithal. We all need to activate all those areas to become good readers, no inventory required.

[thegracklepeck]

I only experienced "traditional" education for standardized testing and when I went to college. Being homeschooled as an undiagnosed AuDHD person was either boring or anxiety inducing because of how I was taught by my mother but I feel like being in a traditional school setting might have been that much worse.

Being in a large group of kids always made me incredibly uncomfortable and overwhelmed with all the sights, sounds, smells, and overhead lighting.
It was hard when going to aummer camp for example because eating in a large cafeteria was horrible. I had chronic stomach aches and food texture problems and any overwhelm just made those that much worse.

I experienced the same thing in college and quickly found sitting outside by myself was preferable. I've never been a good note taker so I really struggled in anything that wasn't a music class (my hyperfixation at the time). I ended up dropping out after barely getting my AA because I went from a small local college to a HUGE university and couldn't cope.

I wish I'd known how to ask for help but I, like you, would teach myself things by myself outside of class time as best I could because I didn't know how to do anything different and had heard there were only 4 types of learners and I didn't feel like I fit into any of them well. What a damaging concept to internalize. :(

[ZeeZeeNg]

My preferred learning style is when the content is being taught in a way that's fun and non-punishing. It's hard to stay focused when there's a constant fear of punishments and deadlines. Also, the pacing of the content is very important; too fast and it's hard to catch up for weeks, if you don't fully understand the concept of a previous lesson.

[valuelight]

What do you think about anarchism? I heard you mentioning that you believe that the school system is fucked, which I agreed with, and was wondering if you were either an anarchist or someone who read anarchist material. As someone who’s attending community college and “learning” math, it’s becoming clear how the system isn’t built to help us actually learn and apply the material being taught to us but is instead built to beat us down until we turn into submissive automatons. It’s gotten to a point where I’m developing strong resentment towards teachers in the United States, for I think most would rather have a united front than actually see how inherently damaging the school system is for the youth and their complicity in their psychological demise. Since you said you’re a teacher, how exactly do you teach your students? What model of pedagogy are you abiding by? Also, and this is a bit of a tangent, but for me, watching Algebra videos on my own time is way more helpful than sitting through the class period, having to endure the teacher’s violent onslaught of endless, meaningless information. Maybe it’s because I’m a visual leaner and I respond well to images verses words. Or maybe it’s because I’m practicing self-directed learning and thus am having a more fulfilling time learning than I would in my algebra class.

[FireTurkey]

me learning 'best' visually... yeah, that just turned out to be inattentive-type ADHD lol.

[Yuffie]

Okay, so I was homeschooled from the age of 6 onward, so I didn't experience the whole "fill out this learning style questionnaire" thing. But I always thought (and still kinda think despite the debunking) that I was a visual learner because: 1) I learn how to do crafty things best from a video than from static pictures, and 2) I used to get a lot of sh!t from various karate instructors because I didn't want to "follow along with the rest of the class" when I was presented with a completely unfamiliar kata (pattern of moves meant to represent an imaginary fight), but if I watched the kata enough times I could sometimes do it on my own.
I guess my brain just prefers video...? Maybe because of The Autism? heh 😅 I mean, if Actual Experts did studies to debunk all this, I guess it is just a preference, but it's a preference I'm gonna cling to. Not that it matters anyway because I left martial arts (due to a nasty case of gaslighting that killed my love for it, or at least severely injured it), I'm not currently in an academic setting, and nobody cares how I learn knitting and crochet.
I swear I don't mean to come across as bitter 😆It's just a bit of a downer when you think you have a different style of learning and are told otherwise.

[CDKohmy]

I've though of myself as an audio-visual learner. Even in person, I prefer to be shown how to do a thing with a clear and simple explanation. If what I'm learning is practical (rather than abstract), it needs to be followed by a guided kinetic trial. Also, there are so many academic articles I want to read, but absorb it better if the info was formatted like a blog or a chat.

[chrismaxwell]

Is this really learning style or just using all of our senses in learning. But if any one put a person one or two boxes.

When I was instructor in college I used all I could. Visual, Verbal, Writing/reading, and hands on work. So I taught tech courses. I'd hand course material that explained the topic along with lab. I'd visually show the topic and how to do it via a Power Point. I'd explain verbally as well. Then assist in lab.

It would be silly to put a person in a single box. Oh you are audio learning style so I'll just lecture you. That's just doesn't make sense to cut yourself off other methods.

Also I like how said being bullied but didn't realize. Totally get that.

[LSJ]

one time my sixth grade language arts teacher said the most ridiculous thing. She informed us about learning styles and on top of that, told a small story about this boy she once had in her class who was “such a kinesthetic learner” that when sitting at a desk he couldn’t retain any vocabulary words but when she made him do something ‘hands on’, (ex. She said all she had to do was throw him a ball while she quizzed the student) and he recited whatever he needed to perfectly. That lady was full of bs 💀

[valuelight]

I honestly feel like capitalism makes it hard for us to actually deeply understand information. Not only are we forced to endure the Prussian model of education, which is responsible for things like rote memorization in American schools, the very hierarchal teacher-student dynamic, the banking model of teaching, etc. but our work hours and just living under such a stress-inducing system constantly makes it hard for us to simply engage with certain material, thus we might require more stimulation in order to learn better. We don’t know what learning under an anarchist, anti-hierarchal structure feels like because that doesn’t exist globally and we’re so used to living under capitalism. Our modes of studying are fucked. And the ways in which we perceive the world and ourselves are fucked as well due to us being socialized by so many hierarchical, pro-capitalist institutions. Capitalism ruins learning.

[aspidoscelis]

Writing this prior to watching—I had a thought, recently, that you wouldn't expect different outcomes from accommodating different learning styles to show up in the results of any standardized test applied across learning styles.

Knowledge gained by doing the thing is demonstrated by doing the thing, for instance.

Of course, that doesn't mean learning styles are real, but I think there's reason to doubt that our current data are informative in either direction.