Educational Psychology / Unit 8 EDP 0755 review, 2 to 3 minutes
Learning Styles: Preference and Evidence
The idea
Learning styles are among the most popular ideas in education and among the most contested. The idea has two parts that must be kept apart. The first is that people have preferences about how they learn, through pictures, words or activity, and that part is true: students do report preferences. The second is the meshing hypothesis, the claim that students learn better when instruction is matched to their diagnosed style. A major review of the evidence by Pashler and colleagues in 2008 found virtually no evidence for that matching pattern, and concluded that there is no adequate evidence base to justify incorporating learning-styles assessments into general educational practice. Cognitive styles such as field dependence and impulsivity are a different idea: tendencies in how people process information, which teachers can build on and balance.
In practice
Worked example: a school gives every student a learning-styles questionnaire, labels each one visual, auditory or kinesthetic, and asks teachers to teach each group in its own style. The research gives no support for expecting better learning from that arrangement, and the labels can lock students out of learning in other ways. A second school instead uses Universal Design for Learning: every lesson presents information in several forms, lets students show learning in several ways, and offers several routes to engagement, for all students.
Where people slip
Rejecting style-matching is not rejecting variety. Varied presentation serves every learner; it does not require sorting learners into channels. Supporting a preference now and then does no harm; labeling students, or locking them into one style, is what teachers should avoid. A question describing a teacher who matches lessons to diagnosed styles is describing a practice the research does not support.
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