Myth or Maxim: Learning Styles

The other day, I was standing in line at Starbucks waiting for my order because there was a new barista being trained on the bar. As she was trying to figure out how to pull a latte, and how much milk to pour, the experienced barista supervising, asked the new barista what type of learner she was, referencing whether she was a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner. Under my breath, I mumbled that learning styles are actually a myth, but waited to see how this scene would unfold. The new barista said that she was a visual learner, upon which, the experienced barista, took the cup and milk out of her hand, and showed her how to pull the milk for a latte.

Learning styles, if you’re not familiar, is a belief that there is a specific type of way in which a student may learn best. Typically, there are three: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, which focuses on watching, listening, and doing, respectively. As such, for those who operate under the belief that students have a preferred learning style, teachers will often cater to specific learning styles for those students, even though doing so has no effect upon their performance. Moreover, operating under a learning styles mindset simply isn’t feasible for instructors with class sizes of many students. What happens to the few students who are kinesthetic learners in a classroom based upon lecture and PowerPoints? It’s impossible for an instructor to cater to specific learning styles for each of their students yet picking the learning style that fits the majority fails to address those who are left out.

A funny example of this is, in my first year as an instructor, teaching Introduction to Psychology, I noticed one of my students in the 3rd row, who sat through all my lectures, never writing down a single note from my PowerPoints, despite having a pencil and paper out for every single one of my classes. But I could tell he was paying attention because he would nod during questions and seemed to be engaged. When I teach, I often emphasize certain points on my PowerPoints, telling students to focus on this term, or really understand it, and we’ll do classroom activities or discuss questions as a class. And while he participated in the activities, I never saw him pick up his pencil in the few weeks of class!

While sitting in my office for office hours, hoping that a student would show up to discuss a future study plan with me, the student who never wrote anything down in my class, knocked on my door and asked if we could chat. He said he was confused and frustrated as to why he did poorly on the exam, when he felt like he had a firm grasp of the material during class. I asked him whether or not he studied, he said he looked over the handouts I had given in class but felt like he remembered everything from my lectures. I prodded him a bit further before gently stating that I noticed he never took notes during class and that there are notes in my PowerPoint that are not in the handout that is given.

He responded by stating that he’s an auditory learner, and that it doesn’t help him to read my PowerPoints or copy down notes.

Oof. So I talked to him about how maybe copying notes down during class could help him later on, jog his memory about my lectures when he’s studying, because simply looking over handouts isn’t enough. But more importantly, it does not help to glance over notes, but rather to really think about the notes and whether they make sense, how they apply to the subject. I said that feeling like you have a firm grasp of the material is different from actually having a firm grasp of it, because it’s not about remembering points on my PowerPoints that matter so much as being able to apply those same concepts to different situations.

What I talked to him about, in terms of being able to grapple with the notes on the page and thinking about how they apply to different situations, is a type of active learning, sometimes also called active engagement. Active learning is defined as the promotion of learner-centered rather than content centered, which sounds like the premise of learning styles! However, active learning focuses on involving the student in the material and having them think through the content and the application of the content. In this sense, the student controls their learning (not the instructor), by taking an active part in the learning experience and process!

Active learning requires a student to do more than copy down notes from a PowerPoint, but to attempt to connect notes to real world experiences, or previous slides or topics in that class or other classes. Cognitively, it’s the idea that the student is able to find patterns in the material of class, organize the patterns into meaningful clusters, and then understand when those clusters are most useful and be able to retrieve and apply the information when necessary.

So, whether you are being trained, or the trainer, it’s important to remember that active learning has been shown to improve performance. As a trainee, remember to look for patterns, apply the content to real life situations, and understand when and where to apply the information. As a trainer, remember to ask thought-provoking questions, use activities that question the applicability of the information, and be an example in how to identify patterns from your own life experiences!

TL;DR: Learning styles are a myth, so rather than using learning styles, active learning is more effective for both the person learning, and the person giving out the information. Engaging with the material, applying it in difference scenarios, and considering the effects of the information will help retention and performance in the long run.