Learning Styles and Evidence‐Based Approaches to Education

Abstract

The basic idea behind the use of ‘Learning Styles' classifications is to diagnose learners into one or more of a handful of ‘styles' (e.g. Visual, Auditory, Converger) and then teach students according to their supposed style. This idea has been repeatedly tested and does not improve learning, according to current experimental evidence. Continued use of a teaching method that is not evidence‐based is potentially associated with negative effects on learning, particularly where learners are compartmentalized into a small number of ‘styles'. Despite this lack of evidence, survey and literature review research I will present here demonstrates that belief in the use of Learning Styles appears to be widespread amongst teaching staff in Higher Education (58%). This may be in part due to the continued publication of research papers that are based on the premise that matching teaching to Learning Styles is an effective approach. However the percentage of respondents who reported actually using Learning Styles in the last year (33%) was lower. Far more reported using a number of techniques that are demonstrably evidence‐based. As a group, participants agreed with all the posited weaknesses and negative consequences of Learning Styles theory. However, a substantial number of participants (32%) stated that they planned to continue using Learning Styles despite being presented with the lack of an evidence base to support them, suggesting that a ‘debunking’ approach to belief in Learning Styles may not be an effective way to promote evidence‐based approaches education. Qualitative comments revealed a number of potential reasons why belief in Learning Styles persists.Support or Funding InformationN/AThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.