While participating in a group discussion during residency at Royal Roads, I used the term “learning styles”, and was quickly informed by my instructor that the nature of this long standing assumption has been greatly argued as of late. I wasn’t quite sure what she meant but knew that it would come up later in my studies.
Alas, here we are a few months later, and this discussion is now at the forefront. The article by Kirschner argues that although “learning styles” is considered to be common knowledge, there is really no evidence or proof that people are restricted to a certain type of learning style. It seems as though he has brought forth these arguments out of strong frustration with the educational field as a whole. He claims that educators are taking the easy way out by assuming learning styles and creating content based on these assumptions.
Before I even considered this topic, or the concept that learning styles could be a myth, I had always assumed that everybody had different preferences to learning. After evaluating this literature, it has caused me to conclude that it really is JUST that, a preference. Simply because we think we are stimulated visually for example, does not necessarily mean that we are in fact learning any better through visual stimulation. The concept that really struck me was how Kirschner articulated that learning should be measured through cognitive abilities and not learning styles. Rather than tailoring to the self-diagnosed learning styles that are really only personal preferences, teachers should be focusing on the intellect and capabilities of the learners instead of what they proclaim to be the way in which they learn best. This would avoid classifying students at a young age and withholding exposure to different ways of learning.
With my continued focused on the millennial learner, this insight has been eye opening for me. I would often generalize the millennial learner based on traits like “they want information in short bits, they are technically savvy, or they want social learning opportunities etc.” After further consideration, it feels like those traits are more like learning preferences that really have no substantial backing or proof to being more or less effective than traditional learning models. This literature has given me some food for thought in terms of the quick assumptions that we as a training department have been making. We would be providing our employees a disservice if we simply cater to their wants and desires rather than taking the time to evaluate if these methods in fact work.
Kirschner, P. (2017). Stop propagating the learning styles myth. Computers & Education, 106, 166-171.