7 Resources Explaining The Learning Styles Myth

This is part 1 of a series of posts that provide resources for common learning myths or misunderstandings. I’m starting with learning styles because I hear this topic come up more than any of the other topics that are misunderstood.

The Myth of Learning Styles – detailed article from Cedar Riener and Daniel Willingham  about why learning styles are a myth.

Students may have preferences about how to learn, but no evidence suggests that catering to those preferences will lead to better learning.

Debunking the Myth – There Is No Such Thing As “Learning Styles” – Guy Wallace shares some thoughts and points us to an article from Sigmund Tobias.  Guy has many posts on this topic - learning styles.

Clark Quinn’s on his thoughts about learning styles:

• Learning Styles
• Learning Styles, Brain-Based Learning, and Daniel Willingham

do the best job for the content, and if that’s counter to a person’s learning style, help them learn to process or cope with different modalities – Clark Quinn

Evidence-Based Training: Debunking the Myth of Learning Styles -a short summary of Ruth Clark’s book where she addresses the myth of learning styles.

one of the biggest myths perpetuated by training professionals is accommodating different learning style

Learning styles: Worth our time? - Cathy Moore reviews research finding no clear evidence supporting any of the theories about learning styles.

The authors suggest that instead of adapting instruction to one of the gajillions of learning style theories, we should build learners’ metacognitive skills and use formative assessment

Learning Styles as Fortune Telling – Cammy Bean has a nice summary of her findings as she tries to better understand the role of learning styles in e-Learning.

Learning Styles Instructional-Design Challenge – Will Thalheimer has a yearly contest where he will give $1000 (US dollars) to the first person or group who can prove that taking learning styles into account in designing instruction can produce meaningful learning benefits.

What Do You Think?

• Is it worth spending time catering to learning styles?
• What other useful resources have you found for learning styles?
• What learning myths do you hear most?