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The concept of different « learning styles » is one
of the greatest neuroscience myths
by Olivia Goldhill
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Are you a visual learner who writes notes in a rainbow of different
colors, or do you have to read something aloud before it will sink it?
Chances are, you’ve been asked a similar question at some point in
your life, and believe the concept of different “learning styles” is
perfectly valid. But, as New York magazine reports, the idea that
students learn differently depending on their personal learning style
is just a myth.
In fact, it’s considered a “neuromyth,” which, as Paul Howard-Jones,
professor of neuroscience and education at Bristol University, writes
in a 2014 paper on the subject, is characterized by a
misunderstanding, misreading, or misquoting of scientifically
established facts.
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Other examples of neuromyths include that we only use 10% of our
brain, and that drinking less than six to eight glasses of water a day
will cause the brain to shrink.
“Perhaps the most popular and influential myth is that a student
learns most effectively when they are taught in their preferred
learning style,” writes Howard-Jones.
Indeed, studies have shown strong cross-cultural belief in this
concept.
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In 2012, researchers asked 242 teachers from the UK and
the Netherlands whether various neuromyths were scientifically
correct. The concept of auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning
styles was the most trusted myth: Some 93% of UK teachers and 96%
of Netherland teachers believed it was true. (The second most
commonly believed myth was that left- or right-brain dominance
affected learning.)
In December, Philip Newton, professor at Swansea University’s
College of Medicine, searched for “learning styles” articles freely
available on research databases, to get a sense of the impression a
teacher might get if they did a cursory search on the subject. He
found that, though studies “do not really engage” with evidence
showing that learning styles is a myth, 94% of current research
papers start with a positive view of learning styles.
“Learning Styles do not work, yet the current research literature is
full of papers which advocate their use. This undermines education
as a research field and likely has a negative impact on students,” he
wrote in his paper for Frontiers in Psychology.
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The aforementioned evidence against learning styles is compelling. In
2004, Frank Coffield, professor of education at the University of
London, led research into the 13 most popular models of learning
styles and found there wasn’t sufficient evidence to cater teaching
techniques to various learning styles. And a 2008 study by Harold
Pashler, psychology professor at UC San Diego, was scathing. Despite
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the preponderance of the learning styles concept “from kindergarten
to graduate school,” and a “thriving industry” devoted to such
guidebooks for teachers, Pashler found there wasn’t rigorous
evidence for the concept. He wrote:
Although the literature on learning styles is enormous, very few
studies have even used an experimental methodology capable of
testing the validity of learning styles applied to education. Moreover,
of those that did use an appropriate method, several found results
that flatly contradict the popular meshing hypothesis.
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We conclude
therefore, that at present, there is no adequate evidence base to
justify incorporating learning styles assessments into general
educational practice.
So how did a false belief become so widely-held? In his paper on the
subject for Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Howard-Jones argues that
it’s not a result of fraud, but of “uniformed interpretations of
genuine scientific facts.” The assumption behind learning myths
seems to be based on the scientific fact that different regions of the
cortex have different roles in visual, auditory, and sensory
processing, and so students should learn differently “according to
which part of their brain works better.” However, writes HowardJones,
“the brain’s interconnectivity makes such an assumption
unsound.”
Neuromyths arise, Howard-Jones argues, partly due to the technical
language barrier that makes understanding neuroscience papers
difficult for non-experts, and due to oversimplification of
complicated scientific ideas. These myths are then “promoted by
victims of their own wishful thinking” who are sincere but deluded in
their belief that some eccentric theory will “revolutionize science and
society,” he writes.
And these myths can flourish in cultures where beliefs about the
brain are not subject to ongoing scientific scrutiny— it’s rare, after
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all, that a classroom’s teaching methods are rigorously and
scientifically tested by an observer.
And finally, it seems that many people simply want to believe in
learning myths. After Coffield published his study in 2004, he told
The Guardian, “Low-cost and easily implemented classroom
approaches can certainly cultivate wishfulness amongst educators,
especially if they are fun and therefore likely to be well received by
students.”
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Tags: auditory, kinesthetic, learning style, myth, neuromyth,neuroscience, Visual . http://qz.com/tag/neuroscience/ .
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The Real Style --------------- NP2016
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