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Learning Styles: Fact or Fiction
21 Plays1 month ago
Episode 5 of Neuroblast debunks the learning styles myth, revealing that teaching to visual, auditory, or kinesthetic preferences doesn’t improve learning. Tracey and Athena explore the origins of this misconception, highlight the brain's adaptability, and emphasize the importance of diverse, evidence-based learning strategies to unlock greater educational potential.
Original music by: Julian Starr
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Transcript
Introduction to Nerve Labs and Hosts
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Neuroblast ! The show where we untangle your brain's greatest myths, one neur on at a time.
00:00:24
Speaker
My name is Athena Stevens, actor, writer, and neuroscience student. And I'm Tracey Tokuhama Espinosa, an international educational consultant. And I teach a course at Harvard University Extension School called The Neuroscience of Learning. And guys, if you want to know why I don't introduce ... Tracey, it's because her name is such a mouthful.
00:00:48
Speaker
yeah I leave it to the expert. Maybe that's just my learning style.
Debunking the Myth of Learning Styles
00:00:56
Speaker
What do you think, Tracey? What is this myth of learning style? Well, if you're telling me you have a learning style because you have a habituated way of doing, you know, your style of being or the style that you dress in or whatever, I'll buy into the style thing. But what typically what people really refer to when they talk about learning styles is they think that they're more auditory or more kinesthetic or more visual and they've been told that you know maybe they took a learning styles test in the fourth grade and and what do you do you spend the rest of your life looking you know if you're told you're a visual learner you spend your whole life looking for visual cues so you may become
00:01:36
Speaker
a more visual learner because your brain adapts to what you do most. And so this is a real problem that we have with um neuro myths like this, but the learning style myth is probably one of the longest lasting and the most costly myths that exists in school systems. So if I'm a visual learner, does that mean I should be reading the subtitles of this podcast?
00:02:01
Speaker
Well, basically, your brain thinks it's crazy for you to think that you're a visual learner because your brain is saying, hey there, you learned from all of your senses. Please give me as much information as you can from all of the senses so I can make sense of my world. That's what your brain would prefer. So people tend to lean into one sense or another because maybe they're told, oh, you're more auditory. And so they'll lean into that sense. And because they're rehearsing that more, they actually get better at it.
00:02:29
Speaker
But it's not what your brain would naturally want. Your brain would love to receive the world through all of its senses. OK, so let's start at the beginning. Where did this myth to come from? This has been around for a long time, mainly because of I don't want to, well, I will call it. It's the law of minimal effort. People really love simplicity. So we like to box people into certain ways or styles or this kind of a type of thing. um You know, you'll remember back in the Jungian days, um
00:03:03
Speaker
having archetypes was a brilliant insight into different ways that people form personalities. But saying that there was a limited number of that and meant that you weren't really looking at the huge range of human variability that
Impact of Learning Styles on Education
00:03:17
Speaker
exists. And so we've thought of this a lot. It comes up a lot throughout history, psychology, um looking at different ways that people learn. And people have tried to come up with simple answers. There is a huge error, for example, that confuses learning styles with multiple intelligences. Multiple intelligences was the opposite idea. It was, look, there's so many amazing ways that people can show their intelligence, all of these range of ways. And it's not limited to what was just listed here. Howard Gardner never meant for for people to you know pigeonhole individuals into these different ways of learning.
00:03:57
Speaker
Well, this kind of extrapolated into styles, and then people started looking at the most fundamental way that humans learn through your senses. And then this va this visual auditory kinesthetic types of learning styles came up. And then huge numbers of schools and universities started to use these learning styles inventories.
00:04:20
Speaker
And they were telling teachers, okay, so do this in the first week of class, and then you'll know how to teach each kid. and just, you know, pigeonhole them into one style or another, and then you can give them different types of stimulus, which is pretty sad because it's basically making the complex and interesting ah job of teaching, you know, sort of a checklist, a to-do list. If we just knew your style, we could teach you easily.
Benefits of Multi-Sensory Learning
00:04:45
Speaker
And we know that's just not true, because your brain wants to receive information from all of its senses is one reason, but also the huge range of human variability makes teaching one of the most challenging professions, because it's not just how will you take in the world, but it's what you already know about the world that makes an influence on how you can actually learn.
00:05:04
Speaker
So once again, we run into trouble because of classification and an education systems born out of the industrial revolution. And all of these wonderful theories in psychology had a lot of, you know, good space and could be applied in education, but a lot of them weren't applied in the way that they were intended to be used in the first place. So that's a real problem is sort of um how do we carry things over and translate information from some learning science field to another learning science field. And I think that there was a lot that got lost in this translation from the psychological theories into education, especially related to learning styles.
00:05:51
Speaker
So what is going on? Assum ing that a brain has all five of its sensors? Even if it doesn't, I would assume it would be a similar situation. Are we receiving input into everything all at once? Why why does it feel that some people learn that better when they listen and other people learn better when they do? That's a great question. and the the key idea here is that the brain adapts to what it does most. And so you may feel um that you are a very good auditory learner, for example, because you have rehearsed that over and over and over again. You have tuned into that and and you have built up a lot of memories based on your ability to perceive and hear things, right?
00:06:42
Speaker
That doesn't necessarily mean that's what your brain would like to do. Your brain would love, you know, to have ah input from all of the different um stimuli, but different senses. um But we do rehearse some senses more than others. For example, you go to school, you don't use taste a whole lot, right? Or, you know, or smell. And so some of your senses are pretty much dulled by an educational experience on the whole, right? um But if possible,
00:07:10
Speaker
enhancing and learning through all of their senses is fantastic. For example, very popular and and and very good method of learning how to read and write is conducted through the Montessori schools in which kids will hear things, they'll match it to a visual symbol,
00:07:31
Speaker
They will then write it on in sand. They'll write it on their backs. They will feel it, touch it, hear it, you know, and then even, you know, let's bake something with that letter or that sound or whatever. You're trying to stimulate all of the senses. Why is this important for the brain? Because when it it's like, at the moment of recall,
00:07:53
Speaker
if you have many let's say you don't know ah you need to find your pair of blue socks this morning okay the best thing you could do is put a pair of blue socks in every single drawer because no matter which drawer you used you'd actually find it so the idea here is could we learn about that symbol or sound um in multiple ways, from multiple senses, so that no, in the moment that it's triggered, I could find it easily through any of my senses. That would be the ideal thing for the brain. The more ways we can input information, the easier it will be to find it and recall it when it's needed.
00:08:30
Speaker
So that obviously works for school age. What can we adults do as learners that would emphasize those different um senses all over again. I mean, how do you, make, neuro sci ence something I can taste? Yeah. Well, that's really interesting to to think about that, isn't it? Because there are ways to do that. And we know um that sounds and smells trigger different types of memories, because those are different neural networks in the brain. What's so fascinating is that if you are learning
00:09:08
Speaker
um anything new and you've input it in multiple ways, you will relive that sensory understanding of that as you are recalling it. One of the reasons that, for example, let's say music, you know, makes you, it triggers so many different kinds of emotional states is because sometimes during music, you're dancing, you're laughing. People remember the context in which they're in, but they also have the words that are there. And so there's multiple ways you're experiencing. When you're trying to memorize your your neuroscience ah material, all this vocabulary, some people have you know their go-to place. Typically, I have learned best by doing acts. Well, I would just challenge your senses, think, is there any other way I could put this in? This is why sometimes people do a good job of listening to the lectures over, writing down the information, speaking with their colleagues about it, exchanging
Embracing Brain Complexity and Adaptability
00:10:04
Speaker
information. So the more ways you can
00:10:08
Speaker
Um you know experience that information the easier it will be to recall it when you need it. And then presumably thinking of the ways that you can experience a plows s another neuro track in your mind.
00:10:23
Speaker
Neuro track, that's a new thing. No pathway. That's right. So neural networks, there's larger neural networks and they break down into all of these sub-pathways. And you can, you talk about white matter tracks, which are actually the the enhanced myelination that happens between those synapses. And so yeah, ah and you're that's more at a micro level, but you know, the more you rehearse those, they become these networks that you can call upon when you need to retrieve information in the future.
00:10:54
Speaker
So you do a heck of a lot of brilliant work with educators, teachers from around the world. What do educators, and I'm going to use educators in the broadest sense because I think, you know, parents are educators aunts and an uncles are educators. What do we need to shift? What do we need to actively change to keep our students at their best and brightest potential for learning? I think the hardest thing to do, but also the most important thing to do, is just embrace the complexity of the brain. It's not as simple as saying, oh, all the visual learners go over here and do this kind of worksheet, and all of the auditory people come over here and listen to this paper. That's not the way to go. and
00:11:49
Speaker
If it sounds too easy, it's probably not effective. And so keep in mind that, yeah, the brain is the most complex organ in the universe. And it's so lucky we're teachers that we get to you know interact with that every single day. But reminding people of the good use of stimulating all of the senses is really the better idea here and not pigeonholing kids into a single way of learning. um Can they learn? Will they learn in that way? they They basically can, but they will rehearse one neural network, one sensory network over another, meaning they're not taking advantage. It's really reducing their ability to maximize their potential in certain things.
00:12:31
Speaker
This is why you find some kids who, you know, maybe they're lousy in one subject, but they're wonderful in another. And it might not even be the subject. It's the way it's delivered. um Why do some kids just really excel so much in physical activity or in drama or in some things? Well, it's because they're able to move, which they're not allowed to do in other classes. Right. And so, you know, taking advantage of different sensory inputs is a key idea. And just I guess from ah if we're talking about educators at large,
00:13:01
Speaker
The amount of money and time wasted on learning styles is ah probably one of the biggest offenses that exists. um There was a wonderful study that was done um for the American Psychological Association by Pashler and colleagues in which she dug into all of the evidence that existed to support learning styles. And there was really nothing.
00:13:27
Speaker
out there. There's no there there. so um it And the estimated costs of investing in Learning Styles inventories versus um other very tried-and-true evidence-based interventions was was really shameful. So we we look for easy answers. And we think, oh, well I'll just do the Learning Styles inventory. It only costs me you know a couple of hundred dollars. And you know ah Sorry, if it seems too easy and too good to be true, it's probably not good for your brain. And I'm going to throw Dr. Tracey a curve ball here really quickly. What do you think about learning styles versus learning adaptability?
00:14:12
Speaker
So if someone does not have access to a sense, or has a diminished access to a sense, I was actually thinking about anything with di ssection in high school I did terribly on.
00:14:28
Speaker
Because, you know, I can't carve a Turkey. I can't dice up a fetal pig. So where is the line between not falling into the trap of learning styles, but understanding learning accessibility?
00:14:46
Speaker
That's a really great question, because as we say, you know the more ways your brain can experience understanding information, the easier it will be for retrieval. That doesn't mean, and it's really quite clear. we You can see many, many studies. We typically believe that people have five senses, but people can learn perfectly well just with three. um When you start to have less than three, you really do have some greater difficulties in in taking in the world around you. but You don't need to have all of them. The good news is if you're lacking one sense, your brain actually doesn't let that real estate go to waste. It actually gets taken over by other senses, which is absolutely fascinating. And so um you would expand. This is why, for example, people who are nearly blind have a heightened sense of of hearing sometimes. right that They don't let that real estate go to waste. It's just that it's used in a different way. And so um I guess there's a really fine line between
00:15:45
Speaker
For me, I think it's the bigger problem or the biggest or most typical problem with learning styles myth is the ah sensory limitations. Your visual, auditory, or kinesthetic, that is a huge limitation. On the other end of things, the benefits would be, let's learn through all of our senses. And then somewhere in the middle here as we say, okay, well, looking at accessibility,
00:16:08
Speaker
how do you maximize the potential of every individual based on what they have?
Enhancing Learning for Special Needs
00:16:12
Speaker
And that is another um very important thing, especially for teachers in general. We found that any time you adopt materials in classes for somebody who might have a special need, you actually enhance learning for everybody. For example, um when we had to put um subtitles in all of our classes for second language learners, it helped people who are native English speakers, which is pretty fascinating, right? Or when we had um the alternate texts on different types of PowerPoints or images that explained what that was the the image was for people who were blind, it actually helped everybody. So Itit sounds like it's about imagining people complexly.
00:16:58
Speaker
And adapting the learning tools complexly to affect everyone's brain and all its priorities. You're absolutely right. And I guess, you know, embracing that complexity is the hardest but most important thing to do. I think that's the biggest challenge with all myths.
00:17:15
Speaker
most myths oversimplify the way humans learn um because, you know, law of minimal effort, your brain really would like to get the most with doing
Conclusion and Encouragement
00:17:26
Speaker
the least. And that's just natural. And so what we have to do is sort of appreciate that complexity and try to take advantage of all of the many combinations of styles of learning that people have.
00:17:38
Speaker
Alright y'all, thanks for listening to Neuroblast. Keep those neurons firing on all cylinders and as complexly as possible, and we'll see you next time. Thank you. Bye!