By: Nathaniel de Sam Lazaro

As a student at Highland, you have probably heard a teacher at some point talk about your “learning style.” We are told that there are three learning styles, visual, auditory, and tactile, and that everyone prefers one of these as a method of learning.

Visual learners like to see things to understand them, auditory learners prefer to have things explained to them through audio or text, and tactile learners like to understand things using physical objects and things they can touch and feel. We are instructed to take tests to determine our learning style.

Supposedly, understanding our learning style will help us in school by allowing us to understand how we learn. It will help our teachers teach us as well, by catering to our preferred method of learning.

We are made to assume that the concept of learning styles, and these tests to determine them, are backed up by science. But in fact, they are not.

The idea of learning styles gained popularity in the 1970s, at a time when psychology was focused on individual differences between people. The idea was that people learned in different ways, and that these differences could be split into different categories of learning. Since then, at least 71 different models have been created of learning styles. And none of them have stood up when held to scientific scrutiny.

A recent study by the University of Michigan broke down many of the problems with learning styles. It found that nearly everyone experiences traits of the various learning styles at different times. For example, they found that nearly everyone learned to ride a bike best tactilly, that is, by the physical act of doing such. Furthermore, the same person can exhibit different “styles” at different times, and when learning different things.

The larger, fundamental problem was that there was no evidence that teaching to a learning style had any impact on student’s ability to gain knowledge and skills.

The American Psychological Association estimates that nearly 90% of teachers still believe in the myth that teaching to a learning style improves learning and academic performance. In addition, 29 states, including Minnesota, still require teachers to be taught about the supposed benefits of learning styles. Only one state, Massachusetts, educates teachers on the fact that this theory has been disproven by various studies.

I think it is time that we stop telling teachers about these debunked theories, which waste time and effort in teaching and learning. It may even be detrimental, prescribing students specific strategies rather than allowing us to determine what works best for us.