Yes, the idea of learning styles is in no way evidence-based. See https://debunker.club. The word ”myth” however has several meanings and is tricky to use.

I find it probable that individuals have different learning preferences and strategies, but this has been hard to categorize - about 40 differerent theoretical setups exists, and all seem to be mostly speculative systems. and it is still another question how an individual learn best or most effectively.

Even if a hypothetical model of learning styles could be supported with evidence or corroborated against falsification, what should we do with it? We cannot use it to design separate courses for students of type X, Y and Z - that will show to be an organizational nightmare in present educational systems.

However, adaptive learning supported by learning analytics will probably make individual adaption more possible and the Internet itself with its overflow of information in different forms also provides a possibility for a student to make learning adaptions out of personal preferences.

Yes, the idea of learning styles is in no way evidence-based. See https://debunker.club. The word ”myth” however has several meanings and is tricky to use.

I find it probable that individuals have different learning preferences and strategies, but this has been hard to categorize - about 40 differerent theoretical setups exists, and all seem to be mostly speculative systems. and it is still another question how an individual learn best or most effectively.

Even if a hypothetical model of learning styles could be supported with evidence or corroborated against falsification, what should we do with it? We cannot use it to design separate courses for students of type X, Y and Z - that will show to be an organizational nightmare in present educational systems.

However, adaptive learning supported by learning analytics will probably make individual adaption more possible and the Internet itself with its overflow of information in different forms also provides a possibility for a student to make learning adaptions out of personal preferences.

A fairly detailed review is here: Article Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence

When it is not based on scientific facts, it becomes a myth

It is a myth, but nevertheless very popular among teachers and students alike. Some surveys from the past 5 years have put endorsement between 70%–90%. People seem to like to label themselves. I recently worked on a case study with a colleague where we tackled learning myths among trainee primary teachers. The approach we took was to improve their understanding of memory and metacognition, and to use an analysis of the evidence to show that myths of this sort are undermining good teaching practice.

There are several ways to do this, including viewing and testing.

There are two main issues here. One: Do we have different learning styles? It seems yes. However, identifying, defining and measuring these styles was always a problem. While we have tons of studies, it still seems that results are not conclusive. Many formerly popular models like VARK are now considered myths, while many other proposed models are still struggling to prove their validity beyond doubt.

Two: Assuming that somehow we managed to determine correctly what is the learning style for each learner. Is it pedagogically beneficial to give the learner a learning experience/material personalized to his learning style? There are different opinions, and you may argue yes or no. But we can't be sure before resolving the first issue.

the use of learning style depend on many factors. we can't consider that a learning style is better than the others.

Learning styles are not myths but are indicators of student cognitive, affective and psychomotor caharacteristics. The function of the teacher is to facilitate student learning, while for student it is useful to facilitate learning

It was WIllingham who first argued the myth of learning styles. Whilst many educational settings will still use them, they are a little out of date. I dont fully agree with Willingham about them being a complete myth, however they are used incorrectly in many senses. We each have a prefered learning style but can learn just as effectively using other methods. It also helps to include the specific task when considering learning styles. For example, a student with a prefered learning style of reading/text/auditory will not be able to learn how to drive without using kinesetic learning. Some tasks lend themselves to specific learning styles, that does not mean those with different prefered ones cannot learn these tasks, they can easily adjust to other styles.

I believe that learning styles are an introduction to something deeper in learning, especially when we talk about eLearning or the actual learning. They lead the way to USDL to be used in all instructional designs taking into consideration the diversity in presenting the information to the learners.

Chanaa Abdessamad Thank you for this question.

it may exist... however, it's guaranteed to not be static. It can and should mutate with experience, age, and other factors, including subject matter.

Every student does tend to have different learning style. The difference was dominant because of the learning conditioningapplied by parents, especially their mothers at home for 13 year. When student enter primary school their learning style cannotbe known, but over time tkae eduaction supported by the many influences of teacher behavior and learning style, after a while the learning styles of students are formed. The problem is that many high schools apply curriculum base on the learning style student have. This problem might be said of a myth.

Pueden ser rasgos de aprendizaje, particularmente, rasgos dinámicos; ya que el aprendizaje siempre está en movimiento. El problema esta en ver los fenómenos inamovibles, cuando son muy dinámicos.

A professor needs to be aware that students learn differently. Therefore, one siz fits all instruction is not as effective.

I believe that learning styles are labels are just that labels for the sake of labels. Learning is learning. We are learning all the time every experience every minute of every day. The context, the task the challenge dictates how we tackle the problem to be solved. Let's face it learning is just a problem we need to solve. How we tackle it is how we learn. Some problems require us to read, some require us to use our hands, some require us to think, look, and use our bodies. Ultimately we are constantly solving problems going from the previously unknown to the known. So yes learning styles are a myth and we are adaptable to the situation.

Learning style is a form of unique strategy that make learners of any category to learn better. This strategy therefore vary from one learn to d others and base on their peculiarities.

In my opinion, I think the learning styles depend on a group of learners and that situation. The instructors should consider by themselves what it fits for students or not. Everything can be possible if the learners like it. We can't conclude it to be good or not good. We have to notice from responding of the learners.

not always

GM

The myth in my opinion is How they learn? no how to teach.

The results will be showed by the time

BR

Ingrid García

After more than fifty years of research and efforts dedicated to identify a convincing model of individual learning styles still many doubts remain about their practical usefulness. The situation is well summarized in a comprehensive overview - Coffield C., Mosely D., Hall E., Ecclestone K.: Learning styles and Pedagogy in Post-16 Learning. LSRC, Univ. of Newcastle upon Tyne, London (2004) - where 71 models of learning styles have been analyzed and grouped in 5 families sortable according to their degree of stability: one goes from the more stable one, the constitutionally (physiology and genetic) based, to those reflecting the cognitive structure (including patterns and abilities), to those considered components of stable personalities, then to flexiblestable learning preferences and, finally, to the learning approaches and strategies. A deeper analysis of the 16 most popular models led the authors to criticize the concept of learning styles whose utility they do not believe has been demonstrated convincingly.

I have been working for a while on FS learning styles, and I think to have been able to demonstrate that at least this model cannot be used at individual level while it may provide some information at group level and on the effect of the learning context.

How about Using the PCA to Analyze Changes in Learning Styles?

2012

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262371232_How_about_Using_the_PCA_to_Analyze_Changes_in_Learning_Styles

What Can We Learn from Long-Time Lasting Measurements of Felder-Silverman's Learning Styles?

2012

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261312576_What_Can_We_Learn_from_Long-Time_Lasting_Measurements_of_Felder-Silverman's_Learning_Styles

(if interested I can provide the full text of the above papers)

I don’t know if students’ behaviours observed during a learning process can be mapped on learning styes but for sure they have some effects

A PCA Study of Student Performance Indicators in a Web 2.0-Based Learning Environment - 2013

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261462490_A_PCA_Study_of_Student_Performance_Indicators_in_a_Web_20-Based_Learning_Environment

Hello Chanaa,

Learning style cannot be a myth. It is a reality. Different people have different learning styles. Some people learn better with audio, visual, audio-visuals. Some people are kinesthetic. Learning styles have to be considered in designing trainings, etc.

Best regards,

Dr. Segun Awode

So interesting

A few colleagues appear to be accepting learning styles on the basis of personal beliefs or the popularity of this idea. Let's not forget, just because many people believe something does not make it true (just as the earth is not flat and homeopathy doesn't work!). There is hard evidence that discredits the idea.

I'd advise checking out this paper on the issue of 'learning styles' as a popular but discredited learning myth –

Article Stop propagating the learning styles myth by Paul Kirschner

There are 1000s of papers on PubMed database on Learning Styles and many books on Amazon on the topic. Just check these resources. Therefore, it is not an imagination, as some indicated. We cannot ignore it. However, it is not everything to explain how we learn. There are several other elements involved in the learning process and how we learn. Read the literature on how we learn - in psychology, education and medical education literature.

I encourage, always read the proper literature, systematic reviews etc. to make decisions. This is how academics think and make decisions- we look for the evidence.

Any activity performed in education without intrinsic motivation and self reflexivity is result in myth and dogma.

You may be interest to read the following blog post that I wrote for my university department on this subject. It's not an in-depth article by any means, but includes links to some of the key pieces of evidence that have emerged in recent years.

Article Am I a visual learner? -The learning styles myth