What are learning styles?

This theory suggests that children learn better with one particular ‘learning style’ but it has been widely debunked by research

The learning styles theory proposes that individuals are better suited to a particular style of learning.

The EEF view: what does the research say?

While “learning styles” were once popular, there is no evidence that children learn better in one particular style, and the practice of teaching to learning styles is considered an example of an “education myth”, which evidence has successfully debunked.

At the height of the popularity of learning styles, it was widely believed that pupils could be categorised according to their preferred way of learning.

Children could either be visual, auditory or kinaesthetic learners, and teachers could tailor their practice according to the particular style of each individual in their classroom. The idea was that pupils could learn more effectively if taught using the specific approach that had been identified as their learning style.

Over the years, research has refuted the idea that children learn through one style alone, and even suggested that this approach is harmful - needlessly exacerbating teacher workload, and preventing children from developing their own preferences and approaches to learning.

Our Teaching and Learning Toolkit indicates that there is very little evidence to back up the learning styles approach. In fact, labelling students as particular kinds of learners could undermine their belief that they can succeed through effort.

Teachers hoping to target learning effectively might consider other practices, including supporting pupils to plan, monitor and evaluate their own learning, or focusing on high-quality feedback for all pupils.

How do learning styles work in the classroom?

While learning styles have been widely debunked, a study by Macdonald and colleagues (2017) found that “in classroom practice, teachers have adapted the theory to fit classroom needs”.

“For example, teachers weave visual and auditory modalities into a single lesson rather than providing separate modality-specific lessons to different groups of children based on self-identified learning style preferences,” they say.

They even go so far as to say that an “unintended and potentially positive outcome of the perpetuation of the learning styles neuromyth is that teachers present material to students in novel ways through multiple modalities, thereby providing opportunities for repetition, which is associated with improved learning and memory”.

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