Gary Ackerman

There's no credible scientific evidence that learning styles exist or that tailoring instruction to preferred styles improves learning outcomes. This belief is a pervasive urban legend in education. #LearningStyles #EducationMyth

Reda Sadki

A survey of learners on a large, authoritative global health learning platform has me pondering once again the perils of relying too heavily on learner preferences when designing educational experiences.

One survey question intended to ask learners for their preferred learning method.

The list of options provided includes a range of items.

(Some would make the point that the list conflates learning resources and learning methods, but let us leave that aside for now.)

Respondents’ top choices (source) were videos, slides, and downloadable documents.

At first glance, this seems perfectly reasonable.

After all, should we not give learners what they want?

As it happens, the main resources offered by this platform are videos, slides, and other downloadable documents.

(If we asked learners who participate in our peer learning programmes for their preference, they would likely say that they prefer… peer learning.)

Beyond this availability bias, there is a more significant problem with this approach: learner preferences often have little correlation with actual learning outcomes.

And learners are especially bad at self-evaluating what learning methods and resources are most conducive to effective learning.

The scientific literature is quite clear on this point.

Bjork’s 2013 article on self-regulated learning emphatically states that: “learners are often prone to illusions of competence during learning, and these illusions can be remarkably compelling.”

The study by Deslauriers et al. (2019) provides a compelling demonstration that while students express a strong preference for traditional lectures over active learning methods, they actually learn significantly more from the active approaches they claim to dislike.

This disconnect between preference and efficacy is not surprising when we consider how learning actually works.

Effective learning requires effort, struggle, and sometimes discomfort as we grapple with new ideas and challenge our existing mental models.

It is not always an enjoyable process in the moment, even if the long-term results are deeply rewarding.

Furthermore, learners (like all of us) are subject to various cognitive biases that can lead them astray when evaluating their own learning.

The illusion of explanatory depth, for example, can cause us to overestimate how well we understand a topic after passively consuming information about it.

None of this is to say we should ignore learner perspectives entirely.

Motivation and engagement do matter for learning.

But we need to be thoughtful about how we solicit and interpret learner feedback.

Asking about preferences for specific content formats (videos, slides, etc.) tells us very little about the actual learning activities and cognitive processes involved.

A more productive approach might be to focus on understanding learners’ goals, challenges, and contexts.

What are they trying to achieve?

What obstacles do they face?

What constraints shape their learning environment?

With this information, we can design evidence-based learning experiences that truly meet their needs – even if they don’t always match their stated preferences.

As learning professionals, our job is not to give learners what they think they want.

It is to create the conditions for transformative learning experiences that expand their capabilities and perspectives.

This often means pushing learners out of their comfort zones and challenging their assumptions about how learning should look and feel.

Bjork, R. A., Dunlosky, J., & Kornell, N. (2013). Self-regulated learning: Beliefs, techniques, and illusions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 417-444. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143823

Deslauriers, L., McCarty, L.S., Miller, K., Callaghan, K., Kestin, G., 2019. Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 201821936. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821936116

https://redasadki.me/2024/06/30/why-asking-learners-what-they-want-is-a-recipe-for-confusion/

#globalHealth #learningMethods #learningStrategy #learningStyles

hansamann 🔥❄️🚀 (he/him)

#101essays Have you ever reflected on how you absorb information most effectively? Do you thrive through auditory methods, or are you more of a visual learner? Perhaps hands-on experimentation is your key to understanding. Consider how you can incorporate your preferred learning style into your daily routine for enhanced comprehension and retention. #learningstyles #selfreflection #education

J. Jacoby (a person)

Working through a training session that is based on videos. Much of the information would be better distributed through a document.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't retain much of the information I learn from videos. Hand me the document when I need to implement the commands.

#training #LearningStyles

Marcus Elliott

@bethwitham that sounds really cool. My only hope is that it doesn't lead to labelling and fixed preferences... "The machine says I'm better at essays, so I only ever do essays". Sometimes the skills we develop doing stuff we might not like are actually more beneficial. Bit like the #LearningStyles argument

JamesGG

So, #LearningStyles. We know the literature has debunked the concept. But is it so entrenched in the minds of #students that I should use the term when creating a self-assessment for students about their comfort with #online #learning?

Megan

So my learning style tends to be learn about the conceptual and theoretical pieces and how they fit together, it's how I sythesise information and make sense of the overall picture and context to gain an initial understanding.

But then I have a need to know EXACTLY how it works in practice, so today I learned how to query an API and all its various parts. Both using Postman and VS Code. I know it's a little thing but for me it's a big thing.

#AlwaysLearning #AppSec #LearningStyles #Development

Rod Anderson

Our #HMPEdinburgh @scottishprisons guys are flying though the #RecoveryCoaching course! Working on #LearningStyles today. Great to have some feedback from them, when discovering their own learning style “that sums me up perfectly!”

Suzanne Reinhardt, PhD she/her

@Frodo007 serotonin’s effect on the brain is the #LearningStyles of modern psychology. No matter the evidence, people continue to believe in it.

Meredith Grey Washington DC

When you go to write something on your calendar, only to find that you already wrote it in. ✒ 📆

Like, "d*mn Girl, you've got your sh*t together!" Clapping for myself. 👏👏

Yes, I am a goofy "nerd" 🤓, in some respects. I love note books, paper, sticky notes in all sizes, gel pens, dry erase boards, and CALENDARS!

Remaining Avail :

2/1 - afternoon - DC
2/2 -5p-11pm - FairOaks

#Visualthinker #visualprocessor #visuallearner #learningstyles
#DateDC #themeredithexperience #meredithgreydc