The way we learn

We all have our learning styles. Visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. We find which way works best for us and typically say, “I’m a visual/auditory/kinesthetic learner so I need to be taught that way.” But are we limiting ourselves? Well, probably, since there’s not likely any such thing as learning styles.

“How can that be? I have to see something in order to understand it!”

As with most things, we often confuse preference with necessity. For example we could take a room full of auditory and visual learners and show them a picture of someone covered in bugs. They will reflexively start to scratch or rub their bodies in a kinesthetic awareness of a visual image. We can’t compartmentalize pieces of the brain; our mind works holistically.

The idea of learning styles falls under what are referred to as neuromyths. These are false ideas about how the brain operates that are prevalent not only in general populations but also in higher education. In fact, while belief in neuromyths among general populations is around 70% it’s still around 55% among educators. So it’s no wonder that we believe in learning styles.

While it may seem rather harmless, the issue with a belief in learning styles is that we run the risk of limiting ourselves from intellectual growth. We might take an auditory task and try to visualize it due to our preconceived notions about how we learn. Unfortunately this approach is both inefficient and ineffective. If we can broaden our scope and work within the demands of the domain we are in we will be much more robust learners. And that’s what we should all be after.

This doesn’t mean you might not be better at one medium or another. We all have different abilities, they just don’t infer to how the material is being communicated. How something is communicated is how it’s communicated, it’s up to us to accept that. You just can’t visualize a sing along.

So stop limiting yourself due to false beliefs on learning. Open up your world, demolish your biases. You can still have your preferences, just don’t let them limit your potential.