So, you are a visual learner? Perhaps you’re kinaesthetic, or even auditory. What next? Well surely, that’s obvious: you need to learn using your preferred style! Visual learners watch a YouTube video, auditory learners plug into a podcast, kinaesthetic learners get building your Lego and you’ll learn it easily, right?
Wrong! It isn’t helpful to categorise people based on a fixed learning style, as people are not one type of learner or another.
But if you believe that learning styles existed, you are in good company. In a teacher survey on learning, 90% of teachers thought they existed and enhanced learning.
As with all myths, there is a ‘smidgeon’ of truth to get you thinking. An individual’s learning style refers to the preferred way (learning preferences is sometimes used) they like to absorb, process, make sense and retain information. For example, when learning a new skill, some people understand the steps by following verbal cues and instructions, others prefer to watch a demonstration and see the activity, and some prefer to simply have a go at the activity themselves.