Learning and Innovation

The Myth of Learning Styles: Why Learning Should Challenge

Over the term break, I was reading The Australian when I came across a concerning statistic: nine in ten Australian teachers reportedly believe in the myth of learning styles. It made me reflect on how often we communicate developments in educational research to our school communities. If teachers across the educational community believe this myth, perhaps many parents and students do too.

So, what exactly is the myth?

For decades, the idea that students learn best through a particular learning style has been widely accepted. You may have heard someone describe themselves as a visual, auditory or kinaesthetic learner. The theory suggests students learn more effectively when teaching matches their preferred style. However, research tells us something different. While students may have preferences for how they like to learn, neither neuroscience nor educational research provides convincing evidence that matching teaching to these preferences improves learning outcomes.

A learning preference is not the same as an effective learning strategy.

Learning Should Sometimes Feel Difficult

When we continually cater to a student's preferred way of learning, we risk creating the expectation that learning should always feel familiar or easy. When students define themselves by these preferences, or parents and teachers reinforce the labels, we may unintentionally limit their willingness to develop new skills. Consider a student who prefers videos to complex texts. While videos may support understanding, avoiding challenging reading tasks can limit opportunities to develop essential literacy skills.

Learning is not always meant to feel easy. Meaningful learning requires students to grapple with unfamiliar concepts, experience uncertainty and work through challenges. This is sometimes described as entering the Learning Pit, where students experience confusion and difficulty, but with teacher guidance, their own effort and persistence, they can climb out of the pit with deeper understanding, greater confidence and a sense of achievement.

In his article, How AI Quietly Undermines the Joy and Effort of Learning, Md Kamrul Hasan explains:

“Learning is fundamentally rewarding because of the intellectual challenges it involves. Overcoming such challenges activates the brain’s reward system, producing dopamine that reinforces motivation and engagement.”

In an age of artificial intelligence, where answers can be generated almost instantly, challenging students beyond their preferred ways of learning matters more than ever. When tasks do not align with their preferences, students may turn to AI to avoid difficulty. In doing so, they risk bypassing the knowledge and skills the task was designed to develop.

Both at home and at school, we should celebrate when students embrace the challenges of learning. Our role is to guide and support them through difficulties, rather than remove the challenges. Through this process, our boys develop deeper understanding, confidence, resilience and the skills to become independent learners.

The Learning Should Determine the Teaching

Moving beyond learning preferences means focusing on the knowledge and skills students need to develop. As teachers, we ask in our planning, "What is the most effective way to teach this knowledge or skill?" After all, imagine teaching an athletic skill in PDHPE entirely through reading, without physical practice, or teaching Visual Arts without visual examples. Different knowledge and skills require different approaches, and effective teaching draws on explicit instruction, discussion, modelling and practical application according to what students need to learn.

Similarly, as parents, when you hear your son say that learning is difficult or that he does not enjoy a particular approach, there is an opportunity to shift the conversation towards the knowledge and skills he is developing, rather than how comfortable or enjoyable the learning feels.

Ultimately, we want our students to become adaptable learners, not learners defined by a label. What students prefer is not necessarily what helps them learn best. Our goal is to equip them with the knowledge, skills and confidence to learn effectively in a variety of ways.

Gillian Carpenter

Director of Learning and Innovation