They are largely questionnaire-based students are asked to self-report their preferences for different approaches to learning and other activities and are then assigned one or more Learning Styles. There are now over 70 different Learning Styles classification systems ( Coffield et al., 2004). These findings suggest that the concern expressed about belief in Learning Styles may not be fully supported by current evidence, and highlight the need to undertake further research on the objective use of matching instruction to specific Learning Styles.įor decades, educators have been advised to match their teaching to the supposed Learning styles of students ( Hyman and Rosoff, 1984). It was unclear whether participants fully understood that they were specifically being asked about the matching of instruction to Learning Styles, or whether the questions asked could be interpreted as referring to a broader interpretation of the theory. Most used convenience sampling with small samples and did not report critical measures of study quality. From a pragmatic perspective, the concerning implications of these results are moderated by a number of methodological aspects of the reported studies. There was evidence of effectiveness for educational interventions aimed at helping educators understand the lack of evidence for matching in learning styles, with self-reported belief dropping by an average of 37% following such interventions. Self-reported use, or planned use, of matching instruction to Learning Styles was similarly high.

There was no evidence that this belief has declined in recent years, for example 95.4% of trainee (pre-service) teachers agreed that matching instruction to Learning Styles is effective. Self-reported belief in matching instruction to Learning Styles was high, with a weighted percentage of 89.1%, ranging from 58 to 97.6%. We identified 37 studies representing 15,405 educators from 18 countries around the world, spanning 2009 to early 2020.

Here we undertake a systematic review of research into belief in, and use of, Learning Styles amongst educators. It is also not clear whether this belief translates into action. However, it is not clear whether this is a global pattern, or whether belief in Learning Styles is declining as a result of the publicity surrounding the lack of evidence to support it. Despite this lack of evidence, survey research and media coverage suggest that belief in this use of Learning Styles theory is high amongst educators. A number of reviews, going back to 2004, have concluded that there is currently no empirical evidence that this “matching instruction” improves learning, and it could potentially cause harm.

Swansea University Medical School, Swansea University, Swansea, United KingdomĪ commonly cited use of Learning Styles theory is to use information from self-report questionnaires to assign learners into one or more of a handful of supposed styles (e.g., Visual, Auditory, Converger) and then design teaching materials that match the supposed styles of individual students.

Auditory learning style thesis