I cannot begin to tell you the amount of times I have heard a student or a parent say something along the lines of “I need a different teacher, they just don’t teach in my learning style”.
It might be true that your student is having a hard time learning from a specific teacher, but there is no scientific evidence to show that students are more successful when teaching and learning styles match. Read on to learn what you can do to help your child still be successful in those situations and spoiler alert, it’s not getting a new teacher. If you are interested in other ways to help your child be successful in school, check out this article.
We have all had that teacher that is just tough to learn from. For me it was my AP Physics teacher, and his class made me cry on a weekly basis. My 17 year old self would have told you that he just didn’t really teach and I had to do a lot of self teaching, and I mean a LOT! The dude was wicked smart and he always seemed confused about how I could possibly be so confused. I say this because I know what it feels like to try and learn from a teacher that doesn’t seem to be doing much teaching. I know what it feels like to think it’s a waste of time to go to class when I’m just going to have to teach myself anyways. However, after reflecting on this more, I am convinced that this experience led me to become a better learner.
Learning Styles
When asked, many people can probably tell you their learning style. In fact I remember taking tests in school about what my learning style is, and I was a tactile-kinesthetic learner. It is thought that learning styles are the way that an individual best understands and retains new information. The three most predominate preferred learning styles are:
- Visual: Visual learners learn best through visual displays of information like graphics, charts, and pictures
- Visual learners can benefit from color coding their notes or using symbols in place of words when note taking
- Auditory: Auditory learners learn best through listening (duh).
- Lectures and discussions are preferred and listening to audio books instead of reading helps this kind of learner. If an audio book isn’t available, reading out loud can be helpful.
- Tactile-kinesthetic: This type of learner learns best by doing and applying
- Engaging your senses and having real-life examples are all helpful.
This idea has been going around for decades and there many states that test teachers about “learning styles” on their state licensure examinations. It is no wonder that both students and teachers believe that every student has their own unique learning style.
This Learning Style Theory has led to something called the Meshing Hypothesis, which is the idea that learning happens best when instruction matches the preferred learning style, however, the research completed by Pashler et al., concluded that there was no significant evidence to support this. Another study in the Journal of Educational Psychology showed similar results and stated, “Results demonstrated no statistically significant relationship between learning style preference (auditory, visual word) and instructional method (audiobook, e-text) for either immediate or delayed comprehension tests” (Rogowsky et al, 2015).
So while it may feel good to be with a teacher that matches your learning style your grade doesn’t depend on it. This is great news, because this means you still have control of your grade! If I am being totally honest, 9 times out of 10 when a student tells me that the teaching style doesn’t make their learning style what they really mean is that I just don’t mesh with the personality of the teacher.
Teaching Styles
Let’s pretend your preferred learning style is auditory. According to the Meshing Hypothesis you would learn best if all teachers taught through speaking platforms. Now, let’s pretend you are in Human Anatomy and you are learning about parts of the brain. The teacher just told you that the amygdala is located in the medial temporal lobe, just anterior to (in front of) the hippocampus.
You are learning this for the first time. After hearing where it is located can you point to where the amygdala is located in the picture? My guess is probably not. Why? Because for this subject, visual content is really important and makes learning much easier.
The best teaching style should match the content, not the learners preference. In Spanish, you want to hear how the words are said. To get better at speaking Spanish you can’t just see the words you need to hear the words.
In orchestra, you want to play the instrument, not just talk about the instrument or listen to music. In order to learn how to play the violin, you need to do it.
We know that the best teaching matches the content that is being taught AND it provides multiple modes of learning.
For example, an English teacher might read the book aloud in class (for auditory learners ), have students draw out what they just read (for visual learners), provide a notes sheet (for reading/writing learners), and ask students to think of a real-life example that connects to the book (for kinesthetic learners).
Everyone learns differently and many students need information presented in a variety of ways to help them learn. Don’t let your child’s preferred learning style prevent them learning anymore!
Mindset shift
So now that we have established that teaching and learning styles don’t need to match, how you can you help your child still be successful in that class?
- Don’t let them believe the lie that learning only happens when teaching and learning styles match. As parents you might have to do the work of reframing your child’s belief. Here are some things you can say if your child comes home and tells you they can’t learn from their teacher.
- “You can’t control how the teacher presents information, but you are in control of your learning. Let’s think of things you can do to help you learn better in that class.”
- “You are in control of your learning. Do you want help thinking of other places you can go to learn this information?”
- “Tell me more about why you think that.” (My guess is that it is personality differences)
- If you discover that it’s a personality issue you can say, “This might be a hard semester but this a great opportunity to learn how to work with some you don’t connect well with.”
- Help your child understand how they learn best and think of ways to bring those techniques into all classes. This is a great list of suggestions provided by Stetson University.
- Encourage self-education. View the teacher as just one resource to get the information. Help your student find other places to learn the material.
- Partner with the teacher to think of strategies. Have your student talk with the teacher to see if they can think of other strategies or resources that could support your student’s learning.
I am not saying these situations are easy but there are so many valuable skills that can be learned from going through it. Help your child break the curse of the self-fulfilling prophecy that they need the teaching style to match their learning style to be successful.
Pashler, Harold, et al. “Learning Styles – Concepts and Evidence.” Https://Www.Psychologicalscience.Org/Journals/Pspi/PSPI_9_3.Pdf, Association for psychological science – APS, Dec. 2008, www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/pspi/PSPI_9_3.pdf.
Rogowsky, Beth A, et al. “Matching Learning Style to Instructional Method: Effects on Comprehension.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, Feb. 2015, psycnet.apa.org/buy/2014-31081-001.