Post #2: Learning Styles

This is a topic that I had believed in before doing research for this class. It was one that I was even taught in school years ago. I believed that I was a visual learner. I've noticed that diagrams and visuals always help me learn things better. I thought that this was a sign that I was a visual learner, but as it turns out, this is how it works for everybody. First of all, there is no actual evidence that different learning styles exist. Studies have not found that students have different ways in which they learn better. As it turns out, most subjects are more easily taught either visually, auditorily, or kinestheticly, to anyone who is being taught them. For example, teaching the structure of a cell is taught most effectively with diagrams and pictures, regardless of the student. It is much easier to explain the functions of different organelles with diagrams of a cell, then by just explaining each of their roles. People believe that learning styles exist, because certain people have better visual memory, or better ability to process language, etc. This has lead us to believe that these people with better visual memory are visual learners. However, this only means that people with better visual memory exceed in topics where visible learning is relevant. It does not mean that adding visuals into other types of lessons would help them learn these other lessons better. This is an example of the confirmation bias heuristic. We believe that we are a certain type of learner, so we only think about examples that confirm the idea that we are that type of learner.

Here's a video that explains the flaws in the idea of different learning styles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_SQrRa73U0