New Perspectives on the Existence of Learning Styles

David Kelly is one of a growing list of instructional design professionals who are questioning the usefulness and validity of "learning styles" as the field has always known them. Just last week, David Kelly posted My Learning Styles Awakening on his blog. In his post, he declares that he sees no value in designing learning to individual preferences - in particular, he is addressing the theory of Visual-Auditory-Kinestetic learners. "Let’s get this out of the way quickly. I don’t believe there’s value in designing learning experiences to cater to individual learning styles" (Kelly 2012). Kelly goes on to describe his experience as an instructional designer with this theory of learning styles. He says that as a beginner in the field of instructional design, he heard and believed this particular theory of learning styles, assuming it was true based on the fact that nearly everyone else believed so, too. He says that the theory makes sense and it sounds "right," so it must be true. However, according to his experience, he eventually began to have doubts. Kelly says, "I don’t think I’m a unique learning and performance professional in making that mistake, and it’s a mistake we make in plenty of areas outside of Learning Styles. We tend to do things because it’s always been done, or because someone ‘who knows’ said it’s what we should be doing. We’re quick to accept theory and put it into action without verifying or tracking if the idea translates in practice."

As David Kelly progressed in his profession, he began to hear similar thoughts expressed in his wider circle of professional networking. "As I connected with more and more professionals, established professionals with credentials and experience that dwarfed my own, I noticed a common thread in some of their posts that conflicted with my position and beliefs about learning styles. While the verbiage varied, the core message was essentially the same: Learning Styles Don’t Exist" (Kelly 2012).

Ultimately, Kelly concludes that designing learning based on perceived preferences in "learning styles" does not have value. To that end, Kelly says that the argument about whether or not learning styles exist is not the point. Instead, he gives his readers three pieces of advice: don't do things that don't have value, nurture your "Personal Learning Networks," and stop debating learning styles. "We have more important and impactful work to do as a field," he says.

I found David Kelly's blog to be very intriguing and enlightening - and he certainly got me thinking more critically on the topic. I, myself, had not heard anyone make such claims before. Like many others in my field, I assumed that the theory of learning styles is universally accepted. It is very interesting to me to find out that that might not be the case. Further searches led me to a number of other well-thought-out posts that address the same issue and the same questions, so obviously David Kelly is not alone.

References

Kelly, D. (2012, March 1). My #LearningStyles Awakening. David Kelly. Retrieved March 10, 2012, from davidkelly.me/2012/03/my-learningstyles-awakening/