Take the notion that children have specific learning styles, that some are “visual learners” and others are auditory; some are “left-brain” students, others “right-brain.” In a recent review of the relevant research, published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a team of psychologists found almost zero support for such ideas. “The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing,” the researchers concluded.
I was more or less taught this in pre-teaching graduate school by someone in the psychology department and it directly contradicted what many in the education school were promoting. The idea that teachers should vary their approach and make an effort to be engaging seemed like common sense to me. I don't mean to sound like an apologist for dry presentations or teacher-centered pedagogy, but I am very glad to have some validation for my skepticism regarding "visual learners" and the like. If you have come to believe that you have a biologically determined learning style, consider the possibility that you have internalized an excuse not to struggle with lessons that require more of your patience. What happens when all the students who have come to think of themselves as "visual learners" shut down during a text-heavy lesson? Even if you have study strengths and weaknesses, turning away from lessons presented in the less ideal way causes more damage than teachers who only do things their way with no regard to variety.
Put another way: the "visual learner" trap wrongly puts the responsibility for learning with the teacher instead of the student. Learn as much as you can from the teachers you have. Hopefully some of them have adopted strategies that particularly appeal to you. Great. That's a bonus for you. Thinking that you have a right to be taught in just the right way is a product of educational vanity, not research.
