Labeling learning styles is shallow

I am not a fan of labels. This is because I find labels to be shallow. Who we are is more substantial than quick words. When it comes to learning styles, I find it absurd that teachers have thought that attaching a single word to a student is sufficient to explain how he or she learns.


We are all unique. Our learning styles are all different. Labeling learning styles certainly doesn't capture all the complexities and nuances of each and every individual.

Usually, the labels available for learning styles are severely limited. Visual and auditory are the most common, and some add kinesthetic. For the billions of people living on this planet, it is shocking that teachers for so long have managed to push the idea that everybody's learning styles can be defined in two or three ways.

Learning through sight and sound is nonsense to begin with, but let me play devil's advocate for a moment. If we did learn through sight and sound, would this be 100% sight versus 100% sound? Would it even be a constant percentage? Could it be possible to have someone at 50% for each, and how would such a person be labeled? Can we be certain that students learning styles are the same regardless of subjects? Even if we defined learning as either an auditory or visual process, we don't get enough information from these labels.

There are certainly other components to learning than just sight and sound. For example, some people learn very well with minimal intervention while others need more assistance. Sight versus sounds certainly doesn't explain dependent versus independent learning. For some reason, we seem to think that sight and sound outweigh all other components of how we learn combined.

Some teachers might like the simplicity of being able to know how a child learns after hearing just one word, but one word is insignificant when compared with the uniqueness of each child's educational needs. If a teacher truly embraces labels as learning styles, then I can guarantee that the individual needs of the students will never be met.