The ultimate learning style

A lot of teachers are finally rejecting the misguided belief that there are two learning styles. Their new belief is that everybody learns in pretty much the same way. They are effectively pushing the idea that there is only one learning style.


Overall, I think this new viewpoint is insane. The idea of learning through sight and sound was always too shallow. I have been openly critical of using a single word to explain the entirety of how someone learns. The evidence against these particular learning styles should have convinced teachers that they need to embrace the variability of their students' needs. Instead, they went in the opposite direction. They are convinced that individuality is somehow even less significant than they previously believed.

Shockingly, I can actually say something in their defense. I can identify a single word that describes how all children learn. They learn by doing. You could argue that this is the ultimate learning style, and the one learning style that teachers should truly embrace.

You can't learn to walk without actually trying and ultimately succeeding at walking. You can't learn to read unless you have material to read. You can't learn how to do math without math problems (ideally real world rather than worksheets). You can't learn how to play a sport unless you actually have an opportunity to play. You can't learn how to create art unless you have the opportunity to explore artistic outlets.

In case you missed it, another big criticism I have of learning styles has been the overly broad views of what it means to learn. You can recite the alphabet, multiplication tables, and state capitals, but you can't actually do them. Schools overwhelming think of learning as memorization rather than what I consider to be practical learning. This is a big problem with learning by doing. It applies to the development of skills and abilities.

Another big issue with learning by doing is that it's shallow. While doing is shared by all learners, the specifics are highly variable. Simply put, not everybody will do everything in the same way.

Doing could be considered to be the one and only serious learning style, but I prefer not to view learning in such a shallow manner. The specifics of how students learn are highly variable. Failure to go deeper than learning by doing would be a serious disservice to the students who are learning.