Conclusion
For me, this is a touchstone issue. The fact that it has persisted for so long is a damning indictment on our professions, practices and professional bodies. Learning styles do not exist - let me repeat – learning styles do not exist. To believe in learning styles is to believe that the sun goes round the earth or that the earth is flat. It’s an intuition gone bad – a fail. Worse still, is to apply this theory in practice. If you categorise children as VAK or adults to Honey and Mumford or any of the other dozens of learning styles theories, and yes there are dozens, you’re doing learners a disservice. You may even be ruining their education.
Evidence
We have 35 years of evidence against learning styles. This includes individual studies, systematic reviews and books. People like Pedro de Bruyckere, Wil Thalheimer and I have been talking about this for decades. Chapter 1 of Pedro de Bruyckere’s book ‘Urban Myths’ is an excellent summary of the research. A critique of Fleming’s VAK can be found here and a critique of Honey and Mumford’s theory can be found here.
Via Peter Mellow