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Effective teaching methods

4 min read

From: veritasium

Effective teaching methods focus on what happens inside the learner’s head, emphasizing active engagement with the material rather than adherence to presumed learning styles [00:11:52].

The Learning Styles Myth

The idea that everyone has a preferred way of learning, a “learning style,” and that information presented in accordance with this style will lead to better learning, is a widespread belief in education [00:00:25]. The most common theory identifies four main learning styles:

  • Visual (V): Learners prefer images, demonstrations, and pictures [00:00:47].
  • Auditory (A): Learners prefer listening to explanations [00:00:57].
  • Reading-writing (R): Learners prefer reading and writing [00:01:07].
  • Kinesthetic (K): Learners prefer learning by doing and physically interacting with the world [00:01:13]. This model is collectively known as VARK [00:00:43].

The concept of learning styles makes intuitive sense because individuals have different cognitive strengths, such as spatial reasoning or listening comprehension [00:01:40]. Many teachers also believe in learning styles; a survey of nearly 400 teachers in the UK and Netherlands found over 90% believed individuals learn better when instruction matches their preferred style [00:02:16].

Lack of Evidence for Learning Styles

Despite popular belief, rigorous studies have found no credible evidence that learning styles exist or that matching instruction to a presumed learning style improves learning [00:09:37].

  • Randomized Control Trials: In experiments where learners are identified by style (e.g., visual or auditory) and then randomly assigned to matched or mismatched instructional presentations, performance on tests shows no improvement when the presentation aligns with the supposed learning style [00:03:36], [00:07:02].
  • Student Study Strategies: A 2018 study at an Indiana university found that an overwhelming majority of students used study strategies supposedly incompatible with their VARK-classified learning style, and this mismatch did not significantly affect their assessment performance [00:07:35].
  • Meaning, Not Modality: The goal of learning is to recall the meaning behind presentations, not the precise nature of the stimuli (e.g., specific images or sound quality) [00:08:43]. While certain tasks inherently require specific modalities (e.g., music with auditory components or geography with maps), the claim that a person’s preferred learning style is consistent across all learning domains is unsupported [00:09:20]. For example, a person with perfect pitch will learn music better auditorily, but this does not mean they learn everything better auditorily [00:09:24].
  • Impact of Belief: The conviction that one has a specific learning style can lead to interpreting successful learning experiences as confirmation of that style, even when the teaching method (e.g., a well-designed diagram) would have benefited anyone [00:10:21].

“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.” [00:09:43]

The learning styles misconception may even hinder learning by giving teachers unnecessary concerns and making students reluctant to engage with certain types of instruction [00:12:20]. Resources spent on learning styles training could be better allocated to interventions that genuinely improve learning [00:12:35].

Proven Effective Teaching Methods

While learning styles do not improve learning, several evidence-based methods do:

  • Multimodal Approaches: Everyone learns better when words and pictures are presented together, rather than relying solely on text or visuals [00:11:03]. This is known as the multimedia effect. Videos, for example, are powerful learning tools when narration complements visuals [00:11:21]. This strategy works for everyone [00:12:57].

  • Active Thinking and Engagement: The most critical factor for learning is what happens inside the learner’s head [00:11:52]. People learn best when they are actively thinking about the material, solving problems, or imagining how different variables might change [00:11:55].

  • Memory Strategies: Effective memory strategies, such as creating a story or ordering items in one’s head, can significantly improve recall, irrespective of a presumed learning style [00:05:29].

Ultimately, effective teaching involves providing multiple different ways of understanding the same concept [00:12:52].

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