No Evidence to Support Use of Learning Style Assessments

A newly-released review of the literature on learning styles concludes there is no scientific basis for using learning style assessments in education to make decisions about teaching and learning methods.

Writing in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Harold Pashler, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer, and Robert Bjork argue that few of the studies of learning styles used appropriate experimental methods that would allow appropriate conclusions to be drawn about the impact of customizing instruction for particular learning styles. Furthermore, in the few studies that did use appropriate methods, the results do no support the hypothesis that tailoring instruction to learning styles will improve performance.

They conclude that "at present, there is no adequate evidence base to justify incorporating learning- styles assessments into general educational practice. Thus, limited education resources would better be devoted to adopting other educational practices that have a strong evidence base, of which there are an increasing number."