Almost 10 years ago we wrote a blog in The Guardian called “Four neuromyths that are still prevalent in schools – debunked”. Learning Styles was one of them. In the intervening years, much progress has been made. The profession now places a higher value on research. Cognitive Science studies have accelerated the use of Retrieval Practice in schools, which offer a much better bet. But just when it seems as though the war has been worn, it now looks like war has restarted as the emergence of AI has revitalised this zombie myth.
Learning Styles: the Zombie Myth
Just for the avoidance of doubt, a two sentence explainer of the learning styles myth; Often referred to as VAK, it is the false belief that matching students’ supposed learning style (visual, auditory or kinaesthetic) to classroom instruction accelerates their learning. The only problem is research has found that:
- There is no evidence to back this up
- There is evidence to suggest it can actually hinder learning
- The belief in learning styles can limit how students, parents, teachers view the abilities of students – with this study finding that believing you have a “hands on” learning style means that you are less likely to be good at Maths for example.
What makes learning styles a zombie myth? Well, it just won’t die. It has been around for ages, and despite being debunked, it is still a fairly well-held belief within the general population (and for many in education).
Why is the learning styles zombie myth now revitalised?
This myth has actually been revitalised by AI. You are going to see it creep back in more and more (unless we do something about it).
As people from all professions are turning to AI software to enhance both their effectiveness and efficiency, education will be no different. So what’s the issue with Chat GPT and learning styles? Well, recently I did a test on it. I asked it for a lesson plan on ox-bow lakes for students “with a large range of learning needs”. And as part of the reply, I got back tips about incorporating learning styles.
But I know that good prompt craft is key to using Chat GPT, so I thought I would try again, this time being more specific. Firstly, referring to SEND students and second to neurodiverse students. But again, I got learning styles related answers.
I thought I’d give it one more try. Numerous recent studies have highlighted key Cognitive Science principles that can help accelerate learning (i.e. Retrieval Practice, Spacing, Interleaving, Cognitive Load Theory). What happens if I specifically tell ChatGPT to make the lesson plan based on these sort of things…?
I got learning styles again! It truly is the zombie learning myth that not only refuses to die, but is actually revitalised by AI. So, why is this the case?
An explanation of AI and learning styles
To understand why this happens, we first have to understand what Chat GPT is and isn’t. It is a Large Language Model (LLM). Which means it essentially predicts the next word in a sentence, based on its training and scanning of historical articles on the internet.
This means it is not a fact detector. It is not a competent judgement of what is right or wrong. It is not a database that can look up “correct” or “true” answers. It just guesses the next word based its training and resultant probability weighting.
Once we understand this, the learning style zombie myth revitalised makes sense. Because for the best part of the last decade, loads of educators believed in learning styles. Many still do, but that’s a topic for another blog.
Recently, researchers conducted a large scale global review of what percentage of teachers or headteachers believed in learning styles. This included studies done in America, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Australia, England, China, South Korea and many other countries from Europe. They found that over the past ten years, around 90% of educators believed in learning styles.
From about 2000 onwards, learning styles was part of initial teacher training. It was in education books. And blogs. And discussed on forums. A feature of Large Language Models is that they require training to work out the probability weighting required for them to work as language predictors. Digital text is required for this training and old internet pages are a widely used source for this.
So, of course Chat GPT, when it is searching for its next likely word, it is likely to come up with learning styles – because it was so prominent. As Chat GPT doesn’t try to judge between right or wrong, it’s not surprising it features learning styles in so many of its answers.
Final Thoughts
So, what are the implications of this? For us they are two-fold. Firstly, be prepared to see a lot more learning styles out there. They say a lie travels around the world before the truth has even laced up its trainers. So, we have to be on guard for this sort of stuff, and rebut it when we see it.
Secondly, the appearance and dominance of learning styles in ChatGPT answers doesn’t mean that educators should shy away from using the platform. It just means we need to have a good level of training to help understand what it can and can’t do, and therefore use it appropriately. There are huge advances to be made by being AI savvy, if we use it critically and carefully. Doing so will help save time and improve things. This is why we at InnerDrive are now offering training on this and can help.
Perhaps now more than ever, these technological advances enhance the value and importance of teachers. Not only in terms of the expert knowledge but also in the very fundamental role of how teaching and learning happen. But the onus and responsibility is always on the individual user of AI, or else these zombie myths will not only never die, but will be revitalised.
