Learning
Do kids learn better when taught in their 'learning style'?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Children labelled as auditory or visual learners did not learn more when material was delivered in their preferred mode, and most children had no clear preference at all.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Human experiment — Counterbalanced crossover: every child received a listening and a reading comprehension passage set on consecutive days, then completed a learning-styles inventory; comprehension was compared by learning-style preference.
- N
- N=107 · 125 children took part; 107 with both comprehension and learning-style scores entered the correlations, and 34 with a clear auditory (12) or visual (22) preference entered the meshing ANOVA.
- Population
- Children aged 10-11 in the fifth grade of one public middle school in rural Pennsylvania.
- Outcome
- Listening and reading comprehension scores (adapted Gates-MacGinitie passages with written questions) in relation to auditory and visual learning-style scores.
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Key findings
Visual preference did not predict better reading comprehension, and auditory preference was weakly negatively related to listening comprehension rather than positively. The difference between a child's visual and auditory preference did not predict the difference between their reading and listening scores. Only 34 children had a clear single preference; among them, visual learners scored higher on both tests and both groups did better when listening, so there was no crossover and no learning-style by instruction interaction. Around 68% of children showed similar auditory and visual preferences.
Methodology
In one rural Pennsylvania school, 125 children aged 10-11 heard one set of comprehension passages through earbuds and read another set on iPads on separate days, with order and test form counterbalanced; the questions were always written. They then completed a popular children's learning-styles inventory that rates auditory and visual preference. The researchers correlated preferences with reading and listening scores and, following Pashler and colleagues' recommended design, compared children with a clear auditory or clear visual preference to look for the crossover interaction that learning-styles theory predicts.
Limitations
All children came from a single rural school, so results may not generalise to other populations. The comprehension questions were always written, which the authors note might favour visual learners and mask a learning-styles effect. The critical meshing comparison rested on only 34 children with clear preferences (just 12 auditory), giving limited power, and instruction lasted only a single session per mode. The study only tested auditory versus visual styles with short text passages, not kinesthetic styles, other content or longer instruction.
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