Why There is No Such Thing as Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic Learners.

I’m sure that at some point in school you have had to take a quiz which presents you with statements like:

I first notice how people…

a) look and dress

b) sound and speak

c) stand and move

You would tally up all the answers that you chose and then you’re told that you’re one of three learning preferences.

1. The visual learner: you learn things by seeing
2. The auditory learner: you learn things by hearing
3. The kinesthetic learner: you learn things by doing

This theory called the VAK Model is based the idea that individuals prefer to receive information from one of their senses compared to others. This knowledge supposedly allows you to tailor your learning so that you process information better. Sounds good, so what’s the issue?

There is not enough evidence to back up this theory.

Seriously, if you type into Google “vak learning styles evidence” it brings up articles with titles like Why are we still talking about learning styles?, Learning Styles Debunked and The myth of learning styles. This is bad because we’re told this follow this idea but clearly there isn’t enough science to back it up.

So why do teachers still tell us this? I think it’s because we simply trust advice from others. It’s understandable, this theory seems to make sense but how many teachers have really decided to check whether this theory is right or not? Teachers just want the best for us, but just like any other human being, they are not always correct.

So what should students do?

There isn’t really a straightforward answer. All that I can say is, you must discover your strengths and weaknesses; find out what bests works for you and what doesn’t. Don’t just take on advice given by people but make sure that you learn in a way that best suits you. Good luck!

Thank you for reading! If you found this article helpful please give a ❤️. Let me know your thoughts your thoughts on the visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles!