Part 3

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

THE MYTH OF LEARNING STYLES

The idea that teaching methods should match a student’s particular learning style — their personal way of learning — is popular with teachers and students alike. But the evidence suggests it may not be helpful.

The concept of learning styles is one of the most influential — and widely criticized — theories in education. It is the idea that each person finds it easier to learn through a particular method of instruction. Some people, for example, are thought to learn better when they’re taught visually; others, when instruction is auditory, or through movement, and so on.

The idea is popular in part because it reflects the intuition of teachers and students. Everyone knows from personal experience that some kinds of learning feel easier than others, and that they may prefer one way of learning over another. And it is also popular because it claims to be based on science. The idea of learning styles was developed in the 1970s, as psychologists and educational theorists were trying to understand how people learn. The idea that different people learn information in different ways was appealing, and it soon became clear that many people had strong preferences about how they liked information to be presented. In a typical research study, one group of students might be classified as ‘visual learners’, while another group would be classified as ‘auditory learners’. All the students would then be asked to learn something, with half the visual learners being taught visually, and half being taught aurally. The auditory learners would also be split into the two groups. If the theory was correct, the visual learners should do better when taught visually, and the auditory learners should do better when taught aurally.

But that’s not what psychologists found. As early as 2004, a review of the evidence by cognitive scientists found that the great majority of studies did not provide any evidence supporting the idea that matching the material to a student’s particular learning style was helpful. More recently, a team of psychologists led by Daniel Willingham at the University of Virginia has examined the evidence for learning styles again. They found that the vast majority of studies either found no evidence for the theory, or actually contradicted it. As the researchers point out, people may have preferences about how they learn, but that doesn’t mean that they will learn better when the teaching matches those preferences.

There are several possible explanations for these findings. One is that some students might not actually have a ‘style’ that is strong enough to affect their learning. Another possibility is that students do have preferences about how they learn, but these preferences don’t affect their learning. A third possibility is that students do have preferences, and these preferences do affect their learning, but only because they have learned less well through other methods in the past.

But the most likely explanation is that different ways of learning are useful for learning different things. For example, learning to drive a car involves a mix of visual learning (such as watching the instructor), auditory learning (listening to instructions), and hands-on learning (actually driving the car). In a 2009 article in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, psychologists Harold Pashler, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer and Robert Bjork argued that the learning-styles approach is not only unsupported by science, but may actually be harmful, because it leads teachers to teach students in ways that are not very effective. For example, a student who is a ‘visual learner’ might be encouraged to learn only through visual materials, and never to practice learning by listening, reading or acting.

The idea of learning styles is also harmful because it can give students the impression that they have fixed, or fixed amounts of, intelligence. In recent years, a great deal of research has shown that people’s attitudes to learning can have a large impact on how much they learn. For example, students who believe that intelligence is fixed, and that they are either smart or stupid and there is nothing they can do about it, tend to do less well than students who believe that intelligence can change, and that they can become smarter by working hard at their studies. Similarly, students who have been told that they are ‘visual learners’ might put less effort into tasks that are based on reading or listening. This is particularly worrying because research has shown that students who use a mix of learning methods often learn more effectively than those who stick to their ‘style’.

Despite the lack of evidence for learning styles, the idea is still very popular. A 2014 study of more than 400 teachers in the UK and the Netherlands found that more than 90 percent of them believed that people learn better if they are taught in their preferred learning style, and that the majority of them used learning styles as a method of instruction. In the US, a 2017 survey of more than 300 teachers found that 96 percent of them agreed with the idea of learning styles, and 24 percent of them used it to guide their teaching.

The idea of learning styles is also popular among students. In a 2018 study, researchers asked more than 600 students in the US about their beliefs about learning. They found that 93 percent of them agreed with the idea of learning styles, and that 78 percent of them said that they had a particular learning style.

The evidence is clear: matching teaching to a student’s particular learning style is unlikely to lead to better learning. It may in fact be holding students back.

Questions 27-31

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet, write

27.YESNONOT GIVEN . Teachers and students’ personal experiences contribute to the popularity of the learning styles concept.

28.YESNONOT GIVEN . Research into learning styles was popular in the 1970s.

29.YESNONOT GIVEN . Psychologists found evidence for the idea of learning styles as early as 2004.

30.YESNONOT GIVEN . The team of psychologists led by Daniel Willingham found evidence for the idea of learning styles.

31.YESNONOT GIVEN . Students may learn better when they are taught using methods they are not familiar with.

Questions 32-35

Complete the summary using the list of words, A-F, below.

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet.

EXPLANATIONS FOR THE FINDINGS

One explanation is that some students might not have a strong enough 32.ABCDEF to affect their learning. Another possibility is that students may have preferences about how they learn, but these do not affect their 33.ABCDEF

A third possibility is that students’ preferences do affect their learning, but only because they have learned less well through other methods in the past.

The most likely explanation is that different ways of learning are useful for learning different things. For example, learning to drive a car involves visual learning, auditory learning and 34.ABCDEF

The learning-styles approach is not only unsupported by science, but may actually be 35.ABCDEF

Questions 36-40

Complete the sentences below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet.

The idea of learning styles can give students the wrong idea about their level of 36___________;

Students who believe that intelligence is 37___________ tend to do better than other students.

Students who have been told that they are 38___________ learners might not try so hard to learn by reading or listening.

Research has shown that students who use a 39___________ of learning methods often learn more effectively.

In a 2018 study, 78 percent of students said that they had a particular 40___________.