How much of what you believe about the psychology of learning is wrong?听
The answer, most likely, is kind of a lot. Here are five popular learning myths still prevalent in today鈥檚 classrooms.鈥�听
1. Learning styles
This is the idea that听听and that they will learn better if the teacher delivers materials in their preferred style. If you鈥檙e a visual learner, you will learn best from material presented visually. Auditory learners will do better if that same material is delivered via an auditory format.听
In my experience, this is one of the 鈥渟tickiest鈥� pieces of misinformation in education. And I鈥檓 clearly not alone. In fact, Work Learning is in its eighth year of a听听to anyone who can prove teaching to learning styles听actually works.听
Why it鈥檚 a myth听
The idea of different learning styles is not supported by scientific evidence. Whether learning materials are presented to students in their preferred or other format听. If we stop and think about this for a moment, it makes sense, because it also matters听what听you鈥檙e learning. Even if you听have a preference for听auditory learning, you鈥檙e probably not going to do very well solving quadratic equations just by listening to them explained without anything visual written down.听
While there鈥檚 no evidence that teaching students in their preferred style has any benefit, there is evidence that the novelty of presenting learning materials in a variety of styles can听.听
2. Grit
The concept of grit has become听听and suggests that perseverance and passion for long term goals will determine achievement, rather than talent alone. This doesn鈥檛 feel like an especially outlandish claim, perhaps because the concept of grit seems to be a rebranding of personality traits that have been investigated for decades.听
Why it鈥檚 a myth听
The popularity of grit doesn鈥檛 match the quality of the evidence supporting the idea. While having grit may play a part in success and performance, there鈥檚 good evidence to suggest that it鈥檚 not the most important trait, and that qualities such as听听and听听are better predictors of school success.听
3. Males are better at maths
Males are better at mathematics and spatial tasks like map-reading than females. On the other hand, females outperform males when it comes to language, writing and grammar. Right?听
Why it鈥檚 a myth听
The gender stereotype above is widely, and sometimes even unconsciously, held to be true, but there鈥檚 actually very little evidence to support it. We tend to overemphasise the difference between the genders. A recent analysis of gender differences across a huge variety of psychological functioning relevant to learning found support for the听听鈥� that is, males and females are much more similar than they are different. Where there听are听differences, these are so small that there鈥檚 a huge overlap between the two genders. This is an especially important myth to overcome given that gender stereotypes听.听
4. People are either right-brained or left-brained
This is the belief that your abilities are somehow linked to听whether or not听you typically rely more on the left or right hemisphere of your brain. The left-brained amongst us are the logical, objective ones, and right-brained are the creative, intuitive ones.听
Why it鈥檚 a myth听
The brain can now be examined in greater detail than ever before and there鈥檚 no evidence to support this myth, as neither hemisphere is solely responsible for a听particular set听of abilities or personality.听Similar to听the erroneous belief that we only use 10 percent of our brain, scientists are not even giving airtime to this idea because it simply isn鈥檛 true.听
5. Brain-training games make you smarter
There are some impressive claims made about the benefits of brain-training games 鈥� like playing them can help improve your memory, attention and even your intelligence.听
Why it鈥檚 a myth听
The only likely benefit of brain-training games is that you鈥檒l become very good at the game. This, however, does not translate to improved performance in other contexts like school.听听that brain-training games aren鈥檛 making us smarter and don鈥檛 offer any general improvement in users鈥� ability to think, remember, or pay attention.听
Why it鈥檚 so important to overcome these myths
Misconceptions like the ones above can dominate the time and resources of teachers, which are already stretched, and offer little or no benefit to student learning. In addition, if these beliefs are held by students, they may inadvertently limit their own potential (鈥淚鈥檓 just not creative because I鈥檓 left-brained鈥�, 鈥淚 can鈥檛 learn this because it鈥檚 not visual鈥� or 鈥渢here鈥檚 no point trying, girls just aren鈥檛 good at science鈥�). We can all help to limit the negative effects of misconceptions about learning by discovering and challenging claims that don鈥檛 hold up.听
