Watch out for ‘neuromyths' in learning

Neuroscience has given insights to learning behaviours, but some theories might be false

- Charles Chan

When my elder daughter, R, was in primary school, she came home from an enrichment workshop in school and told us she was an auditory learner. This meant that her optimal learning style was by hearing and listening.

The term “learning styles” is based on the belief that learning is enhanced if the material presented to the learner matches the learner’s preference.

The most common learning styles are auditory, visual and kinaesthetic, which typically translates to students learning best by listening, looking at pictures or through hands-on activities respectively.

That R’s optimal learning style was auditory made sense to my wife and me, as we were familiar with our daughter’s interest in music when she was younger. We then set out to find different ways to optimise R’s learning potential using music and other methods like getting her to read aloud to herself or to listen to audio books.

We even tried to determine the learning styles of our four other children and find the best ways to engage them in their preferred learning styles.

Even as an educator back then, I subscribed to this belief and approach of preferred learning styles. I would plan and conduct lessons using teaching methods that matched the preferred learning styles of my students.

As a geography teacher, I was able to use visual aids such as videos and photos in my teaching. I would also get the students to make models of physical land forms like rivers or volcanoes using plasticine. I even had singing, drama and role play in my classroom. While these strategies may not have appealed to every student, they at least provided for variety in their learning.