"Learning Styles Don't Exist" Video

Today in class we watched "Learning Styles Don't Exist", a video on the theory that learning styles are bogus. Visual, audio and kinesthetic learning styles are ways which people claim to learn better. The prediction of the learning styles theory is that visual learners will always learn better when they see visual depictions. However, the video states their studies prove this theory wrong. Remembering information comes easier to people in these way because they are meaning based, not factually based.The video states learning is contextual. 90% of people believe the theory on learning styles is true, therefore they may make ambiguous assumptions when situations arise that align with the theory. The video says "good teaching is good teaching" and teachers do not need to adjust their methods to accommodate learning styles.


My first reaction is to disagree with this video. It seems to me that teaching to a variety of learning styles is beneficial to students because it allows them to learn in a various number of way, some of which will tend to make learning easier than others. If 90% of people believe the learning styles theory is true there must be some merit in it. As a student I know how I learn best and some modes of learning simply just don't work for me. How could 90% of the learning population be mistaken into thinking they learn better with some learning styles than others? Additionally, the studies talked about in the video did not seem very extensive. I believe more studies have been done with result supporting learning styles than studies with results opposing them.

--Can learning be both meaning-based and learning style based?-- Would it be possible that overall students learn best in a few specific learning styles, however, if a subject matter was particularly meaningful they would learn well no matter which style the information was presented in?