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You’re smarter than you think!

There have been no less than 71 different models of learning styles proposed over the years with various methods of testing to classify you into one of them. However, these tests aren’t academic in nature, according to University of California, San Diego psychology professor Dr. Hal Pashler’s. Psychological research has not found that people learn differently, at least not in the ways learning-styles claim. Given the lack of scientific evidence researchers argue that the current widespread use of learning-style tests and teaching tools is a waste of time.

VARK

VARK is a well-known learning style and the VARK questionnaire is supposed to provides users with a profile of their learning preferences. Based on the VARK model you are a Visual (V), Audio (A), Read/Write(R), or Kinesthetic (K) learner or a combination of a few. The ongoing debate remains as to whether there is such a thing as learning styles, or whether it’s just a learning preference.

Let’s Ask Elon Musk

Elon Musk was recently asked on Reddit his thoughts on learning and he replied

“I think most people can learn a lot more than they think they can. They sell themselves short without trying.” He added “it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree—make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e. the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to”

In other words, like Math you have to get the basic’s (the tree’s trunk) before moving on to Algebra (branches), then branch out from there to Trigonometry or Calculus (leaves). Ok, thanks Elon - makes sense….

But What If We Aren’t Good at Math?

Elon Musk is obviously great at math, but contrary to popular opinion, a natural ability in math will only get you so far. A 2010 survey conducted by Change the Equation found that 50% of people think they are not good at math with one-third of Americans saying they would rather clean a bathroom than solve a math problem. A further study published in PLoS One in 2012 found that anticipation of doing math can actually affect the same regions of the brain that pain does. Essentially, math is painful.

So How Do We Learn?

There’s a great book by Daniel Willingham a Harvard educated cognitive scientist that wrote a book on “Why Student’s Don’t Like School”, but applies to any age. The key points of his book are that:

1. People Are More Alike Than Different In How We Learn.

Like Dr. Hal Pashler, he believes that learning styles are bunk. There is no such thing as visual, auditory or kinesthetic learners. Many would disagree but research says otherwise.

Let’s take two employees. John and Jane. If John was good at visual, and Jane good at auditory and both taught the same subject, John would learn better by a slide show (watching) and Jane an audiobook (listening). The experiments simply don’t find that. In other words, the way we learn are more similar than different. Some people might be better at learning certain types of things than others, but given a particular subject, science hasn’t different ways of learning it that are consistently better for some people but not others.

2. Knowledge Proceeds Skills

In words you cannot teach someone “how” to think, without first teaching them a considerable amount of “what” to think.

3. Intelligence Can Be Changed Through Sustained Hard Work.

Intelligence is partially genetic and partially environmental. However, now the consensus has turned far more towards nurture, rather than nature. The Flynn Effect implies that genes may have an important role in intelligence, but most of that role is played out through the environment, not independent of it. In other words, just because your parents are not “rocket scientists”, you still have a good chance through hard work to be “smart”.

4. You Will Remember What You Think About - In other words if your passionate about a subject and think about it a lot, your purpose and your motivation will make it possible for you to recall facts. If you like something, you will retain information better.

5. We Understand New Things - By What We already Know - The best comparison for this is doing an MBA. If you have worked in the business world a long time you may find an MBA very easy because it is really just about applying theory to what you already know.

5. Practice Makes Perfect - Yes, we all learned this as kids. The only way to become good at skills is to practice them.

Whether you believe in learning styles is not really the debate, merely an observation. As professionals we should not “pigeon hole” ourselves into believing we are only good at some things and not others based on our genetics, or what we have been told. The next time you are thinking about a career change, or going up for that big promotion but concerned about not quite being smart enough, or as smart as the other person, think again.

You are smarter than you think!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Rachel Rowling .