Beware the myth: learning styles affect parents’, children’s, and teachers’ thinking about children’s academic potential

Abstract

Three experiments examine how providing learning style information (a student learns hands-on or visually) might influence thinking about that student’s academic potential. Samples were American and predominately white and middle-class. In Experiment 1, parents (N = 94) and children (N = 73, 6–12 years) judged students who learn visually as more intelligent than hands-on learners. Experiment 2 replicated this pattern with parents and teachers (N = 172). In Experiment 3 (pre-registered), parents and teachers (N = 200) predicted that visual learners are more skilled than hands-on learners at “core” school subjects (math/language/social sciences, except science), whereas, hands-on learners were skilled at non-core subjects (gym/music/art). Together, these studies show that learning style descriptions, resultant of a myth, impact thinking about children’s intellectual aptitudes.