The Biggest Myth In Education 

My learning style is: being interested in the subject.

i'm a pressure learner, i only learn school material when there's severe stress and doubts about my future imposed on me

I took this VARK test in high school, and as a student who didn’t perform well, I was SOO excited to find out my learning style. I scored the exact same in all categories... seems like that wasn't the reason for my struggle. I realized that once I started taking online classes in college, I learned WAY better when I wasn't around my peers. I would make funny faces, talk out loud, gasp!, yell "what!?!," stick my tounge out, lay on the floor, walk around the room, etc. Not that I needed to have a classroom that allowed me to learn this way... but I needed to have no one else watch me learning this way. I love having a real instuctor, but not other students watching me. Now, I just simulate this by sitting at the front of the class, right in front of the teacher. No one sits in the front. Its always open. ❤

In school I found I learned best by writing things down because during tests i could remember myself writing it down. I don't think I have that learning style, I just think I was creating memories to look back on during my exams.

My learning style is: "oh sh*t tomorrow's the deadline"

"how do you know you're a visual learner" "I don't, I just assumed." This guy learns

That’s not learning. That’s remembering. Which could be the challenge in education… because learning is not solely about remembering.

This was a reassuring video for me. I always thought that I didn't really have a learning style because it depends on the situation and material. When someone asks me that question, I usually reply with "visual" because in my memory, I tend to absorb textbook information better by reading than listening to it (and I cannot do audiobooks/podcasts). But I also remember countless times where I would read the same paragraph over and over again because I couldn't understand what was happening, and I end up having to look up a diagram, try to map it out myself, or even hear it out loud before it clicks. Thus, I never thought I was truly a visual learner, rather it was just the one that I tend to lean more into, but I definitely require a bit of everything for the best results. It's good to know there's nothing wrong with me haha. And side note, I never really understood what kinesthetic learning means when it's not like building/drawing/something active/etc. Like is doing practice problems in math or history considered "hands-on" ?

"I prefer to learn about things that I want to learn" - best learning style

Interesting. My learning style is: slow.

I have been a dog trainer for 10 years. I have always believe there are different learning styles and therefore present my training in a way that touches on all three. I demonstrate, explain, and give worksheets to every client. I have always done it this way to ensure the information is absorbed by my clients since I am not able to determine each and every clients learning style. Dog training really should be called people training. That said, I never realized this was a thing and it's called multimedia. I guess now I feel a bit silly for not realizing that. I have always felt like I understand new things best by a bit of everything. I like to hear it explained, see it done, take notes, read the instructions (or read about a topic), and try it for myself. I incorporate a lot of "experience" stories to clients to help them understand why something might be happening or what could happen if they do something a certain way. I loved this presentation on learning. This has definitely broadened my thoughts on the subject.

The interesting thing here is that, when i was a younger, i thought of myself as a visual/ kinesthetic learner in the sense that i needed to either see something physically happen or do it myself to internalize it. While there is certainly some truth to that for me, as I've gotten into college, i'm noticing exactly this - the best approach is a combination. Some things really sink in when you hear them, some when you see them, and some when you feel them, etc. The most beneficial thing is to take the same concept and approach it from so many perspectives that at least one sticks and to just continuously do that.

"How do you know you are visual learner." "I don't. I assumed." What a legend.

"Most people would learn geography better with a map" That checks out

To my mind, it's your attitude towards what you are learning that makes a difference, if you are interested and motivated to learn you will do your best to understand and find the right ways to remember essential information, I agree that a different material requires a different learning style. Sometimes I remember by visualizing pictures, and sometimes by listening, and more often by watching videos for example.

I agree I am a mixed learner. I like someone explaining & showing me, then letting me try it on my own. Now I do learn when this doesn't happen, ie. I'm only given oral instructions, but I find it comes easier/quicker for me if I can have it shown & explained, then try it myself. Plus the lesson sticks longer. For college & high school, I simply memorized by rote, usually visualizing the text book in my head, but as soon as the test was done, the information was gone, so I wouldn't call that a style of learning, since no true learning was being done.

"How do you know that you're a visual learner?" "I don't. I just assume." I hope that guy knows just how perfect and precise that answer is.

Veritas: How do you know that? "I don't, I just assume." Smartest dude of the bunch.

I'm a teacher who just discovered your channel. When you asked those people what Learning Style they were I imagined what I'd say in that position and I would have said "all of them - I'm a multi-modal learner". Then you went on and talked about multimodality so I take some solace in the fact that I am doing my best for my students in following this approach.

“what kind of learner are you?” “a slow one…”

The best way to learn something is being actually interested in the topic.

Memorizing a list is not the same type of learning as breaking down complex concepts and understanding how they make sense.

This makes so much sense, as I could never pick one specific learning style which worked best for me. For me, I always found I learn best when I have all three modalities of learning together, and separating them into individual categories just felt dumb, but I always played along with the surveys and picked one. I'm so glad I found this and now know I'm wasn't completely crazy.

My learning style is: “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

"People learn geography better with maps." I'm one of the few who learns geography better by listening to the locations in sonar. 🐬

Remember it's just a skill - it will improve with practice. No matter how difficult it seems at the start, you will improve. I thought I'm a dum-dum at maths - turned out I was discouraged because it was..my first bad grade. We often get locked in patterns. Try to identify Yours. And never, ever give up. Keep going, even by little. You'll get there. Learning how to learn is extremely important too, but persistence is paramount in all endeavours.

The discussion and exercises in the video often equate learning with memorisation. When people say they are visual learners, I think they are trying to express that they can often understand complex concepts faster/better by seeing a visual representation, rather than pages of text. If instead of a list of items to remember you had given people a written explanation of how a volcano or a TV works, vs a diagram or animation explaining the same and compare how quickly and comprehensively people understood, you may see a different results, or at least results more aligned with what people are trying to express.

I'm a clarity learner. I learn better when the information is clearer.

I’m a “memorization” learner: I memorize the material, pass the test, then immediately throw it out of my brain.

this explains to me why i've never really had one set learning style and instead prefer to mix them together if or when i can. like listening to a book being read while reading it at the same time.

I think for me I loved when we were doing different types of learning styles, the way of learning is important but I feel like eventually it comes down to implicating students and encourage flexibility. Give them time and enough supports but not too much as not to overwhelm them. I lack structure and I have ADHD so it’s important that things are clear. For example I always noticed that images, mind maps didn’t help me on their own because I don’t understand what exactly we have to learn from them. I think where we get it wrong is that we are not really good at one specific learning style but we can have difficulties with some because of specific disabilities that are often not addressed like bad hearing, bad eyesight, dalton’s vision, dyslexia, etc. I see a flaw in the test you ran, it only uses short term memory and doesn’t apply to things that don’t need to be copied and paste but understood and manipulated

As an educator, I was taught learning styles theory, and we were told to try to incorporate some or all of them in the lessons. The result was teaching the same material in a few different ways so that you'd reach everyone. The actual outcome was the material was presented multiple times, so the repeated exposure through a variety of styles helped everyone remember better. Don't just teach visual learners visually and kinesthetic learners with experiments; teach everyone with everything.

"People learn best when they are actively thinking about the material." This is it.

I'm in the learning and development department at a manufacturing facility. We used this test in orientation to help for when new hires go to the floor to train. I've been working on shifting us away from the learning style model for a few months now. This video is super helpful!!!

There is one element to this that was not addressed: as a teacher, it does not really matter if the RCT said VARK doesn't work, once your student already believes that it does. The placebo effect is strong and it affects other important aspects of learning like comfort and motivation. So it often pays off to go along with peoples preferences to an extent. It is good to know that it doesn't hold any water though, so you can focus on more important things about the classroom rather than trying to inventory everyone's own thing.

That one guy, "How do you know?" "I don't, I just assume." Most honest human answer to anything we experience ever

2:58 "How do you know you're a visual learner? -I don't, I just assume" This man figured it out

Thank you!!! Finally. You describe my experience with learning. When people ask me my learning style, I offer many different ways I learn. Though typically in the realm of how to present concepts for me to understand the most effectively. That each of my senses acts as a way I learn.

These really explains well why I prefer all the learning styles. I couldn't just pick any that I preferred. I ought to believe one time my preferred style was visualize but now I understand it thanks to this video. But it also forgets to mention this that the sense of smell and taste also helps me retain what I learn. Like smelling an orange. If I saw an orange, heard the word orange, touched an orange, smelled an orange, tasted an orange, ate an orange, draw an orange, wrote sn orange. I would definitely remember it for long. Plus, the techniques and strategy also helps. Like active recalling, break times, storytelling, flash cards and so on. If I use all of my senses and all of the learning styles and strategy and techniques plus the motivation, discipline and curiousity. I would definitely learn it not only at memory but also at heart. I mentioned here that motivation, discipline and curiousity plays a big factor in these because without it how would you start? Without motivation you would procastinate at learning something or doing it. Without discipline, you wouldn't be able to consistenly learn it and putting effort on it. And wothout curiousity you wouldn't be able to take the lessons at heart. So by combining all of these. I would be super saiyan🫨🫨🫨

I think the best learning happens when there's a synthesis of learning styles. I really like taking notes town as the teacher writes and narrates them because i can write down the contents, listen to the content, and hear the content all at once. I think the structure of this type of note taking also helps because i like linear structure with points amd sub points rather than web graphic organizers.

“What kind of learner are you?” “I don’t”

Plot twist: Turns out *_everyone_* is a "What I pay attention to" learner...

As a (retired) research engineer , 87 yr old. iearned whatever knowledge have by studying text books. Not any textbook but a text that has examples with calculation of results. I admit to sometimes reading and rereading the material many times .

The guy who recognized that he was making an assumption is my hero.

Other RU-vidrs: “sponsored by skillshare” Veritasium: “sponsored by Google”

i’ve always felt like i am all in one. like i need to be listening to someone explain AND watching them WHILE i am doing whatever they are teaching me OR writing down whatever it is they are telling me

I do know I am a visual learner. If you show me how to do something or if a foreign language is spoken to me with/in context I get it so much faster, than when I read about it or is verbally explained to me. A few times I was able to just watch someone do something, without explanation and I was still able to get it. It makes logical sense because writing wasn't what we evolved from. We observe before we speak or write.

"how do you know you're a visual learner" "I don't, I just assumed." *_He is the chosen one_*

"How do you know?" "I don't. I just assumed." I like that guy. A lot of people could learn from him.

My style : ADHD

Well done. Having sat through professional development sessions in using the bogus Learning Style approach, your video is a breath of fresh air.

“Are you a visual learner?” “Yeah” “How do you know you’re a visual learner?” “I don’t.” My man

I recall a teacher telling me he practised the martial art of "Tell-show-do", he further explained that his students learned best when first he told them about the subject matter, then he showed them a demonstration of the material, and finally got them to practise it themselves. This essentially covered all the perceived learning styles and helped everyone in his classes learn fairly uniformly.

I'm currently working on a research paper questioning the use of learning styles within curriculum of teacher training which perpetuates the use of learning styles and the meshing hypothesis within society.

Some of the Brain Game series really displayed thought patterns and cognizant bias a very interesting way. Switching gears while learning also helps because of what you have already learned and the ability to integrate the new information. Sometimes writing lines does help.

Being taught electronics without diagrams sounds horrendous. That’s like hearing math. Just doesn’t work.

In short, you only learn when you are interested in learning.

I saw this a long time ago, and I loved it so much that I've come back to watch it again. One little thing that interests me is whether it is harder to block out visual stimuli. That seems to be one of the earliest forms of stimuli that the human brain allows us to categorise. We have sound statistics at a young age, but not meaningful words. We can't walk or move in the same way until we're much older. Smells and tastes need to be identified and dealt with even more slowly. I say this because in my experience as a language teacher, I recall (perhaps incorrectly) that most people's pronounication got worse when they were initially presented with the words in writing (in English). It's hard to tell people that they can't have that, so often it's better to write the words out according to other words they already know or - if possible - according to the phonetics of their own language.

Teacher here, and I had trouble buying into the “learning styles“ storyline. One of my fellow skeptics said that even if the learning styles theory is true, shouldn’t you challenge students to strengthen themselves where they are weak? If you are an auditory learner, shouldn’t you work on visual learning? If you go to the gym with huge arms but skinny legs, are you going to keep building your arms or are you going to work on your legs? Unfortunately,I think a lot of educational research is weak.

The guy with the most potential in this video said just five words. "I don't, I just assumed."

We're told the public isn't interested in education, but then a video on learning styles proves extremely popular. Conclusion: people crave education that delivers!

12:28 "and it makes some students reluctant to engage with certain types of instruction" is so true. More often than not you would get kids that refuse to read an explanation or paragraph because it's 'too many words' and 'I'm a visual learner'

Love this video! I am a teacher trainer and will definitely be using this in future workshops! Don't know if you're taking requests, but I would love to see a video about cognitive load and especially the way the redundancy effect works. In the same way that learning styles have persisted for so long, I still see so many PowerPoint presentations that have blocks of text that the presenter then reads aloud. I'm wondering if there are any cases when that is helpful and where the drive to do that comes from.

My students' learning style is "Is it graded?"

Me: *Is completely blind Veritasium: "You are NOT a visual learner" Me: ...Yeah I kinda thought so

This is a myth in the public, not in education. We've understood this for a long time.

I learn through “procrastination” Usually I'm a lazy person

"When we already believe the world to be a certain way, then we interpret new experiences to fit those beliefs."

I always figured the learning styles were idleness, procrastination, and unproductivity

In school I had the topic "learn learning" which covered those types. Later on in my training as a careworker I had this topic again. This time my teacher told me that we all have a prefered learning style (one of the types), but we learn best if we use all types. He called it canels. If we trigger all our canels (visual, audotory, read/write and kinesthetic) we learn the best. Its the combinations that helps to manifest the input given to you in your brain. And a little extra: We had a fifth type - communication. Learning best in groups and talking with others about it.

I’ve been teaching English to ESL students for years and I’ve seen this happen. I found that being able to talk and share stories that incorporate new information, they learn and remember much more easily than being given a list of vocabulary or grammar rules to learn. It makes learning much faster and more fun if the information has context.

Being sponsored by Google Search is one of the biggest flexes ive ever seen

I’m an ignominious learner. I only seem to learn if crushing emotional humiliation and pain is involved.

I’ve always felt like I could learn different things in different “learning styles” and that learning information through multiple learning styles was very helpful. And as a teacher and even as a student, *controversial opinion here*, it has seemed like some people (definitely not all) have liked the idea of different learning styles because it gives them a simple, easy reason that is no fault of their own as to why they haven’t learned something or didn’t do well on something, saying it wasn’t taught in their learning style, which is what he is saying simply isn’t backed by any research. Learning styles are simply preferences, valid ones for sure, but not indicators of whether someone can’t learn in a certain “style.” I appreciate this point being made in this video.

Mom, a life long educator, and I were discussing this today. I definitely preferred in classroom settings. And feel like children today have missed two years of education due to the pandemic. I feel I like there is no substitute for being in a class where you get taught by a teacher who allows questions, I guess what you could call an interactive learning style.

It's about engagement, students learn better when their attention is maintained.. most people say they're visual learners because that's the easiest sense to actively engage in learning..

"How do you know?" "I don't know. I just assume." I think I would get along with this guy.

This video was very well done and very thoughtful!! Thank you for taking the time to make this digestible!!

"Great!, The examples used effectively demonstrated the power of visual learning. The presenter's clear explanations and engaging delivery kept me hooked throughout. I appreciate the evidence-based approach and the practical tips shared for incorporating visual learning into education. This video is a must-watch for educators and learners alike - challenging conventional wisdom and shedding light on a crucial aspect of effective learning. Kudos to the creator for tackling this important topic with such depth and clarity!"

"I think one of the most common traps people fall into is only searching for infomation that confirms what they already beleive" wise words

"this video is sponsored by Google " that caught me off guard

Most students learning style is: stress induced

I've noticed that for me it depends on what I'm learning. For instance with science or math based subjects I seem to retain and analyze more information by visualizing and history or origin based subjects, I seem to retain and analyze information by reading. Here's the thing, most of my learning I've done alone, meaning self-taught. The advantage of being self-taught is I learn at a pace that suits me and I can readily change up the way I'm digesting information. The disadvantage is I have a tendency to not invest too much time and effort in subjects I care little or not at all. Informative video.

Kudos to the person who learns geography better in an auditory fashion than with a map.

Google: Derek, take this money Derek: do you mean you're sponsoring my video? Google: yeah, sure, talk about the search engine or something

I think that instead of learning styles, each of the things that people call learning style, is just a different kind of way information is presented, and it is easiest to learn when you combine all of them (like watching a video and seeing pictures (visual) but also getting some commentary about it (audio) and reading about the same thing later and also seeing the same thing in some hands on experience would give you the most learning output)

I'm definitely more of a hands on learner. I have to be shown and then do. I struggled through most of school because it was mostly someone talking to you and then reading. Once I joined this experimental program called Century Hall where they were trying alternative teaching I started to do better and started getting As and Bs in my classes.

I never met anyone who said: "Oh please don't show me, I'm an auditory learner, sight confuses me".

id say whether im interested in the topic or not matters more than how its presented to me

This is a very useful video that sums up the misconception very nicely. I'll definitely keep this handy.

Seeing something get done, teaches me, actually doing it, solidifies the knowledge. I believe that would be considered hands-on learning, with a splash of visual.

"I don't, I just assume" He said it all

"How do you know you are a visual learner?" "I don't. I just assume." This guy is really smart noticing this

I've notice that practice helps me. Each time i need to learn something I'm starting from some project which can be solved by implementing things I need to learn. In this case I'm super motivated, easy memories and I need to understand to fulfil the goal.

You learn things better if you're actually interested in them.

Nobody has a specific learning style, but everyone still has preferred styles of learning and preferred combinations of styles to learn. I learn a lot from just listening or just seeing pictures but I don’t learn as easily by reading or writing… or just “doing”. But that doesn’t mean that I must be listening or must be watching someone do something to learn… it just means that for me it is more easy to process the information if it is presented that way. I can easily listen and from that visualise something in my head… but I can’t do that from reading. So if I am reading there have to be pictures presented to me alongside the text to get the text to reach me as good as just listening. And for the “learn by doing”… yes ofc I learn by doing stuff… but for the “doing” part to actually give something to me I have to be presented with HOW to do it before I try. While others prefer to just try until they figure it out themselves. I have always hated the statement so many teachers have said that “everybody needs to take notes, everybody learns better that way”… well I don’t… because it becomes a distraction. If I take notes I will miss information and therefore I will not understand… and learning is understanding… One teacher always said that “you shall not memorise, you shall understand” when someone answered the math question with “I don’t remember how to calculate that”. Everyone learns in different ways, nobody can deny that. But nobody learns everything the same way either. Because different skills are required for certain tasks and those different skills we learn in different ways aswell. I mean… if learning styles were really 100% accurate that wouls basically mean that if you “learn by reading” the only thing you need to learn to drive would be a book and then you are good to go… and for the learn by doing guy he just needs the keys to the car and he’ll figure it out… It doesn’t work that way. Your street “test” didn’t really have to do anything with actual learning… it was memorising… which is a completely different thing than learning. The same thing with that we learn differently applies the other way around aswell… we present information in different ways. Some people have a really easy time writing an essay while others would prefer to speak instead… and others would like to visually show… and that’s a big flaw when it comes to tests in schools… But then we also have the flaw with tests that is common is that the tests really doesn’t show if a student has learned something… it shows if they have memoried it… cause what do most students do the night before a test? Study study study… to memorise all the dates, numbers, names etc… so they know them the next morning… but if you ask them three days later they don’t know… A test that actually shows if something is learned is a blend of like knowing the dates, numbers, names of things… but also explaining things about the subject… and it should be unprepared… (and for the explaining part we must allow different ways of presenting the information… writing, speaking, showing).

I'm just about halfway through the video. If I want to learn about something I want to use multiple senses and perspectives. And if it is a person teaching me something I generally try to understand whatever way they are expressing the concept, I identify what they are talking about and then, if it is of interest I construct a mental model which honestly has more than just words, pictures, and sounds etc. I match it with any schema I have or identify it as a new concept or one where I have not yet been able to identify if it fits with any current schema and then I work out how to apply it to my current schema whilst then updating my schema and reality model if there are genuinely new concepts. So I think real learning happens by all things mentioned as well as some not even yet necessarily fully understood. Another great video :D

My science teacher always said that there is no learning style. As long as you make the topic engaging and interesting the students learn. And the only way to do that is by involving all the 4 senses you require. Eyes for visual, ears for audio, mouth for communication and hands for hands on.

Advertising Google search was like advertising water 😂

Learning a concept is not the same as memorization. It is funny the solution is to present information in as many styles as possible disproves a learning style preference. When you ask people "picture an apple in your head. From 1 - 10 with 10 being as clear as real life how well can you see that imagined apple?" You will get wildly different answers. Mind's eye seems to depend on the person, just People's tendencies to self vocalize or have music stuck in their head. Multimodal is definitely better because it increases the probabilistic nature of learning.