FALL 1999

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

DIFFERENT STROKES
FOR
DIFFERENT FOLKS?
A Critique
of Learning Styles

BY STEVEN A. STAHL

I WORK WITH a lot of different schools and listen to a

lot of teachers talk. Nowhere have I seen a greater con-
flict between “craft knowledge” or what teachers know
We all have personal styles that influence the way we work,
play, and make decisions. Some people are very analytical, and
they think in a logical, sequential way. Some students are vi-
sual or auditory learners; they learn best by seeing or hearing.
(or at least think they know) and “academic knowledge” These students are likely to conform well to traditional meth-
or what researchers know (or at least think they know) ods of study.
than in the area of learning styles. Over the years, my ex-
Some people (we call them “global learners”) need an idea of
perience has told me to trust teachers; it has also taught the whole picture before they can understand it, while “ana-
me that teachers’ craft knowledge is generally on target. I lytic learners” proceed more easily from the parts to the
don’t mean to say that teachers are always right, but they whole. Global learners also tend to learn best when they can
have learned a great deal from their thousands of observa- touch what they are learning or move around while they
learn.We call these styles of learning “tactile” and “kines-
tions of children learning in classrooms. So, when teachers thetic.” In a strictly traditional classroom, these students are
talk about the need to take into account children’s learn- often a problem for the teacher. She has trouble keeping
ing styles when teaching, and researchers roll their eyes at them still or quiet.They seem unable to learn to read.
(http://www.nrsi.com/about.html)
the sound of the term “learning styles,” there is more to it
than meets the eye. This all seems reasonable, but it isn’t.
The whole notion seems fairly intuitive. People are dif-
ferent. Certainly different people might learn differently Research and Learning Styles
from each other. It makes sense. Consider the following
The reason researchers roll their eyes at learning styles is
from the Web site of the National Reading Styles Institute, the utter failure to find that assessing children’s learning
a major proponent of the application of learning styles to styles and matching to instructional methods has any ef-
the teaching of reading: fect on their learning.The area with the most research has
Steven A. Stahl is professor of reading education at the been the global and analytic styles referred to in the NRSI
University of Georgia and co-director of the Center for blurb above. Over the past 30 years, the names of these
Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. His re- styles have changed—from “visual” to “global” and from
search interests are in beginning reading and vocabu- “auditory” to “analytic”—but the research results have not
lary instruction. changed.
 In 1978, Tarver and Dawson reviewed 15 studies that helps them read better, it is always possible that another
matched visual learners to sight word approaches and au- study or another measure or another something will find
ditory learners to phonics.Thirteen of the studies failed to that matching children to their preferred learning modal-
find an effect, and the two that found the effect used un- ity will produce results. But in the meantime, we have
usual methodology.They concluded: other things that we know will improve children’s reading
Modality preference has not been demonstrated to interact achievement. We should look elsewhere for solutions to
significantly with the method of teaching reading.1 reading problems.
One year later, Arter and Jenkins reviewed 14 studies Yet, the notion of reading styles (or learning styles)
(some of these are overlapping), all of which failed to find lingers on.This is true not only in my talks with teachers,
that matching children to reading methods by preferred but also in the literature that teachers read. The most re-
modalities did any good.They concluded: cent issue of Educational Leadership included, as part of
a themed issue on innovations, several articles on learning
[The assumption that one can improve instruction by match-
ing materials to children’s modality strengths] appears to lack styles. Phi Delta Kappan also regularly contains articles
even minimal empirical support.2 on learning styles, as do other publications intended for
teachers.
Kampwirth and Bates, in 1980, found 24 studies that
looked at this issue.Again, they concluded:
Matching children’s modality strengths to reading materials
Research into Learning Styles
has not been found to be effective.3 Among others, Marie Carbo claims that her learning styles
In 1987, Kavale and Forness reviewed 39 studies, using a work is based on research. [I discuss Carbo because she
meta-analysis technique that would be more sensitive to publishes extensively on her model and is very prominent
these effects.They found that matching children by reading on the workshop circuit. In the references for this article, I
styles had nearly no effect on achievement.They concluded: cite a few examples of her numerous writings on the
Although the presumption of matching instructional strate-
topic.7] But given the overwhelmingly negative findings in
gies to individual modality preferences has great intuitive ap- the published research, I wondered what she was citing,
peal, little empirical support for this proposition was found.... and about a decade ago, I thought it would be interesting
Neither modality testing nor modality teaching were shown to take a look. Reviewing her articles, I found that out of
to be [effective].4 17 studies she had cited, only one was published.8 Fifteen
A fifth review, in 1992, by Snider found difficulties in re- were doctoral dissertations and 13 of these came out of
liably assessing learning styles and a lack of convincing re- one university—St. John’s University in New York, Carbo’s
search that such assessment leads to improvement in read- alma mater. None of these had been in a peer-refereed
ing. journal. When I looked closely at the dissertations and
Recognition of individuals’ strengths and weaknesses is good other materials, I found that 13 of the 17 studies that sup-
practice; using this information, however, to categorize chil- posedly support her claim had to do with learning styles
dren and prescribe methods can be detrimental to low-per- based on something other than modality. In 1997, I found
forming students.Although the idea of reading style is superfi- 11 additional citations. None of these was published, eight
cially appealing, critical examination should cause educators were dissertations, and six of these came from St. John’s.
to be skeptical of this current educational fad.5
In short, the research cited would not cause anyone to
These five research reviews, all published in well-re- change his or her mind about learning styles.
garded journals, found the same thing: One cannot reliably
measure children’s reading styles and even if one could, What Do People Mean
matching children to reading programs by learning styles
does not improve their learning. In other words, it is diffi- by Learning Styles?
cult to accurately identify children who are “global” and Modality refers to one of the main avenues of sensation
“analytic.” So-called global children do not do better in such as vision and hearing. I have only talked about
whole language programs than they would in more phon- modality-based reading styles because these are both the
ics-based programs. And so-called analytic children do not best researched and the most heavily promoted. The Na-
do better in phonics programs than they do in whole lan- tional Reading Styles Institute claims that it has worked
guage programs. In short, time after time, this notion of with “over 150,000 teachers,” and its advertisements seem
reading styles does not work. to be everywhere. Furthermore, these notions of “visual”
This is an area that has been well researched. Many and “auditory” learners or “global” and “analytic” learners
other approaches to matching teaching approaches to have been around for a long time and have found their
learning styles have not been well researched, if at all. I way into a number of different programs, not just the
could not find studies in refereed journals, for example, NRSI programs.
documenting whether the use of Howard Gardner’s Multi- There are other ways of looking at learning styles. Peo-
ple Intelligences Model6 improved instruction. This does ple have proposed that children vary not only in percep-
not mean, of course, that the use of the model does not tual styles, but on a host of different dimensions.To name
improve achievement, only that I could not find studies a few, people have suggested that children are either two-
validating its use. The same is true of other learning style dimensional/three-dimensional, simultaneous/sequential,
models. connecting/compartmentalizing, inventing/reproducing,
One cannot prove a negative. Even if all of these studies reflective/impulsive, field dependent/field independent,
failed to find that matching children by learning styles and so on.

AMERICAN EDUCATOR
FALL 1999
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
2
 Some of these are learning preferences, or how an indi- Learning Styles and Fortune Telling
vidual chooses to work. These might include whether a
person prefers to work in silence or with music playing, Why does the notion of “learning styles” have such endur-
in bright light or dim light, with a partner or alone, in a ing popularity—despite the lack of supporting evidence? I
warm room or a cool room, etc. believe that this phenomenon has a lot in common with
Some of these are cognitive styles, such as whether a fortune telling.
person tends to reflect before making a choice or makes You go to see a fortune teller at a circus. She looks you
it impulsively, or whether a person tends to focus on de- over and makes some quick judgments—how young or
tails or sees the big picture. old you are, how nicely you are dressed, whether you ap-
Some of these are personality types, such as whether a pear anxious or sad or lonely—and based on these judg-
person is introverted or extroverted. ments, tells your fortune.The fortune she tells may be full
Some of these are aptitudes, like many of Howard Gard- of simple and ambiguous statements—“you will be suc-
ner’s multiple intelligences. Gardner suggests that people cessful at your next venture,”“you will be lucky at love,” or
vary along at least seven different dimensions—linguistic may be more complex—“you are successful at home, but
or the ability to use language, logico-mathematical or the someone is jealous; make sure you watch yourself.” Either
ability to use reasoning especially in mathematics, spatial way, the statements are specific enough so that they
or the ability to use images or pictures, bodily-kinesthetic sound predictive, but ambiguous enough that they could
or the ability to control movement, musical, interper- apply to a number of situations.
sonal or the ability to work with people, and intraper- When we read the statements on a Learning Style In-
sonal or the thinking done inside oneself.The last two are ventory, they sound enough like us that we have a flash of
more like personality types, rather than aptitudes or even recognition. These inventories typically consist of a series
learning styles. The others are Gardner’s attempt to ex- of forced choices, such as these from Marie
10
Carbo’s Read-
pand the notion of what we think is intelligent behavior ing Style Inventory, Intermediate, 1995.
to people who are skilled in music, or dance, or even in in- A) I always like to be told exactly how I should do my reading
terpersonal relations. In contrast to the traditional vision work.
of learning styles as either/or categories (either a person B) Sometimes I like to be told exactly how I should do my
is visual or he or she is auditory), multiple intelligences reading work.
are put forth by Gardner as separate abilities. A child may C) I like to decide how to do my reading work by myself.
be strong in a few of these areas, or none of these areas.
What is a teacher to do with all this? If there are chil- Or
dren who prefer to work with music, then the teacher A) I like to read in the morning.
might either provide Walkmans for those who prefer B) I don’t like to read in the morning.
music or play music openly and provide earplugs for A) I like to read after lunch.
those who don’t. If there are children who prefer to work B) I don’t like to read after lunch.
in bright light, the teacher might seat those children over A) I like to read at night.
by the window. Children who like to snack while reading B) I don’t like to read at night.
can be allowed to eat during class (healthy foods, of Or
course). It would be easy to see how accommodating all A) I read best where it’s quiet with no music playing.
of these preferences in a class could lead to chaos. How
B) I read best where there is music playing.
would a teacher lecture, give assignments, or even call to
order a class in which a sizable proportion of the students C) I read about the same where it’s quiet or where there is
music playing.
was wearing earplugs? Or how does one regulate the tem-
perature so part of the room is warm and part cool? Since all of us have some preferences (my experience is
Others have used learning styles theory as a way of that adults have clear preferences about music during
making sure that all the needs of diverse learners are reading, especially), these items tend to ring true. Like the
being met. Marguerite Radenich used Gardner’s model to fortunes told by the fortune teller, these statements at first
examine literature study guides.9 Her ideal was one that light seem specific enough to capture real distinctions
incorporated all of these ways of knowing into an inte- among people. But the problem with choices like these is
grated whole to be used to study adolescent literature. that people tend to make the same choices. Nearly every-
Thus, Gardner’s model was used here to create more mul- body would prefer a demonstration in science class to an
tidimensional instruction.This is very different from using uninterrupted lecture. This does not mean that such indi-
these different styles to segregate children into groups viduals have a visual style, but that good science teaching
where they would receive fairly one-dimensional instruc- involves demonstrations. Similarly, nearly everybody
tion. would agree that one learns more about playing tennis
Thoughtful educators have tried to make this work, and from playing than from watching someone else play.
perhaps it is workable, but trying to meet all of the prefer- Again, this does not mean that people are tactile/kines-
ences of a group of children would seem to take energy thetic, but that this is how one learns to play sports. Many
that would be better spent on other things. This is espe- of these “learning styles” are not really choices, since com-
cially true since no one has proven that it works. mon sense would suggest that there would not be much
variance among people. In the class sample provided with
the Reading Style Inventory above, for example, 96 per-
cent of the fifth-graders assessed preferred quiet to work-

AMERICAN EDUCATOR
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AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
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ing while other people were talking, 88 percent preferred Reliability
quiet to music, 79 percent picked at least two times of day
when they preferred to work, 71 percent had no prefer- If you are to use a test, even an inventory like the one
ence about temperature, and so on. Virtually all of the cited above, it should be reliable. If a test is reliable, that
questions had one answer preferred by a majority of the means you are going to get the same (or close to the
students. same) results every time you administer it. If a test is 100
The questions are just specific enough to sound like percent reliable (or has a reliability coefficient of 1.0),
they mean something, but vague enough to allow differ- then a person will score exactly the same on Thursday as
ent interpretations. For example, does “music” refer to on Tuesday. Perfection is tough to come by, so we gener-
Mozart or Rap? Obviously, one’s choices would be differ- ally want a reliability coefficient to be .90 or higher.13 If a
ent for different types of music. A more serious question test is not reliable, or trustworthy, then it is difficult to be-
lieve the results. This is a problem, not only with invento-
would arise over the “teacher direction” item. Doesn’t the
ries, but with any measure that asks subjects to report
amount of teacher direction needed depend on the diffi-
about themselves.
culty of the assignment? There are some assignments that
Reliabilities of these measures are relatively low. The
are self-evident and do not need much teacher direction,
self-reported reliabilities of Carbo’s Reading Style Inven-
but when work gets complex, students need more direc- tory and Dunn and Dunn’s Learning Style Inventories are
tion.This is not a matter of preference. moderate, especially for a measure of this kind—in the
The other major problem with these inventories is that neighborhood of the .60s and the .70s. Similar reliabilities
there are no questions about a child’s reading ability. So are reported for the Myers-Briggs Inventory, another learn-
children with reading problems are given the same meas- ing styles assessment.14 These are lower than one would
ure as children who are doing well in reading. This has want for a diagnostic measure. And, these scores are in-
two effects. First, there is a bias on some items for chil- flated, since for many items there is generally one answer
dren with different abilities. Consider these two items, that nearly everybody chooses. This would tend to make
also from the Carbo inventory: the reliabilities higher.
A) It’s easy for me to remember rules about sounding out The vagueness in the items may tend to make the relia-
words. bilities low.Again, how a child interprets each item will in-
B) It’s hard for me to remember rules about sounding out fluence how it is answered, as with the “teacher direction”
words. and “music” examples discussed earlier.
Or Test-retest reliabilities are particularly important for a
measure of learning styles. These moderate reliabilities
A) When I write words, I sometimes mix up the letters.
could be interpreted in two ways. The test itself may not
B) When I write words, I almost never mix up the letters. be a reliable measure of what it is supposed to measure—
Children with reading problems are more likely to an- that is, a person has a stable learning style, but the test is
swer that they do not remember phonics rules and that not getting at it. If the test is not reliable, then the informa-
they sometimes mix up the letters.According to the learn- tion it gives is not trustworthy.
ing styles research reports, such children are likely to be The other possibility is that learning styles may change,
considered as having a global (or visual) preference.11 Ac- from month to month, or even week to week.This is also
tually, this may not be a preference at all, but a reflection problematic. If we are talking about matching a person to
of the child’s current level of reading ability.The potential a situation using this instrument, this is a relatively long-
for harm occurs when children with reading problems are term (semester or academic year) matching. If a person’s
classified as “global” (visual) learners and thereby miss out style changes, then one either must measure learning
on important instruction in decoding, or are classified as styles frequently, or allow for more flexible assignments.
“analytic” (auditory) learners and miss out on opportuni-
ties to practice reading in connected text. How Reading Develops
Not including information about reading ability also The Learning Style model assumes that different children
leads to some strange prescriptions. Adults attending need different approaches to learn to read. Children are
learning styles workshops often get prescriptions for be- different. They come to us with different personalities,
ginning reading instruction methods, such as the language preferences, ways of doing things. However, the research
experience approach or phonics/linguistic approaches, so far shows that this has little to do with how successful
certainly not needed by competent readers. And for chil- they will be as readers and writers. Children also come to
dren, too, some of the approaches may be inappropriate. us with different amounts of exposure to written text,
The language experience approach, for example, is best with different skills and abilities, with different exposure
suited for children at the emergent literacy stage, when to oral language. The research shows that these differ-
they need to learn about basic print concepts, one-to-one ences are important.
matching, letter identification, and so on.12 For a second- Rather than different methods being appropriate for dif-
grader, or even a newly literate adult, language experience ferent children, we ought to think about different meth-
may be appropriate (if they still have not mastered basic ods being appropriate for children at different stages in
print concepts) or highly inappropriate (if they are al- their development. Children differ in their phonemic abili-
ready reading fluently). It depends on the readers’ skill, ties, in their ability to recognize words automatically, in
not their learning styles. their ability to comprehend and learn from text, and in

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their motivation and appreciation of literature.15 Different REFERENCES
methods are appropriate for different goals. For example, 1
Tarver, Sara, and M.M. Dawson. 1978. Modality preference and
approaches that involve the children in reading books of the teaching of reading. Journal of Learning Disabilities
their own choice are important to develop motivated read- 11:17-29.
ers.16 But whole language approaches, which rely largely 2
Arter, J.A., and Joseph A. Jenkins. 1979. Differential diagnosis-pre-
on children to choose the materials they read, tend not to scriptive teaching: A critical appraisal. Review of Educational
be as effective as more teacher-directed approaches for de- Research 49:517-555.
veloping children’s word recognition or comprehension.17 3
Kampwirth, T.J., and M. Bates. 1980. Modality preference and
A language experience approach may be appropriate to teaching method.A review of the research. Academic Therapy
help a kindergarten child learn basic print concepts. The 15:597-605.
child may learn some words using visual cues, such as 4
Kavale, Kenneth,A., and Steven R. Forness. 1987. Substance over
might be taught through a whole word method. With style: Assessing the efficacy of modality testing and teaching.
some degree of phonological awareness, the child is ready Exceptional Children 54:228-239.
5
to learn letters and sounds, as through a phonic approach. Snider, Vicki. E. 1992. Learning styles and learning to read: A cri-
Learning about letters and sounds, in combination with tique. Remedial and Special Education 13:6-18.
6
practice with increasingly challenging texts, will develop Gardner, Howard. 1993. Frames of mind: The theory of multiple
children’s ability to use phonetic cues in reading, and to intelligences. New York: Basic Books.
7
cross-check using context. With additional practice in For example, Carbo, Marie. 1997. Reading styles times twenty.
wide reading, children will develop fluent and automatic Educational Leadership 54 (6):38-42; Carbo, Marie, Rita
Dunn, and Kenneth Dunn. 1986. Teaching students to read
word recognition. None of this has anything to do with
through their individual learning styles. Englewood Cliffs,
learning styles; it has to do with the children’s current N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
abilities and the demands of the task they have to master 8
See Stahl, Steven A. 1988. Is there evidence to support matching
next. reading styles and initial reading methods? A reply to Carbo.
Phi Delta Kappan 70 (4):317-322.
What Do Teachers Get out 9
Radenich, Marguerite Cogorno. 1997. Separating the wheat from
of Learning Styles Workshops? the chaff in middle school literature study guides. Journal of
Adolescent and Adult Literacy 41 (1):46-57.
I have interviewed a number of teachers who have at- 10
All examples are from Carbo, Marie. 1995. Reading Style Inven-
tended learning styles workshops.These were meetings of tory Intermediate (RSI-I): Author.
200 to 300 teachers and principals, who paid $129 or so 11
Carbo, M. 1988. Debunking the great phonics myth. Phi Delta
to attend a one-day workshop or up to $500 to attend a Kappan 70:226-240.
longer conference. They have found them to be pleasant 12
Stahl, Steven A., and Patricia D. Miller. 1989.Whole language and
experiences, with professional presenters. The teachers language experience approaches for beginning reading: A
also feel that they learned something from the workshops. quantitative research synthesis. Review of Educational Re-
After I pressed them, what it seemed that they learned is a search 59 (1):87-116.
13
wide variety of reading methods, a respect for individual Harris,Albert J., and Edward Sipay. 1990. How to increase read-
differences among children, and a sense of possibilities of ing ability. 10th ed.White Plains, N.Y.: Longman.
14
how to teach reading.This is no small thing. However, the Pittenger, David, J. 1993.The utility of the Myers-Briggs Type In-
same information, and much more, can be gotten from a dicator. Review of Educational Research 63:467-488.
15
graduate class in the teaching of reading. Stahl, Steven A. 1998. Understanding shifts in reading and its in-
struction, Peabody Journal of Education 73(3-4): 31-67.
These teachers have another thing in common—after 16
Morrow, Lesley M., and Diane Tracey. 1998. Motivating contexts
one year, they had all stopped trying to match children by for young children’s literacy development: Implications for
learning styles.  word recognition development. In Word recognition in be-
ginning literacy, edited by J. Metsala and L. Ehri. Mahwah, N.J.:
Erlbaum; Turner, Julianne, and Scott G. Paris. 1995. How liter-
acy tasks influence children’s motivation for literacy. The
Reading Teacher 48:662-673.
17
Stahl and Miller, op cit., Stahl, Steven A., C. William Suttles, and
Joan R. Pagnucco. 1996.The effects of traditional and process
literacy instruction on first-graders’ reading and writing
achievement and orientation toward reading. Journal of Edu-
cational Research. 89:131-144.

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