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The article, “The Myth of Catering to Learning Styles,” by Joanne K. Olson she provides information about the true validity of teaching students through different learning styles. One of the points she highlights which go against the idea of teaching students according to their learning style is that it is not as effective as individuals believe. Olson notes that, “research has shown that when students received instruction specifically tailored to their preferred learning style, they performed poorly on tests of the material” (qtd. in Olson 56). According to the article students performed better on test that differed from the preferred learning style (Olson 56). The main cause for this is that students perceived the test which were catered to their learning style to be easy and become overconfident and thus made careless mistakes when taking the test (Olson 56). Increased learning in a student is therefore perceived to be based on a student’s effort to learn which normally increases when they are given things that are challenging. Another way to increase a student’s learning is to have a concrete representation of a topic prior to the abstract. Students face greater difficulty learning about a topic when they hear the explanation prior to having a hands-on experiment. Therefore, teachers should include more concrete learning into their lesson as they are introducing the topic to students to see an increase in their learning.

This article provides informative information regarding the effectiveness of teaching students in their preferred learning style. I have always been told that as a future teacher I should create multiple ways to teach students as they all have different ways of learning. However, this article relates the effectiveness of teaching in this manner. When I reflect on this, I am inclined to believe that there is a possibility this may be true. When I think about my experiences growing up, I now notice that when I had to do something, I was familiar with I would put less effort into it in comparison to something I did not know how to do. This point is highlighted in the article thus the author encourages teachers to challenge students by not having tasks in their preferred learning style. Reading this article has provided me with a new perspective of teaching students in their preferred learning style and has encouraged me to see if this is truly the case.