Learning Myths

• Set Learning Styles

  There’s no research to support learning styles.  How to really learn : Instead match your content to the process: students should learn music by listening to music, while students should learn reading by doing more reading.

  Five Popular Myths About Learning That Are Completely Wrong

• Rereading Material

  How to really learn: Instead of rereading, highlighting, or underlining important information, ask yourself: ‘What is the author trying to say?’  'How is this different than other things I’ve read?’  'How does this relate to other material I know?’ 

  Five Popular Myths About Learning That Are Completely Wrong

• Focusing On One Subject At A Time

  When it comes to learning a difficult subject, people often believe you should practice one thing at a time. How to really learn : Mixing it up, however, is a better approach. In mixed learning, you get a chance to see the core idea below it.

  Five Popular Myths About Learning That Are Completely Wrong

• Sticking With The First Answer

  In school, many of us were taught that if you put an answer on a test you shouldn’t change it, but you’re actually better off reconsidering.  We actually need time to deliberate and reflect to understand something. How to really learn : While facts are important, how you use them is key. To solve new problems and come up with ideas, you need analogies and systems of how things relate to each other.

  Five Popular Myths About Learning That Are Completely Wrong

• More Time Learning For Better Understanding

  Putting in a lot of hours doesn’t always mean you’ll become good at something.  ‘People tend to be blissfully unaware of their incompetence. How to really learn : What works instead isn’t just time; it’s outside advice and input. That’s why hiring coaches and tutors is so beneficial to learning.

  Five Popular Myths About Learning That Are Completely Wrong

• Styles of learning

  

  The concept of learning styles--such as visual versus verbal or active versus reflective--is commonplace, but it turns out that there is little evidence to support it . 

  3 Common Learning Myths Debunked

• Right brained or left brained

  Research doesn’t strongly support this concept of the lateral brain--or that people have a dominant side of the brain that dictates how we learn.    Even in simple actions both hemispheres of the brain are engaged. 

  3 Common Learning Myths Debunked

• "Exercises" that will make you smarter

  "One minute playing Mozart will make your baby a genius, the next crosswords will fend off your mental decline"...The research behind these claims are weak.  Learning methods are not so much based upon how the brain is structured, but based upon our experiences. Our experiences do affect brain development. The wiring of the brain depends upon the experiences we have.

  3 Common Learning Myths Debunked

• Re-reading and highlighting

  

  Both of these study strategies are relatively ineffective. Passively reading the same text over and over again won’t do anything for recall unless it’s spaced out over time. 

  10 Common Learning Myths That Might Be Holding You Back | InformED

• Different learning styles

  Systematic studies of learning styles have consistently found no evidence or very weak evidence to support the idea that matching the material to a student’s learning style is more effective.

  10 Common Learning Myths That Might Be Holding You Back | InformED

• Right or left brained

  

  There is no conclusive evidence that people preferentially use the left or right hemisphere. Certain functions are processed more by one region of the brain than others, and this is known as lateralization . But we all use our entire brain equally.

  10 Common Learning Myths That Might Be Holding You Back | InformED

• The 10,000 hour rule

  

  There’s no magic number of hours that will turn you into an expert .  A Princeton study found that deliberate practice can only predict success in fields with stable structures where the rules never change, such as tennis, chess, or classical music. In less stable fields, mastery requires more than just practice.

  10 Common Learning Myths That Might Be Holding You Back | InformED

• Sticking with your first answer

  One study found that 75 % of college students and 55 % of instructors believe that changing their initial answer would lower their score overall. A review of 33 studies found that, on average, people who change their answers score higher on tests than those who don’t. 

  10 Common Learning Myths That Might Be Holding You Back | InformED

• Intelligence as fixed at birth

  A growing body of research shows that our IQ can increase over time , and in fact, research on growth mindset by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck shows that our beliefs about intelligence can actually affect our effort, and in turn, our performance .

  10 Common Learning Myths That Might Be Holding You Back | InformED

• Praising intelligence

  

  Research on the growth mindset by Carol Dweck found that praise can actually be counterproductive and discourage people from taking risks. Dweck’s research shows that praising effort and persistence is a much better way to motivate people.

  10 Common Learning Myths That Might Be Holding You Back | InformED

• We only use 10 % of our brain

  This theory is an urban legend. It seems to have originated from the 1930s self-help book “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” in which a Harvard University professor was misquoted.

  10 Common Learning Myths That Might Be Holding You Back | InformED

• The learning pyramid

  The theory says that people remember 10 % of what they read, 20 % of what they hear, 30 % of what they see, 50 % of what they see and hear, 70 % of what they say and write, and 90 % of what they do or teach others. It’s never actually been proven and the percentages given are pure fiction.

  10 Common Learning Myths That Might Be Holding You Back | InformED

• Shortcuts to better learning

  Despite all the learning fads that have come and gone, from mindfulness to brain training games and exercises, learning is and will always be a process. It requires time and effort, and is bound to feel difficult and uncomfortable at times.

  10 Common Learning Myths That Might Be Holding You Back | InformED

• The critical window of childhood

  

  The assumption that in the first years of life the vast majority of the brain’s development occurs, and after this period, the trajectory of human development is more or less fixed. The truth is experience can change both the brain’s physical structure and its functional organization — neuroplasticity. Also, mindful meditation can produce structural brain changes significant enough to be picked up by MRI scanners.

  How to separate learning myths from reality

• The idle-brain theory

  Irrespective of what a person is doing, the entire brain is generally active and that, depending on the task, some areas are more active than others.  People can always learn new ideas and new skills, not by tapping into some unused part of the brain, but by forming new or stronger connections between nerve cells.

  How to separate learning myths from reality

• The left/right brain hypothesis

  The theory that most people are either dominantly analytical (and left brained) or more creative (and right brained) is false. The two hemispheres of the brain are linked and communicate extensively together; they do not work in isolation.  Recent studies suggest that engaging all the senses in a variety of ways (for instance, audiovisual and tactile) can help employees retain new content.

  How to separate learning myths from reality