Wishful thinking
Wouldn't it be wonderful if each one of us learned in our OWN unique way. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a key that could unlock our creativity, our learning, our minds. Sometimes educators suggest that they have such a key. They suggest that they can figure out if we are visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learners. They suggest that there is a test that can determine which is our learning style. They suggest that they can prepare the kinds of lessons based upon this test that is specifically tailored to that learning style, and then we will succeed. Well, this is a nice fantasy. (And there's a lot of propaganda out there that makes you think it is possible. But that particular line of thought is flawed.)
The problem is tests that are created to determine learning styles are not reliable. This means that the first time a person takes the test, he might be an auditory learner. And the next time he takes the test, he might be a visual learner. This is truly problematic. This is a problem in another way. Educators who think a person is a visual learner may pander to that one sense and ignore the other senses. In addition, when experts looked at the results of interventions that matched the participants learning style, such as auditory lessons for auditory learners, there was no difference in amount learned than lessons that did not match, for instance auditory lessons for visual learners.
Now here's the good news. The good news is that we learn through every single sense we have. We know that learning which incorporates seeing, hearing, and doing is far more effective for children than learning through just one sense. Lessons for children need to use all of the senses as much as possible.
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