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New Study, led by Dr. Marietta Papadatou-Pastou, challenges Notion of Learning Styles in Education

New Study, led by Dr. Marietta Papadatou-Pastou, challenges Notion of Learning Styles in Education

A recently published study challenges the widely held notion of Learning Styles, where individuals are believed to have a preferred modality of learning, typically referring to visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles. The study was conducted by a team of researchers from Greece and was led by Dr. Marietta Papadatou-Pastou, Assistant Professor of Neuropsychology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and was published in the academic journal Mind, Brain, and Education.

Learning Styles, a concept that has gained momentum in education, suggests that tailoring instruction to an individual’s preferred learning modality optimizes learning. However, the theory has faced criticism for its lack of empirical evidence. This study focuses on the visual modality and employs novel and ecologically valid stimuli, namely sign words, to test the hypothesis that visual learners would be better in learning sign words compared to auditory or kinesthetic learners.

The results of the study, conducted with 99 volunteers naive to the Greek Sign Language, showed no evidence of a difference in learning sign words among individuals with different learning styles. The researchers utilized both frequentist and Bayesian statistical approaches, further substantiating their findings.

Lead researcher Dr. Marietta Papadatou-Pastou, explained, “Our study challenges the conventional wisdom surrounding Learning Styles, highlighting the absence of empirical support. The adoption of Learning Styles theory may not only waste educational resources but also have potentially harmful consequences for learners.”

Dr Anna K. Touloumakos, one of the leading members of the team, noted “prominent researchers have stressed long before me that “it is impossible to prove that something does not exist” however, in education we should aim to draw from methods and practices that are evidence-based, effective and beneficial for students”.

The study’s findings contribute to the ongoing debate about Learning Styles in education and advocate for evidence-based approaches in teaching and learning. This research has the potential to reshape how educators approach individualized instruction and underscores the importance of critical thinking and research skills in the field.

In line with the principles of open science, all materials, data, and analysis code have been made available in the Open Science Framework repository, ensuring transparency and reproducibility at https://osf.io/256kw/.To access the complete academic paper, please visit https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mbe.12380.

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““Visual Type? Not My Type”: A Systematic Study on the Learning Styles Neuromyth Employing Frequentist and Bayesian Statistics” is published in the Brain, Mind and Education

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12380

ΜSc Media and Refugee / Migration Flows – Call for Applications for the Postgraduate Program (Academic Year 2025 – 2026)

ΜSc Media and Refugee / Migration Flows – Call for Applications for the Postgraduate Program (Academic Year 2025 – 2026)

The Department of Communication and Media Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens organizes and operates for the academic year 2025-2026 an Intensive Postgraduate Program (IPP) MSc in «Media and Refugee / Migration Flows» which awards a Postgraduate Diploma in the following specializations: S1 «News media of refugee flows» S2: «Communication management of […]

The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Announces the Launch of its Branch in Cyprus – A Milestone for Higher Education, the University’s Internationalization, and the Cooperation Between the Two Countries

The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Announces the Launch of its Branch in Cyprus – A Milestone for Higher Education, the University’s Internationalization, and the Cooperation Between the Two Countries

Since its foundation in 1837, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens has maintained deep and enduring ties with Cyprus, thanks, first and foremost, to the presence of hundreds of thousands of Cypriot students in its lecture halls for over two centuries. As a matter of fact, the University of Athens was the first academic […]

DeltaV Dynamics Takes First Place in International Rocket Competition

DeltaV Dynamics Takes First Place in International Rocket Competition

DeltaV Dynamics, the student team from the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, secured first place in the 2025 Sloshing Rocket Workshop Final, held in Forlì, Italy, in late August. The competition was organized by EUROAVIA and Airbus.

Rector’s Address to the University of Athens Community as the New Academic Year Begins

Rector’s Address to the University of Athens Community as the New Academic Year Begins

Dear students, faculty, and colleagues, On behalf of the Rectory Authorities, the Administration Council, and the University Senate, I warmly wish you good health, renewed energy, and every success as you embark on this new academic year! As the oldest and largest Higher Educational Institution in Greece, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens is […]

Europe’s Largest Data Journalism Conference Comes to Athens [8-10 September 2025

Europe’s Largest Data Journalism Conference Comes to Athens [8-10 September 2025

The 5th European Data and Computational Journalism Conference is set to take place in Athens from 8 to 10 September 2025, at the main building of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The Conference will bring together media professionals, researchers, data journalists, and academics to share experiences and explore how data, artificial intelligence, and […]

University of Athens Participates in Summer School of Archaeology ArcHLAB

University of Athens Participates in Summer School of Archaeology ArcHLAB

For the fourth year in a row, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens co-organized and took part in the ArcHLABS International Summer School of Archaeology, alongside other Universities across Europe. This year’s programme took place at the renowned Villa del Casale in Piazza Armerina, Sicily—an iconic site celebrated for its exceptional mosaics. Eight postgraduate […]

University of Athens Establishes First Named Chair in Honour of Athina I. Martinou

University of Athens Establishes First Named Chair in Honour of Athina I. Martinou

In a landmark move, the Senate of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens has unanimously approved the creation of a Named Chair, dedicated to the memory of Athina Ioanni Martinou. The initiative was proposed by the University’s Great Benefactor and Honorary Doctor, Mr Athanasios Martinos. This is the first Named Chair ever established by […]

Laboratory of Italian History and Historiography Publishes New Volume

Laboratory of Italian History and Historiography Publishes New Volume

A new volume, ‘Modern Greek Diaspora in Central-Southern Italy in the Early Modern Period (15th-18th Centuries)’, has just been published. It contains the proceedings of the conference of the same name, held in Venice from 27 to 29 June 2023. The event was jointly organized by the Laboratory of Italian History and Historiography at the […]

University of Athens academic engages at 11th Nishan Forum of World Civilizations in China

University of Athens academic engages at 11th Nishan Forum of World Civilizations in China

Dr Athena Bazou, Assistant Professor in the Department of Philology, participated as an invited speaker at the 11th Nishan Forum of World Civilizations in China, delivering a lecture entitled ‘Ancient Pandemics in Greece and China: Concepts, Prejudices, Lessons’. The Nishan Forum, held in Qufu—the birthplace of Confucius—in Shandong province, was inaugurated in 2010 in response […]

University of Athens Professor Stelios Papathanassopoulos and IULM University Professor Andrea Miconi Edit Book on European Media

University of Athens Professor Stelios Papathanassopoulos and IULM University Professor Andrea Miconi Edit Book on European Media

Edited by Professors Stelios Papathanassopoulos and Andrea Miconi and published by Springer, ‘The European Media in the Platform Era: Realities and Tendencies’ examines the significant changes reshaping the European media landscape in the context of rapid technological advancements, political shifts, and economic pressures. The book sheds light on the economic, political, and structural forces driving […]

University of Athens – Harvard University: Intensive English-Taught Course Entitled ‘Clinical Epidemiology: From Theory to Application’

University of Athens – Harvard University: Intensive English-Taught Course Entitled ‘Clinical Epidemiology: From Theory to Application’

Within the context of the Memorandum of Understanding between Harvard University and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, which involves collaboration between the Departments of Epidemiology of T.H. Chan School of Public Health of Harvard University and the School of Medicine of the University of Athens, we are pleased to announce the launch of […]

University of Athens

The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, which was inaugurated on May 3, 1837, was initially housed in a renovated Ottoman building on the northeastern side of the Acropolis. This building has since been restored and now functions as the University Museum. Originally named the "Othonian University," after Otto, the first king of Greece, it consisted of four academic departments and 52 students. As the first university of the newly established Greek state, as well as of the broader Balkan and Mediterranean region, it assumed an important socio-historical role, which was pivotal in the development of specific forms of knowledge and culture within the country.

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