Why You Should Teach Your Students About Learner Variability

As a teacher, I was motivated to instill a life-long love of learning in my students. Today, this personal mission seems more necessary than ever. In the face of ever-evolving technology and a global economy, what students need to know and be able to do after they graduate is constantly changing. The World Economic Forum recently described this, stating,

“The future of education lies in empowering young learners to embrace and develop their uniquely human qualities—those unlikely to ever be replaced by technology.”

This calls for a shift from a focus on content knowledge to a focus on the skills of learning, because one of the things that makes us uniquely human is how we learn.

But so many myths and misconceptions still prevail about learning, most notably, “learning styles.” The notion of learning styles is not backed by research because it suggests that we have one preferred way we learn best: auditory, visual, or kinesthetic. What the research actually shows is that our preferred modality depends on the task at hand. Furthermore, research on multi-modal instruction says that having all three modalities available helps when processing new information into long-term memory. Thinking that you only learn best in one modality can become a self-limiting belief that can be detrimental when passed on to students. The pervasiveness of these myths highlights the importance of more collaboration between the fields of research and practice in education.

So, what does the research say about how we learn?

Research tells us that there is no such thing as an average learner (Rose, 2016). In fact, we are more unique as learners than is commonly thought, which is the foundation of learner variability.

Learner variability is the recognition that each student has a unique set of strengths and challenges across a whole learner framework that are interconnected and vary according to context. (Pape, 2018)

Examples of factors that impact learner variability from the Learner Variability Navigator by Digital Promise.

For example, let’s take motivation, a social and emotional factor that can have a big impact on how well students attend to learning new content. Motivation can vary greatly depending on the topic, the teacher, and the environment, such as in-person versus online learning. Understanding how different learning factors impact us and our students can give us insight into why certain strategies may work for certain students, but not for others.

Additionally, factors are interconnected, meaning that although we have defined them separately, they are tightly related and can affect one another. For example, our motivation is tied to our sense of belonging. Research has shown that students who report a greater sense of belonging in their school setting have greater academic self-efficacy, which can lead to more motivation. Understanding this connection between motivation and sense of belonging may mean that for students who don’t feel included, respected, and supported, we might need to focus on building trusting relationships and incorporating their cultural experiences to create that sense of belonging first.

Another example to consider is sleep and working memory: when students don’t get enough sleep, it can reduce their working memory, which reduces their ability to process new information and recall previously learned material. These factors and the connections between them give us the why behind what works for some students.

Why should we teach students about learner variability?

Understanding the why behind factor connections isn’t just beneficial to teachers; it can also help students. Understanding that these learner factors like motivation, sleep, and working memory can change in different contexts and over time can help foster a growth mindset in students and help them advocate for themselves in different learning contexts. These factors help paint the portrait of a whole learner. Factors can be strengths in some contexts and challenges in others. Helping students see their strengths within this framework, which is more than just academic content knowledge, can help them redefine themselves as successful learners.

Teaching students about learner variability can help them see that everyone learns differently, which can help to normalize differences. Normalizing differences, especially for historically and systematically excluded learners, is critical for fostering a sense of belonging in the classroom.

How do we teach students about learner variability?

This guide can help educators identify and design activities that help students understand their own learner variability.

While the concept of learner variability is certainly more complex than learning styles, it can be presented in a way that students of all ages can understand and relate to. I had the good fortune of collaborating with Sarah Oberle, a first-grade teacher who is working on her EdD at the University of Delaware. She has a passion for understanding metacognition and teaching it to her first graders. Together, we wrote this Guide for Teaching Students about Learner Variability that includes ways to explain and teach the different concepts as well as strategies to support a whole learner approach. Sarah created a series of lessons with activities, slides, and songs that are included in the guide.

In the spring of 2023, we had the opportunity to pilot the guide with teachers through a collaboration with DonorsChoose. We provided the guide along with some directions that included additional lesson plans from other teachers for upper elementary and secondary students. Teachers who completed the activities with their students were then eligible for stipends for their classroom projects.

Overall, teachers who used the guide and taught the lessons reported positive responses from students. One teacher noted,

“Learner variability fits right into this idea that every learner has their own strengths and differences and once you are aware of your own, it can truly enhance your learning.”

The most commonly noticed change in students was that they were more respectful of the learning or behavioral differences in their classmates. Additionally, teachers felt more empowered to address the needs of their students. A middle school teacher noted that after teaching this unit, she started altering her lesson plans based on what she had learned about her students. She describes:

“..[I] provided the students a sense of belonging as they became aware that I was focused on how they learn best, and that I wanted to use this information to plan further instruction based on their needs and adaptability to certain styles of lessons.”

Many teachers reported that they gained more confidence in supporting the whole child after reading the guide and completing the activities. See more of our key findings in the guide.

If understanding what makes us uniquely human is the key to the future, then teaching students about learner variability is a great way to put students on a solid path to discovering themselves as learners.