Why Every Student Learns Differently: Teaching for Understanding, Not Comparison

One of the most important things I have learned from teaching students over many years is that people do not learn in the same way, and they do not learn at the same speed.

This sounds simple, but it has a huge effect on confidence.

A student may sit next to someone who understands a mathematical concept after one explanation and begin to think, “Why don’t I understand it yet?” Another student may watch a video online and still feel completely lost. Someone else may need to discuss the same topic three or four times before suddenly everything connects.

None of these students is necessarily more or less capable than the others.

They are simply processing information differently.

Stop Comparing Your Learning Speed

One of the biggest mistakes students can make is comparing how quickly they understand something with how quickly someone else understands it.

Learning is not a race.

Some students understand a concept immediately but struggle to remember it later. Others initially take longer but, once they understand the reasoning behind it, retain that knowledge extremely well.

I therefore encourage students to concentrate on one question:

“Do I understand this better today than I did before?”

That is a much more useful measure of progress.

Particularly when working one-to-one with students, I find that removing this pressure to keep up with someone else can completely change their attitude towards learning.

Repetition Is Part of Learning

Students sometimes become embarrassed when they need something explained more than once.

They should not be.

Repetition is an important part of learning.

If I explain something and a student does not understand it, simply repeating exactly the same explanation louder or slower is unlikely to solve the problem.

Instead, I might explain it from another angle.

I may use a diagram, a real-life example, a simpler problem, a discussion, or connect the idea to something the student already understands.

Sometimes we return to the same concept several times during different lessons.

Eventually the connections begin to form.

That moment when a student says, “Oh, I understand it now,” is much more important to me than how many times we had to revisit the topic.

Videos Are Useful, but Learning Should Not Always Be Passive

We have access to an enormous amount of educational content today.

Students can watch videos explaining almost any topic in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, or other subjects.

Videos can be extremely useful.

However, watching someone else solve a problem is very different from being able to solve it yourself.

There is a danger of passive learning. A student watches an explanation, it makes sense at the time, and they assume they have mastered the topic. When they try a question independently the following day, they suddenly realise that they cannot reproduce the reasoning.

This is why I prefer to combine resources such as videos with discussion, questioning, research, and problem-solving.

I might ask a student:

Why do you think this happens?

How would you explain this to someone else?

What would happen if we changed this value?

Where could this be used outside an examination?

Can you find another way of solving the problem?

The student is no longer simply receiving information. They are interacting with it.

Understanding Is More Powerful than Memorising

Students often ask me:

“Do I need to know this for the exam?”

Of course, examinations matter, and exam technique is important.

But I also want students to understand why they are learning something.

If I am teaching algebra, physics, chemistry, or biology, I try wherever possible to connect the topic to something meaningful.

Why was this idea developed?

What problem does it solve?

Where is it used?

How might an engineer, scientist, doctor, programmer, or researcher use this knowledge?

Once a subject has a purpose, it can become much easier to understand.

For example, a formula is far easier to remember when a student understands what the formula represents rather than treating it as a collection of letters that must be memorised before an examination.

Human Interaction Still Matters

Technology is transforming education, and students now have access to videos, online courses, artificial intelligence, and enormous libraries of information.

These are valuable tools.

However, there is something that human interaction provides which can be difficult to reproduce.

A tutor can notice when a student says they understand but are actually uncertain.

A tutor can recognise frustration.

We can change an explanation immediately.

We can ask another question.

We can identify the small misunderstanding that is preventing the student from understanding the entire topic.

Most importantly, we can begin to understand how that particular student thinks.

That relationship becomes especially important when working with students who have struggled academically, lost confidence, or have additional learning needs.

My Approach to Teaching

My approach is not to force every student through exactly the same learning process.

I normally begin by understanding the learner.

What do they already know?

Where are the gaps?

How do they respond to questions?

Do they prefer diagrams, conversation, worked examples or independent investigation?

Are they struggling with the subject itself, or has their confidence become the bigger problem?

From there, I adapt.

Sometimes that means slowing down.

Sometimes it means going back several years to repair an important gap in knowledge.

Sometimes it means moving much faster because the student understands more than they initially believed.

And sometimes it means temporarily forgetting the textbook and simply having a conversation until the concept makes sense.

Learning Better Is About Finding What Works for You

After working with many different learners, including students with additional educational needs, one principle continues to stand out:

There is no single correct way to learn.

Some students need more repetition.

Some need more discussion.

Some need to see the practical application before the theory makes sense.

Some need visual explanations.

Some need someone to challenge their reasoning.

And many students simply need somebody to tell them that taking longer to understand something does not mean they cannot understand it.

Good teaching should, therefore, not only deliver information.

It should help students discover how they learn best.

Once students understand that, they often become more confident, more independent, and much better learners.

And ultimately, that is one of the most valuable things education can give them.