learning styles and strategies essay

Laerning Styles Essay

• December 7, 2022

Personal Learning Style

Learning Styles Essay: Introduction

Learning styles are essential variables in the learning process, and learner who knows their learning style are more successful than others because those individuals are already familiar with their learning styles and organizing their learning process accordingly. In this assignment, a summary of my learning style, according to the VARK questionnaire, has been presented. The paper also includes my preferred learning style, individual learning styles, and understanding of different learning styles, along with their interrelation and possible impacts. After all, rather than counting merely on a single learning style, a combination of different styles may lead to success in the long run.

The VARK Questionnaire

The Vark questionnaire is an essential website that provides a chance for individuals to learn their learning styles. According to my test result of the Vark questioner: “People with your preference like different formats, graphs, diagrams, maps, interesting layouts, space, listening, discussing, talking, questioning, notes, handouts, print, text, practical exercises, experiences, examples, case studies, trial and error, things that are real” (“Vark Learning,” 2020, para. 7). Moreover, my scores are the same in every category, and my learning style includes visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic, so one can infer that I adapt to almost all learning strategies that are proved by educators.

According to my test result, I prefer every learning style the same, but to support my learning process, I prefer to read examples, articles, and other sources on the topic. Also, I can infer that I am learning better when educator uses graphics, visual examples, and listening to the educator motives my learning process. Furthermore, the Vark questionnaire results have shown that I can be more successful if I try to improve other learning styles, such as aural and kinesthetic. The aural learning style in education demands to take summarized notes in order to create a better learning process, but I am not particularly eager to take summarized notes because I prefer taking long notes and summarized them in my mind. Also listening to educator during the lesson make my learning process more memorable than taking notes while I am listening to the educator. More specifically, seeing charts, graphics, visual examples during the lessons makes my learning process more effective than other times.

Learning Styles & Strategies

One can infer that learning styles affect the learning process during the education, and it is an essential variable to perform educational activities because every learning style demands different variable, and when educator plans educational activities, these learning styles help the learning process. Also, most of the time, educational activities can benefit the learner, but when learners perform an educational activity that is inadequate to its learning style, the educational activity can harm its learning process because learners should be motivated with such educational activities. In other words, inadequate educational activities might give those learners hard times during the activity, and the learner becomes unmotivated when they experience hard times during the educational activity. On the other hand, if an educator knows the learner's learning styles, this can be prevented because educators can plan educational activities according to the learner's learning styles, and this point of view can motivate learners to perform in the educational activities in the degree that they are studying.

Moreover, the importance of knowing learner's learning styles can lead to positive or negative outcomes in education but knowing the learner's learning styles can be ineffective if the educator does not know how to provide adequate activities to the learner, and on the contrary circumstances, learners can motive their learning process, and they may come up with good outcomes (Jackie, 2020).

Health Promotion Teaching

In health promotion teaching, it is critical to learn participants learning styles for desired outcomes. Also, in the patient teaching education, there are several strategies for a more effective learning process, and the most important perspective in these strategies is that educators should learn their patient's or family member's education level in order to reach the desired outcome. More specifically, learner's educations level affects their learning process and motivation in the learning process (Jackie, 2020). Moreover, when an educator learns their learning styles or education level, it is more likely to provide them a better learning process, and before teaching, education level is an important variable. In other words, assessing learning needs, or the gap between what patients know and need to learn is a priority.

“Asking about patients' or caregivers' level of formal education is important but may not in and of itself describe their capacity to learn new information at the point the clinician encounters them” (“Patient Education,” 2020, para. 11). One can infer that high educated learners are more close to the learning process, and other learners who have lower degrees are more open, and more motivated in the learning process. Also, the educator's teaching strategies are an important variable for learners. More specifically, educators should provide related materials to the learner in the learning process, such as using visuals, models, dolls, and realistic medical equipment in teaching (Jackie, 2020). Also, the learning environment is a critical variable because noise makes communication harder.

Furthermore, for achieving desired outcomes, educators should provide learners to use different strategies according to their learning styles, motivations in order to reach the desired outcome in the learning process. More specifically, for patient learners, it can be difficult to stay motivated in the learning process, but when educator uses all these strategies with adequate activities, learning styles will affect learners to positive behavioral change.

Learning Styles Essay: Conclusion

In conclusion, one can readily infer that learning styles are critical variables in the learning process, and learners who know their learning styles are more successful than others because those individuals are already familiar with their learning styles and organizing their learning process accordingly. In this assignment, a summary of my learning style, according to the VARK questionnaire, has been presented. The paper also presented my preferred learning style, individual learning styles, and understanding of different learning styles, along with their interrelation and possible impacts. After all, rather than counting merely on a single learning style, a combination of different styles may lead to success in the long run.

Jackie A. Smith is a professor (clinical) and Helen Zsohar is a professor emerita (clinical) at the University of Utah College of Nursing in Salt Lake City. (n.d.). Patient-education tips for new nurses : Nursing2020.

Patient Education in Home Care: Strategies for Success. (n.d.). Nursing Center

VARK Learning Style Questionnaire. (2020). Retrieved June 20, 2020, from https://vark-learn.com

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Learning styles, what are learning styles, why are they so popular.

The term  learning styles is widely used to describe how learners gather, sift through, interpret, organize, come to conclusions about, and “store” information for further use.  As spelled out in VARK (one of the most popular learning styles inventories), these styles are often categorized by sensory approaches:   v isual, a ural, verbal [ r eading/writing], and k inesthetic.  Many of the models that don’t resemble the VARK’s sensory focus are reminiscent of Felder and Silverman’s Index of Learning Styles , with a continuum of descriptors for how learners process and organize information:  active-reflective, sensing-intuitive, verbal-visual, and sequential-global.

There are well over 70 different learning styles schemes (Coffield, 2004), most of which are supported by “a thriving industry devoted to publishing learning-styles tests and guidebooks” and “professional development workshops for teachers and educators” (Pashler, et al., 2009, p. 105).

Despite the variation in categories, the fundamental idea behind learning styles is the same: that each of us has a specific learning style (sometimes called a “preference”), and we learn best when information is presented to us in this style.  For example, visual learners would learn any subject matter best if given graphically or through other kinds of visual images, kinesthetic learners would learn more effectively if they could involve bodily movements in the learning process, and so on.  The message thus given to instructors is that “optimal instruction requires diagnosing individuals’ learning style[s] and tailoring instruction accordingly” (Pashler, et al., 2009, p. 105).

Despite the popularity of learning styles and inventories such as the VARK, it’s important to know that there is no evidence to support the idea that matching activities to one’s learning style improves learning .  It’s not simply a matter of “the absence of evidence doesn’t mean the evidence of absence.”  On the contrary, for years researchers have tried to make this connection through hundreds of studies.

In 2009, Psychological Science in the Public Interest commissioned cognitive psychologists Harold Pashler, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer, and Robert Bjork to evaluate the research on learning styles to determine whether there is credible evidence to support using learning styles in instruction.  They came to a startling but clear conclusion:  “Although the literature on learning styles is enormous,” they “found virtually no evidence” supporting the idea that “instruction is best provided in a format that matches the preference of the learner.”  Many of those studies suffered from weak research design, rendering them far from convincing.  Others with an effective experimental design “found results that flatly contradict the popular” assumptions about learning styles (p. 105). In sum,

“The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing” (p. 117).

Pashler and his colleagues point to some reasons to explain why learning styles have gained—and kept—such traction, aside from the enormous industry that supports the concept.  First, people like to identify themselves and others by “type.” Such categories help order the social environment and offer quick ways of understanding each other.  Also, this approach appeals to the idea that learners should be recognized as “unique individuals”—or, more precisely, that differences among students should be acknowledged —rather than treated as a number in a crowd or a faceless class of students (p. 107). Carried further, teaching to different learning styles suggests that “ all people have the potential to learn effectively and easily if only instruction is tailored to their individual learning styles ” (p. 107).

There may be another reason why this approach to learning styles is so widely accepted. They very loosely resemble the concept of metacognition , or the process of thinking about one’s thinking.  For instance, having your students describe which study strategies and conditions for their last exam worked for them and which didn’t is likely to improve their studying on the next exam (Tanner, 2012).  Integrating such metacognitive activities into the classroom—unlike learning styles—is supported by a wealth of research (e.g., Askell Williams, Lawson, & Murray-Harvey, 2007; Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Butler & Winne, 1995; Isaacson & Fujita, 2006; Nelson & Dunlosky, 1991; Tobias & Everson, 2002).

Importantly, metacognition is focused on planning, monitoring, and evaluating any kind of thinking about thinking and does nothing to connect one’s identity or abilities to any singular approach to knowledge.  (For more information about metacognition, see CFT Assistant Director Cynthia Brame’s “ Thinking about Metacognition ” blog post, and stay tuned for a Teaching Guide on metacognition this spring.)

There is, however, something you can take away from these different approaches to learning—not based on the learner, but instead on the content being learned .  To explore the persistence of the belief in learning styles, CFT Assistant Director Nancy Chick interviewed Dr. Bill Cerbin, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and former Carnegie Scholar with the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.  He points out that the differences identified by the labels “visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and reading/writing” are more appropriately connected to the nature of the discipline:

“There may be evidence that indicates that there are some ways to teach some subjects that are just better than others , despite the learning styles of individuals…. If you’re thinking about teaching sculpture, I’m not sure that long tracts of verbal descriptions of statues or of sculptures would be a particularly effective way for individuals to learn about works of art. Naturally, these are physical objects and you need to take a look at them, you might even need to handle them.” (Cerbin, 2011, 7:45-8:30 )

Pashler and his colleagues agree: “An obvious point is that the optimal instructional method is likely to vary across disciplines” (p. 116). In other words, it makes disciplinary sense to include kinesthetic activities in sculpture and anatomy courses, reading/writing activities in literature and history courses, visual activities in geography and engineering courses, and auditory activities in music, foreign language, and speech courses.  Obvious or not, it aligns teaching and learning with the contours of the subject matter, without limiting the potential abilities of the learners.

• Askell-Williams, H., Lawson, M. & Murray, Harvey, R. (2007). ‘ What happens in my university classes that helps me to learn?’: Teacher education students’ instructional metacognitive knowledge. International Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning , 1. 1-21.
• Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L. & Cocking, R. R., (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school (Expanded Edition). Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
• Butler, D. L., & Winne, P. H. (1995) Feedback and self-regulated learning: A theoretical synthesis . Review of Educational Research , 65, 245-281.
• Cerbin, William. (2011). Understanding learning styles: A conversation with Dr. Bill Cerbin .  Interview with Nancy Chick. UW Colleges Virtual Teaching and Learning Center .
• Coffield, F., Moseley, D., Hall, E., & Ecclestone, K. (2004). Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning. A systematic and critical review . London: Learning and Skills Research Centre.
• Isaacson, R. M. & Fujita, F. (2006). Metacognitive knowledge monitoring and self-regulated learning: Academic success and reflections on learning . Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning , 6, 39-55.
• Nelson, T.O. & Dunlosky, J. (1991). The delayed-JOL effect: When delaying your judgments of learning can improve the accuracy of your metacognitive monitoring. Psychological Science , 2, 267-270.
• Pashler, Harold, McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R.  (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence . Psychological Science in the Public Interest . 9.3 103-119.
• Tobias, S., & Everson, H. (2002). Knowing what you know and what you don’t: Further research on metacognitive knowledge monitoring . College Board Report No. 2002-3 . College Board, NY.

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Learning Styles and Their Importance Research Paper

Introduction, auditory learning style, visual learning style, tactile/kinesthetic, combination of learning styles.

• Learning styles are cognitive, affective and physiological factors that clearly define how a learner copes in a given environment.
• Auditory learning style entails using hearing senses to learn. It involves a teacher talking to learners. In other words, the learner requires information to be read aloud.
• This learning style requires a learner to use visuals to learn. These visuals include diagrams, charts, pictures and films. In other words, visual learners make use of their eyes to learn.
• Kinesthetic learners learn best by touching, feeling and experiencing things and material at hand.
• Learning styles are important in that they allow people to know and gauge forms of mental representations.

According to Keefe (1979), learning styles are cognitive, affective, and physiological factors that clearly define how a learner copes in a given environment. In other words, they are composite features that gauge whether a learner perceives, responds, and works well in a given learning environment. Learning styles can also be defined as educational conditions that favor learning (Felicetti and Stewart, 1992). It is, therefore, necessary to note that learning styles focus on how learners prefer to learn. This means learning styles should not be used to categorize people into learning divisions because people can learn in any of the learning styles. However, people prefer one style to the other.

The auditory learning style entails using hearing senses to learn. Auditory learners prefer the traditional mode of teaching, which takes a lecture form of teaching. It involves a teacher talking to learners. In other words, the learner requires information to be read aloud. In addition, when verbally presenting information, learners learn best when oral communication techniques are employed. These include voice tone variation to create different meanings.

Auditory learners exhibit unique characteristics. For example, when reading, they prefer to read aloud to themselves. During such a time, they perform two tasks; reading and, at the same time, listen to themselves. In a classroom setup, the auditory learners are not afraid to speak. They participate by asking and answering questions. Moreover, they portray expert explaining skills and, therefore, always want to study in groups. Their other learning strengths are that they are capable learners of foreign languages and grammar. They also follow spoken instructions well. Outside the classroom, an auditory learner likes listening to music, watching movies, and enjoys stage performance, such as acting. They also recall the names of other people and things, including those they hear in movies (Coffield et al. 2004).

They also employ techniques for succeeding in their studies. These include recording lectures as well as taping notes taken in order to listen to them. They also try to recall facts, and they do so by repeating aloud several times and using word association. These learners use audiotapes and watch videos while practicing the language. They attend discussion groups in which they participate actively.

This learning style requires a learner to use visuals to learn. These visuals include diagrams, charts, pictures, and films. In other words, visual learners make use of their eyes to learn. They prefer seeing things and internalizing them rather than hearing them. In the classroom setup, the visual learners prefer written notes and assignments that take to-do lists of nature. It is a reliable method of teaching because the majority of learners are capable of seeing. The learners under this category prefer to watch the teacher demonstrate things and videotapes.

Teachers of visual learners should emphasize visuals such as showing and demonstrating, as clearly as possible. That is, every step of the demonstration should follow all procedures and avoid short cuts. Just like the monkey concept, the teacher should ensure that the learners observe and do exactly as he demonstrates (Vincent, 2001).

Visual learners’ characteristics include learning or studying with charts and diagrams. In class, they prefer reading in a quiet environment. They are good at grammar and especially spelling. They exhibit a taste for colors and fashion as well as an interest in sign language. Since they don’t learn much in lectures, they prefer looking at what they did in class at their own time so as to fully understand.

To succeed in their studies, visual learners watch videos, take notes, outline reading, use highlighters, circle, or underline words. In addition, these learners prefer diagrams, map drawings, and flashcards. They also copy everything that the teacher demonstrates.

Kinesthetic learners learn best by touching, feeling, and experiencing things and material at hand. Good examples of these types of learners are kindergarten learners. They prefer touching and moving everything they come across. It is important to note that this learning style is maintained by the majority of learners, even as they become adult learners. This is not the case with other types of learning, such as visual learners who drop the style after elementary year and adopt auditory (Hayman-Abello and Warriner, 2002).

According to scholars, most of the learners prefer this learning style. This is because the learners are involved fully in the learning activity. Examples of learning activities that require active participation are science lab, theatre performance, and field trips. Teachers of kinesthetic learners should always give their learners a tactile sense of what to do. Repetition of what is being performed also helps the students to learn well.

Kinesthetic learners are said to be good in sports and other field activities such as science lab in which they play a role. In the classroom setup, these learners are not good at spelling and taking notes. Instead, they prefer studying in noisy environments and do not concentrate for long hours. They also prefer building models when learning. In addition, they like studying with others, such as in discussion groups. They also employ memory games and utilize flashcards when studying.

There is no learning style that can be said to be effective than the other. For this reason, the strong points of each style should be incorporated in learning to enhance learning. A combination of various learning styles is important because it results in a style that is innovative, and that involves diverse learning styles of learners. Merrill (2000) says that before using any learning style, it is important to understand the goals and objectives of learning. This helps one to come up with the best learning style.

There is successful learning when two or more learning styles are combined. For instance, when visual and auditory learning styles are combined, the learner employs listening skills such as noting the tonal variation to get different meanings and, at the same time, observe body movements to get extra information (Marzano, 1998).

Kinesthetic learning style is the most incorporated in other learning styles. Many teachers are now emphasizing a hands-on approach to learning. This means that education is not based on a physical approach, but it is taking a language arts approach. It is combined with other learning styles because apart from meeting its learner’s needs, it addresses other diverse needs, including those of auditory and visual learners.

Learning styles are important in that they allow people to know and gauge forms of mental representations. However, the styles should be perceived as preferences by the learners and not a way of dividing the learners according to their learning capabilities. Learning styles should be used to enlighten the learners about their weaknesses and strengths and those of others. Learning styles should be used hand in hand so as to complement each other.

Coffield, F. et al. (2004). Learning Styles and Pedagogy in Post-16 Learning: A Systematic and Critical Review: Learning and Skills Research Centre. Web.

Hayman-Abello, S.E. & Warriner, E.M. (2002). Child Clinical/Pediatric Neuropsychology: Some Recent Advances. Annual Review of Psychology , 53: 309-339.

Keefe, J. W. (1979). Learning Style: An Overview In NASSP’s Student Learning Styles: Diagnosing And Proscribing Programs . Reston, VA. National Association of Secondary School Principles.

Marzano, R. J. (1998). A Theory-Based Meta-Analysis of Research on Instruction . New York: Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory.

Merrill, D. (2000). Instructional Strategies and Learning Styles: Which takes Precedence? Trends and Issues in Instructional Technology . London: Prentice Hall.

Stewart, K. L., & Felicetti, L. A. (1992). Learning styles of marketing majors. Educational Research Quarterly, 15(2): 15-23.

Vincent, A., & Ross, D. (2001). Learning Style Awareness. Journal of Research on Computing in Education , 33: 1-10.

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Home — Essay Samples — Education — Learning Styles — Importance Of Learning Styles In Teaching

Importance of Learning Styles in Teaching

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Cognitive Styles and Learning Strategies

Preferred learning style, influence of particular strategy.

According to the VARK testing, my leading learning strategy is kinesthetic. As per scores, they were visual – 2, aural – 3, read/write – 7, and kinesthetic – 14 points. Kinesthetic perception is a way of obtaining information through the establishment of direct physical contact through any type of feeling or sensation in the result of which the gained experience is stored steadily ( Kinesthetic strategies, 2016). Many scientists consider this type of learning strategy the most complex one but also indeed durable since it depends entirely on the individual’s experience (Riding & Rayner, 2013). A person with kinesthetic learning strategy gathers information with the help of a variety of options including senses, practical exercises, samples, case studies, hands-on experience, and so on. Importantly, all the examples or experiences should be directly linked to real life to ensure that a person can remember the notions by connecting them to personal memories.

The preferred learning strategies for a kinesthetic type of comprehension include practical exercises, testing, varied illustrative samples (including visuals, pictures). Apart from that, hands-on experience provides an opportunity to apply all the senses to cognize and object, topic or any other matter ( Kinesthetic strategies, 2016). According to the test results, the effective approaches for this category of learners include:

• Field trips
• Laboratories
• Trial and error
• Hands-on experience
• Any activity requiring the inclusion of sight, hearing, touching, and sensing simultaneously
• Explanations with realistic examples
• Problem-solving
• Collecting the evidence

Importantly, all of the approaches to the learning process are equally crucial and applicable. Nevertheless, it is necessary to interchange different types of assignments and techniques. Since the kinesthetic type is the most distractible one of the five basic styles, the activities should be varied to ensure that the information is memorized or obtained properly ( Kinesthetic strategies, 2016).

The awareness of individual learning styles is essential for the effectiveness of the education and training. Notably, the information should be proceeded using all the channels of perception. The successful development of many important skills depends on the style that is leading (Dembo & Seli, 2012). Moreover, the particular learning style determines the levels of distractibility, the peculiarities of memory and so on. By using the appropriate activities and tasks, the knowledge that is more lasting can be achieved (Dembo & Seli, 2012). Apart from that, if a person is aware of his or her cognitive features, it will help him or her to choose those practices that will ensure a quicker and more effective understanding and assimilation of the information (Riding & Rayner, 2013). It is of particular importance in relation to such activities that require gaining the essential skills. In addition, the knowledge of all five types of understanding allows building a student-centered approach to learning.

It can be concluded that the process of learning is not a simple summation of the individual feelings or the result of the simple association of the features. This process is different for each person and reflects his or her integral characteristics in terms of thinking, understanding, attentiveness and so on. The effective comprehension requires the detachment of the significant information from the less important one through sensory systems that are different for every individual. Appropriately, the awareness of individual learning strategies will help a person to choose the activities and methods that contribute to the faster understanding and memorization of the studied material.

Dembo, M., & Seli, H. (2012). Motivation and learning strategies for college success . Abington, UK: Routledge.

Kinesthetic strategies . (2016). Web.

Riding, R., & Rayner, S. (2013). Cognitive styles and learning strategies . Abington, UK: Routledge.

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Overview of VARK Learning Styles

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Aron Janssen, MD is board certified in child, adolescent, and adult psychiatry and is the vice chair of child and adolescent psychiatry Northwestern University.

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VARK Learning Styles

• Find Your Style
• Kinesthetic

Why It Matters

Frequently asked questions.

Learning styles are a popular concept in psychology and education and are intended to identify how people learn best. VARK learning styles suggest that there are four main types of learners: visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic.

The idea that students learn best when teaching methods and school activities match their learning styles, strengths, and preferences grew in popularity in the 1970s and 1980s. However, most evidence suggests that personal learning preferences have little to no actual influence on learning outcomes.

While the existing research has found that matching teaching methods to learning styles has no influence on educational outcomes, the concept of learning styles remains extremely popular.

There are many different ways of categorizing learning styles , but Neil Fleming's VARK model is one of the most popular. Fleming introduced an inventory in 1987 that was designed to help students and others learn more about their individual learning preferences.

According to the VARK model, learners are identified by whether they have a preference for:

• Visual learning (pictures, movies, diagrams)
• Auditory learning (music, discussion, lectures)
• Reading and writing (making lists, reading textbooks, taking notes)
• Kinesthetic learning (movement, experiments, hands-on activities)

The VARK model refers to the four sensory modalities that describe different learning preferences. The model suggests that these modalities reflect how students learn best.

What Type of Learner Are You?

In order to identify which type of learner people are, Fleming developed a self-report inventory that posed a series of situations. Respondents select the answers that best match their preferred approach to learning.

Imagine that you are learning how to perform a new physical skill such as riding a bike or dancing a certain style of dance. In which way would you learn this skill the best?

• Look at pictures of people performing the skill. (Visual)
• Listen to an expert explain how to do the task. (Auditory)
• Read about how to perform the task in a book. (Reading/Writing)
• Watch someone else perform the skill and then trying it yourself. (Kinesthetic)

Visual Learners

Visual learners learn best by seeing. Graphic displays such as charts, diagrams, illustrations, handouts, and videos are all helpful learning tools for visual learners.

Visual learners prefer this type of learning would rather see information presented in a visual rather than in written form.

Do you think you might be a visual learner? Then consider the following questions:

• Are art, beauty, and aesthetics important to you?
• Does visualizing information in your mind help you remember it better?
• Do you have to see information in order to remember it?
• Do you pay close attention to body language ?

If you can answer yes to most of these questions, chances are good that you have a visual learning style. You may find it helpful to incorporate things like pictures and graphs when you are learning new information.

Aural Learners

Aural (or auditory) learners learn best by hearing information. They tend to get a great deal out of lectures and are good at remembering things they are told.

Are you an auditory learner? Consider the following questions:

• Do you create songs to help remember information?
• Does reading out loud help you remember information better?
• Do you prefer to listen to class lectures rather than reading from the textbook?
• Would you prefer to listen to a recording of your class lectures or a podcast rather than going over your class notes?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, then you are probably an auditory learner. You might find things like audiobooks and podcasts helpful for learning new things.

Reading and Writing Learners

Reading and writing learners prefer to take in information that is displayed as words and text. Could you be a reading and writing learner? Read through the following questions and think about whether they might apply to you.

• Do you enjoy making lists, reading definitions, and creating presentations?
• Do you find reading your textbook to be a great way to learn new information?
• Do you take a lot of notes during class and while reading textbooks?
• Do you prefer it when teachers make use of overheads and handouts?

If you answered yes to these questions, it is likely that you have a strong preference for the reading and writing style of learning. You might find it helpful to write down information in order to help you learn and remember it.

Kinesthetic Learners

Kinesthetic (or tactile) learners learn best by touching and doing. Hands-on experience is important for kinesthetic learners.

Not sure if you're a kinesthetic learner? Answer these questions to find out:

• Are you good at applied activities such as painting, cooking, mechanics, sports, and woodworking?
• Do you enjoy performing tasks that involve directly manipulating objects and materials?
• Do you have to actually practice doing something in order to learn it?
• Is it difficult for you to sit still for long periods of time?

If you responded yes to these questions, then you are most likely a kinesthetic learner. Taking classes that give you practical, hands-on experience may be helpful when you want to acquire a new skill.

The validity of the VARK model as well as other learning style theories has been questioned and criticized extensively. Some critics have suggested that labeling students as having one specific learning style can actually be a hindrance to learning.

One large-scale look at learning style models suggested that the instruments designed to assess individual learning styles were questionable.  

The VARK model remains fairly popular among both students and educators despite these criticisms. Students may feel drawn to a particular learning style. Others may find that their learning preferences lie somewhere in the middle, such as finding both visual and auditory learning equally appealing.

People might find that understanding their own learning preferences can be helpful. If you know that visual learning appeals to you most, using visual study strategies in conjunction with other learning methods might help you remember and enjoy your studies more.

If no single learning preference calls out to you or you change preferences based on the situation or the type of information you are learning, you probably have what is known as a multimodal style .

For example, you might rely on your reading and writing preferences when you are dealing with a class that requires a great deal of book reading and note-taking, such as a history of psychology course. During an art class, you might depend more on your visual and kinesthetic preferences as you take in pictorial information and learn new techniques.

The four VARK learning styles are visual learners, aural learners, reading and writing learners, and kinesthetic learners.

According to some data, the most common is a multimodal learning style referred to as VARK Type Two, which involves exhibiting a range of learning preferences. People with this learning style tend to collect information more slowly and take time to make decisions.

In terms of single preferences, kinesthetic is by far the most common, accounting for 22.8% of respondents.

Pashler H, Mcdaniel M, Rohrer D, Bjork R. Learning styles: concepts and evidence . Psychol Sci Public Interest . 2008;9(3):105-19. doi:10.1111/j.1539-6053.2009.01038.x

VARK Learn Limited. VARK research - what do we know about VARK ?

Fleming N. Introduction to Vark .

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Preferred Learning Style and Strategies Essay Example

• Pages: 5 (1135 words)
• Published: September 29, 2021

Learning is one of the major processes that help many students to grasp important concepts that are elucidated by the teacher while in class and when reading. There are different learning styles that are used by different students although the most common forms of learning include visual, aural, read and write, and kinesthetic. The learning style that is adopted by the student depends on personal abilities of the learner, subject being studied, and the teaching strategy that is used by the teacher. This paper seeks to examine the learning style that I prefer and also compare my it with the identified learning styles.

Summary of The Preferred Learning Style

The most preferred style of learning is reading while taking notes. This style acts as one of the best ways of ensuring that the learner grasps

the most important contents as elucidated by the author. In this case, the learner only considers the most relevant ideas in the book. The major objective of learning is to ensure that the student understands what he or she is reading and at the same time recall and apply the core ideas when they are needed. This objective is better fulfilled when the learner uses the reading-note taking technique as this process improves the comprehension of the reader. When reading, the learner must ensure that he links the points and at the same time recognize the snippets of the information in the book. Writing notes in one’s words also ensure that the learner is forced to reflect on the ideas that are elucidated in the given text (Clarke & Chesher, 2014). By doing so, the learner is able to explain what has been

learnt coherently. Furthermore, reading while making few notes enhances memorization of the key academic and professional knowledge. This is based on the fact that the student is able to capture the key issues as part of the objective of learning. It is also important to note that the student ought to keep his or her notes in an organized and well-structured manner. This ensures that one can easily find the topic of interest from the notes. For example, this can be done by using notebook or creating folders on the computer. Apart from taking notes, the learner can also highlight and underline various sections of the text. Even if highlighting texts is not a process of note-taking, it is always a significant step.

The Preferred Learning Strategies

The learning strategies that are preferred include taking few notes while reading, continuous reading and analysis of other books and materials on the same subject, rewriting the key ideas, and drawing diagrams and charts.

Taking few notes while reading; this is the first strategy that is used when learning. It serves an important purpose of ensuring that the learner is able to grasp key issues that are elucidated in the text. According to Tennent (2015), the effectiveness of this strategy can be enhanced by ensuring that every point is summarized and does not exceed fifteen words.

• Continuous reading and analysis of other related materials; this strategy ensures that the learner gets more information on the topic from other authors. In some cases, the book that the student is using might not have enough information and this will require the student to search for more information from related materials.
• Drawing diagrams and charts; this is the last strategy that is used in the learning technique identified above. Diagrams play an important role of summarizing the content and also act as the simplest way of enhancing memory. It is easier to remember diagrams that notes.

The above strategies help in ensuring that every part of the relevant information is noted and recorded for current and future use. For example, taking notes from the relevant materials such as text books and manuals is the best way of getting an in-depth information concerning the issue in a simple way. It is also a way of revealing concealed information and this serves as a way of knowledge acquisition.

Comparison of Preferred Learning Strategies

As compared to the other forms of reading, reading while taking notes serves a better purpose because it engages the learner to the maximum. Visual learning works by creating images that students can easily remember while auditory learners thrive well in classes that enhance knowledge through verbal communication. Unlike these forms of learning, reading while taking notes allows the student to critically analyze the contents and grasp important ideas from the text. Furthermore, human beings tend to understand more when their senses work in unison (Willon, 2014).  It is the connection in the brain that allows human beings to make sense out of their world. Therefore, embracing individual forms of learning as suggested

in the VAK (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) learning model tends to separate the human senses and this can be detrimental.

Awareness of Individual Learning Styles

The awareness of the above learning styles plays an important role to the educator and the learner. The educator is able to understand the problems that the student may be experiencing and focus on establishing the procedure that favors the student. This makes the learning process effective. Secondly, the awareness on the learning styles plays an important role to the student. The student is able to understand the learning style that suits him or her and the strategies that can be embraced in that learning style.

As indicated above learning style is an important process that affects education. There are different learning styles that are embraced by different student. The selection of the style depends more on the abilities and needs of the student. The strategy that I have been using is reading while taking notes. As discussed above, the strategies that are embraced in this style include taking few notes while reading, continuous reading and analysis of other books and materials on the same subject, rewriting the key ideas, and drawing diagrams and charts. As compared to VAK style, this technique is better because it engages the student’s senses. The awareness on the learning style allows the teacher to meet the needs of the student. The student also gets an opportunity to determine the learning style that better suits him or her.

• Clarke, P. J., & Chesher, D. (2014). Developing reading comprehension. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.
• Tennent, W. (2015). Understanding reading comprehension: Processes and practices. Los Angeles: SAGE.
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Learning Style and Learning Strategies

Introduction.

The history of improving by expanding, enlarging or refining education cannot be detached from the history of college learning instruction (Francis, Taylor, p.9).

Cross (1979) makes a possibility or provide opportunity for one of the original historical consultations with a special emphasis still undergoing evolution in the field of developmental education.

However, the Lack of substance or significance of the new developmental education brand is ascertained in Cross’ purpose of the term corrective in positioning close together with developmental in the chapter’s title. The debate is focussed at two things or areas being discussed:

• foundations of poor academic performance
• historical trends in ascertaining or fixing the value or worth of remediation in higher education.

The intention of this paper is to discover personal learning style so as to apply it to particular study and practical methods of test-taking. The learning style will be employed to mark study of elaborate and systematic plan of action, manage the surroundings to develop learning, realize elevated results on act of examining something closely, and develop skills of communication.

However, different people have different ways in how they analysis the world, how they acquire acts from which conclusions may be drawn and finally how they carry through based on their representation of what is perceived. These qualities of being unlike or dissimilar are innate gifts of the mind. Psychological type is a term defining where people tend to form a pattern to focus their attention.

Psychological category made, joined or united into one with a perceptual structure of learning new information, carrying out a function, and getting encouraged while using prominent attribute of Involving or derived from the senses, preferences can be classified as a learning style. A favourable judgment and use of learning style have an effect upon the ability to study efficiently and to achieve success (Fratzka, 103).

Fixed firmly and stably on personal learning style, student’s grades can always get better if they get skilled in using learning-style precise techniques to obtain information and make conclusions about that information (Shain 150).

Nevertheless, Psychological studies provides evidence that educational success depends on the understanding of the ways used to attain new information and the act of making up your mind on what to do with the information studied (Anchors, and Provost Judith 29).

Leaning strategies and the consciousness of how and when to use the learning strategies will have an effect upon the capability to get hold of the breadth and profundity of information needed to excel in exams. As soon as an individual learns to apply a comprehensive and systematic method of taking in information and deciding what to do with that information, the expanded learning-style repertoire can make a significant difference in grades (Leon and Martinez, 89).

The field of learning styles includes more than 70 models with conflicting assumptions and competing ideas about learning (Coffield et al, 2004). In the UK, Kolb’s (1999) Learning style Inventory (LSI), Honey and Mumford’s (1992) Learning Styles Questionnaire, Ridding’s (1991) Cognitive Style Analysis (CSA) and Allinson and Hayes’ (1988) Cognitive Style Index are broadly used and known. This is a practical model widely applied in schools in the USA as well as in Scandinavia.

Learning style is defined as:

The way each learner begins to concentrate on, process and retain new and difficult information

Within this model the term “learning style adapted teaching” means applying the methods that correspond to the student’s styles as revealed in a self-report learning style analysis (for example using the Productivity Environment Preference Survey Teaching based on the students’ identified style is thus one way to individualize instruction and is offered as a method to encourage and develop motivation. However, PEPS does not assess a complete range of styles of learning and thinking and other inventories (Francis, Taylor et al.34)

While the general consensus is that learning strategies describe the way in which students choose to deal with specific learning tasks (Coffield et al., 75), many researchers utilize different definitions and add other dimensions to the term.

Some see learning strategies spontaneous choices, learned or conscious patterns, others differentiate between direct or indirect strategies (Chamot and, O’Malley 120) identified the following learning strategies for students: listening, questioning, talking, thinking, intuition, action, reading, writing and vision as well as combinations of these strategies. She, however, questions whether some strategies (for example: listening or thinking) should be defined as ways of gaining knowledge rather than as learning strategies per se.

An important question is whether there exists a difference between the concepts of learning strategy and study techniques. General study strategies (such as “mind-mapping”) can be directly conflicting with the best learning strategy for some students. In investigating learning strategies for reading, it is emphasized that teachers should develop competence in their students so they can create their own strategies . ( Lier, Leo V. p 184 ) points out how learning strategies take on a distributive role arguing that student’s previous knowledge, their learning style and the problems they face influence their choice of strategy. She emphasizes the importance of understanding the conditions under which learning takes place and creating a consciousness of this among teachers and students. Her findings indicated that inefficient strategies result in incorrect decisions in the learning process and that it takes energy as well as hard work to replace ineffective strategies with strategies based on an understanding of the individual need.

These researchers emphasize the importance of meta-cognition as a basis for building strategies, and as Evans and Sadler-Smith (1999) argued the potential of such awareness lies in enabling students to recognize and question long-held habitual behaviour. These researchers, further, indicate that individuals can and should be taught to monitor and use various learning styles and strategies.

In conclusion, we find that style a popular term found in everyday life. It is variously used to describe aspects of individuality. It may be used to describe grace of a gymnast, the manner and cut of a new fashion on the modelling and even the way a person may think, learn, teach, and or talk.

It is also reasonable to conclude that style can be understood to refer to an individual difference in method or process. Nevertheless, style can also be used as a technical term in a variety of contents, especially to define an individual difference between people within a context of learning behaviour. In the psychology of learning, style has been recognised as a key construct. This was further proven to reflect the fundamental makeup of a person. Furthermore, it has a physical basis that controls the way in which an individual responds to the events and ideas they experience.

As a learner, the individual is engaged in a lifelong process like the building up of a repertoire of learning skills and strategies that are regulated by their cognitive style, and that together form a unique pattern of style that defines the shape and texture of an individual’s learning performance.

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Approaches to Learning and to Essay Writing

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The terms learning styles and learning strategies would seem to refer to two different aspects of student learning. Styles are stable ways of approaching tasks that are characteristic of individuals, while strategies are ways of handling particular tasks: styles are focused on the person, strategies on the task.

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Biggs, J. (1988). Approaches to Learning and to Essay Writing. In: Schmeck, R.R. (eds) Learning Strategies and Learning Styles. Perspectives on Individual Differences. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2118-5_8

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