To Each a Learning Style

What’s yours?

There are a number of different learning styles and techniques, and each of us has a different combination of them. Some prefer color coding things and using visuals, while others favor reading out loud, maybe even pace around while they study.

What are these learning styles? Here are the three main categories: VAK

The Visual Learner

If you tend to find it easier to understand what you’re studying through pictures and diagrams, attempting to visualize things that are being read or explained to you, or even color coding and drawing diagrams; then you are a visual learner. To put it simply, visual learners prefer reading to themselves and seeing what they’re learning.

Advantages:

• They tend to have great spacial sense
• They never forget a face
• Are usually very organized and neat

Disadvantages:

• Are easily distracted by sounds and noise

Catch Phrases:

• See how this works
• I can’t quite picture it
• Let’s look at it differently

The Auditory Learner

Do you sometimes find yourself reading something out loud so you can understand it better? It’s that simple to determine if you are an auditory learner. Looking at pictures or diagrams is not as beneficial to auditory learners as it is to read things out loud and hearing it.

Advantages:

• Not easily distracted
• Excellent conversational memory
• Tend to listen to music when trying to focus

Disadvantages:

• Have a hard time in quiet environments

Catch phrases:

• That’s music to my ears
• Sounds about right
• That rings a bell

The Kinesthetic or Tactile Learner

A more of a hands-on learner. If you find yourself pacing while you study, scribbling and drawing, and using hand gestures a lot, then you are a tactile learner. They tend to be a bit more sensitive to the physical world around them, and enjoy learning by taking things apart and putting them back together. When trying to remember something they read, tactile learners tend to try to recall what they were doing when they read it.

Advantages:

• Very well coordinated
• Can easily recall things they did
• Good physical ability

Disadvantages:

• Have difficulty sitting still

Catch phrases:

• That feels right to me
• I can’t get a grip on this
• My gut is telling me

As for how each of us develops these learning styles and what affects them, there are many factors to consider. Environment, character, age, circumstances, and especially motivation, almost anything and everything can affect your learning style. The Dunn Dunn Model delves deep into learning styles and illustrates almost every element that affects them.

What’s great to know is that none of us have a single learning style, we all have a certain percentage of each. To find how much and figure out what type of learner you are, there are many online instruments you can use including “What’s Your Learning Style? 20 Questions”, “Memetic Learning Style Questionnaire”, and “Learning Styles”.

By recognizing your own learning style or your mentees’, you can use techniques and methods that are more suitable to you or them, bringing out the best in both of you.