We All Have Different Learning Styles
It is helpful to know your own learning style and to remember that others may not share that same style. We often design presentations for ourselves. Here is an excerpt from
There are many different ways to classify learning styles. These fall into general categories: perceptual modality, information processing, and personality patterns. The categories represent ways to focus on the learner.
Perceptual modalities define biologically based reactions to our physical environment and represent the way we most efficiently adopt data. We should learn our perception style so we can seek out information in the format that we process most directly. Educators should pay attention to modalities to ensure programs strike all physiologic levels.
Information processing distinguishes between the way we sense, think, solve problems, and remember information. Each of us has a preferred, consistent, distinct way of perceiving, organizing, and retaining information.
Personality patterns focus on attention, emotion, and values. Studying these differences allows us to predict the way we will react and feel about different situations.
Howard Gardner established another way of grouping modalities. He asserts there are at least seven modalities or intelligences that link to our individual styles.
Gardner suggests humans can be (1) verbal-linguistic (sensitive to the meaning and order of words), (2) musical (sensitive to pitch, melody, rhythm, and tone), (3) logical-mathematical (able to handle chains of reasoning and recognize patterns and order), (4) spatial (perceive the world accurately and try to re-create or transform aspects of that world), (5) bodily-kinesthetic (able to use the body skillfully and handle objects adroitly), (6) interpersonal (understand people and relationships), or (7) intrapersonal (possess access to one's emotional life as a means to understand oneself and others).
Most people retain a dominant and an auxiliary learning modality. We usually rely on those modes to process information at an unconscious level, but we may be consciously aware of which modes we prefer. We access through all senses, but generally favor one. We process visually (by sight), auditorally (by sound), kinesthetically (by moving), and tactilely (by touch).
Visual learners prefer seeing what they are learning. Pictures and images help them understand ideas and information better than explanations. A drawing may help more than a discussion about the same. When someone explains something to a visual learner, he or she may create a mental picture of what the person talking describes.
If you are a visual learner, you may find it helpful to see the person speaking. You may watch a speaker talk, as well as listen to what he or she says.
Many people assume reading is a visual action. Though we see the words, most of us process the information by hearing ourselves say the words. As a result, researchers identify people who prefer to process by reading, auditory learners. Others label the readers 'Print-oriented,' aligning them closely with visual learners. Visual learners are more shape- and form-oriented. Print-oriented people depend more on words or numbers in their images.
Auditory learners also fall into two categories. Auditory learners prefer spoken messages. The less understood auditory learners need to hear their own voice to process the information. The more prevalent type, 'Listeners,' most likely did well in school. Out of school too, they remember things said to them and make the information their own. They may even carry on mental dialogues and determine how to continue by thinking back on the words of others.
Conversely, those who need to 'talk it out' often find themselves talking to those around them. In a class setting when the instructor is not asking questions, auditory-verbal processors (talkers) tend to mutter comments to themselves. They are not trying to be disruptive and may not even realize they need to talk. Some researchers go so far as to call these learners 'Interactives.'
While some auditory learners prefer to listen to both themselves and others, mounting evidence suggests the two types are distinct and separate.
Kinesthetic learners want to sense the position and movement of what they are working on. Tactile learners want to touch. "Enough talking and looking," they may say. "Let's work with this stuff. Let's get our hands dirty already." Even if kinesthetic or tactile learners don't get much from the discussion or the written materials, they may catch up and exceed the lesson plan by working through scenarios and labs. Often, they don't thrive in traditional schools because most classrooms don't offer enough opportunity to move or touch.
Most assessments group kinesthetic and tactile styles together, though they mean different things. Their similarity is that both types perceive information through nerve ends in the skin, as well as organs through muscles, tendons, and joints.
We can sometimes sense the way people process by listening to the words they use to describe learning situations. For example, a visual learner may say, "I see your point." An auditory learner may instead say, "I hear what you're saying." And a kinesthetic learner may say, "I feel we're moving in the right direction."
Studies show that single-style classes (where modality indicators segregate a group) can be more effective than classes with diverse-style learners. The non-homogenous approach, however, seems impractical and doesn't lend itself to the various challenges learners face each day.
Likewise, learners can compensate when the instructional medium doesn't match individual style. Kinesthetic learners may benefit from reading and auditory learners can improve their understanding by touching what they are working on. Possessing various compensating strategies allows us to benefit under all circumstances.
Full Circle Associates - 2004