What Are Your Learning Styles?
Identifying what kind of learner you are will save you hours of time spent studying and on school related activities (literally).
How so?
By identifying your primary learning styles you will understand how your own brain adapts and learns information. Once you know this, all you have to do is feed your brain information in the format that it likes to receive it in. Simple as that!
The three main learning styles (sometimes referred to as modalities) are visual, auditory and kinesthetic.
As the name suggests, these types of learners primarily learn via their eyes. Common techniques which are incredibly useful for visual learners are watching videos and/or presentations, colour coding notes, associating notes with images and also using flash cards to remember bite sized pieces of information.
Visual learners often remember the location on a page of the information they are looking for. For example, if they need to remember the definition of a term, they are more likely to remember WHERE on a page the definition is located prior to remembering the definition itself. By linking the LOCATION and VISUAL aspect of important bits of information with the information itself, a visual learner is able to quickly and easily recall this information and improve their memory.
Unlike auditory learners, visual learners are more likely to remember impressions and concepts rather than whole blocks of information word for word. Creative methods of study suit these types of learners more than auditory and kinaesthetic learners.
These types of learners prefer to hear pieces of information. The study and learning techniques which best assist auditory learners are to read notes out loud, to record themselves speaking and to listen to the recording over and over, to associate information with music they like or to an easy beat and also to pay attention to the words teachers use when explaining a new concept for the first time (yes this actually means LISTENING and paying attention in class).
Auditory learners are more likely to remember a sequence of words than visual learners as they are more likely to have played it or read it aloud countless times. Rote learning is a common method used by auditory learners as they prefer to repeat words and phrases out loud over and over to help commit them to memory.
Listening to music helps some auditory learners but many others find it to be a distraction. Instrumental music is usually better as there are no words to interfere with the input of information. Some auditory learners even use music to help remember information by singing information along to a simple beat, similar to how children sing their ABC’s in order to remember the alphabet.
These kinds of learners prefer to DO things. Common techniques used to assist kinesthetic learners include handwriting their notes over and over rather than just highlighting and re-reading them, doing experiments or acting out pieces of information. Any kind of activity requiring ACTION helps these kinds of learners. Anything from, being physically active (eg taking a jog and listening to their notes played back to them) to physically cutting and pasting notes in a particular order, making their own flashcards and creating their own mind maps.
Of all three learning styles, kinesthetic learners have the most varied methods of studying. If you know you are a kinesthetic learner, take the time to analyse your study patterns and identify what actions your body makes when you are learning and processing information. Are you writing stuff down? Are you drawing pictures? Does your brain kick into action when you are out for a jog or doing some other kind of physical exercise? Are you perhaps reading your notes while pacing? Are you making things in order to help you understand written information?
What is it that you actually DO when you are studying?
Everyone uses each of these modalities for learning to some extent. Your next step is to figure out whether you are primarily a visual, auditory or kinesthetic learner. Then you must figure out which specific techniques work best for you and within those modalities and start applying them to your studies.
Figuring Out Your Learning Styles
Figuring out the BEST way for you to learn information will reduce the time you spend on study and other school related activities while also helping you INCREASE your marks and academic potential.
By learning how you learn best, you will be able to use specific learning methods that make your brain’s job easier so study takes you less time overall. The idea is to make learning and studying as easy and quick as you possibly can for yourself so you can focus on the things you enjoy and just generally LIVING your live – not studying your life away.
1. Pay attention to the language you use
This is one of the easiest ways to get an idea of how your brain processes information. Visual learners tend to use language like “I see” or “looks good”. Auditory learners say things like “sounds good” or “how does that sound?”. Kinaesthetic learners, on the other hand, “get” or “feel” things. They say things like “I got it”, “let’s do this”, “How does that feel?” and so on.
Of course we pick up different phrases and use a mixture of these on a daily basis. If you start paying attention to the specific language you use, you’ll soon notice you tend to say some of these more often than others. Think about which mode of learning your phrases relate to.
As a basic rule:
Anything to do with the eyes or faculty of seeing is visual
Anything to do with the ears or faculty of hearing is auditory
Anything to do with feelings, movement or action is kinaesthetic
2. Pay attention to how you make decisions
At a restaurant, do you make a choice based on how the restaurant looks? How the food and the people look? Or do you choose a particular meal because of how good it sounds when the waiter is describing it? Or perhaps you choose a particular restaurant because the environment there makes you feel good.
How we make decisions also reflects how our brain learns. This is because how we learn and the things which tend to leave an impact on us directly relate to our primary mode of information processing.
This is much more subtle than the basics outlined above as how we make decisions is not always obvious to us. When you make a small decision such as what to wear or what to eat, pay attention to what influences you decision and relate this to how your brain processes information.
3. Pay attention to what you do when you are daydreaming, bored or when your mind is absent
Do you draw pictures in the margins of your book? Do you listen to music? Do you drum your fingers or tap your foot?
By now it should be fairly clear how each of these habits reflect your learning modality. So again, pay attention to these mindless habits and see what they say about how you learn and process information. These will reflect the modalities (sight, sound, movement) you are most in tune with.
4. Pay attention to your teachers and how they teach
The teachers who you feel are good teachers most likely teach using a mix of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic cues. To teach a new concept they might write and draw diagrams on the whiteboard while verbally explaining. Then they might get you to practice the concept by doing an activity of some sort.
In science for instance, you might learn about a new concept while the teacher explains and draws diagrams. Then you might be required to copy the diagrams and notes before you actually practice by doing an experiment.
Paying attention to each of these stages and which makes the most impact for you will help you figure out how your brain processes information in the best way.
Also reflect on times when you remembered a small piece of information randomly. Did you remember it because you remember the words your teacher spoke when explaining, or because of the diagrams and pictures you associated with it or do you remember the process of actually doing an experiment or writing out notes?
If you have some trouble figuring out which is best for you or if you notice that you are a mixture of two or more learning modalities, feel free to ask one of our coaches for some guidance. We are always happy to help!