Learning Styles

Learning styles area all the different methods a person can use to learn things so that they can understand them. Each person has their own learning method which suits their personality and which they find easy and effective. Some people are better at listening, others are better and going out and doing things or seeing things from different prospectives. These area all learning styles or methods.


Benefits of learning styles

The benefits of having a learning style can be put as using that style to make learning fun and easier for your self and therefore actually learning the information that is given to you. Once you have found out your learning style you can put it to practice, such things as viewing videos or images which would apply best to visual learners. Reading a book or listening to and audio tape or lecturer, which best suits auditory/verbal learners. Or going out and do the thing physically, such as playing a sport or going out into nature.

This video explains in detail the 3 different learning methods and approaches;

Why is it important to have a learning style?

Having a learning style can dramatically effect your learning skills. This is because you will be able to put things into prospective, and knowing how to deal with different situations easier. Also this will economise your time and effort input towards the learning curve of the subject area. Learning things in your preferred method seems to help you memorise them better; therefore you will be able to remember things when asked them at any time. This also means that you will be able to enjoy and have fun throughout your learning curve and wont struggle and find yourself stuck as often.


3 Different learning styles - Visual, Audio and Kinesthetic

Learning styles are grouped into 3 different categories, each differs from each other. Although these learning styles apply to individual people, some people may have more than one learning style or even all 3. Even though a saying relating to this pops up (jack of all trades, master of none).

Visual - Visual learners are better at remembering things after they have seen what they look like or read about it. These learners tend to be affected by colours, stronger than any other learning style, because it helps them to keep focus on the subject. This type of learners all tend to be great spellers and have a great interest for the artistic field. They gravely benefit from charts and graphs which visualise the information instead of long numbers and notes. They also struggle with lectures which include lots of talking, as there isn't enough visual information to keep them focused.

Audio - This type of learners seem to have a strong liking for lectures and audiotapes, because they explain the subject to them directly and they seem to remember things better once they've heard them. They will find it difficult to sit down and read a book, unless someone will read it out loud for them, although some will benefit greatly from reading a book. They are also good with talking to people and like to get feedback from things they have done and also gain knowledge by asking people what the subject area is about. They can struggle in written tests but like to give presentations.



Kinaesthetic - people who prefer kinaesthetic approach learn by doing physical things. This type of learning style specifies on crafting therefore people in this style tend to be good with their hands and try to fix things by themselves instead of calling for a 3rd party. They find it hard to read and listen for too long, as they loose focus towards the subject. This learning style will benefit by things such as experiments and exercise and finds the best method of approach to be trial and error.

Types of learners

Types of learners
Learners can be divided into various different groups, and categories. Learning types are methods and approaches that a person uses in order to take in the information faster and easier. This completely depends on the person and how they which method they prefer to use.

The following are the types of learners

Active or Reflective
Active learners tend to learn things by going out and doing them first hand. The physical method is the best approach for them and since they are keeping active, they tend to take in the information and remember it much better. They also tend to be interested in discussing them and seeing how the specific methods would work.
Whereas a reflective person, would rather think things through first. For a reflective solitude and silence is much better than working in groups as they are able to think through all of different outcomes that  could happen. Reflective type learners tend to prefer sitting in lectures and taking down notes, although this is hard for both types, the active type tends to have more difficulty with this.

Sensing or Intuitive
Sensing learners tend to like learning facts and figuring stuff out and figure out ways to solve problems in well known or established methods. If they know that that method is correct they will use a strong pattern of repetition since they know it will give them the correct answer. They are also extremely patient, careful and realistic. They also seem to lack imagination, as they are mostly realists and are very bad at art.
Whereas Intuitive learners tend to do things their own way. They tend to solve problems in new ways and find answers where no one else can. They also lack patience and tend to work really fast to get things done. Therefore tend to get things done quickly due to hatred to repetition. Although they seem to have a lower memory cap to sensing learners and will struggle to remember things.


Visual or verbal

Visual learners learn from things that they can see, such as pictures or images. This helps them focus and keep their attention towards the topic. Reading notes and listening to a lot of information will get them bored and will lose their focus making them divert from the topic. Although there is a limitation to how much they can learn from visual information, as most of the information in written in text. Therefore they tend to specialise in diagrams and diagnostics.

Verbal learners like to talk and listen. If they can hear it, they will learn it. They have good focus towards the topic and like reading notes. They learn from presentations and lectures and seem to remember things much better than visual learners. They also like to take notes which will stimulate their memory.

Sequential or Global

Sequential learners tend to study a specific topic and learning everything about it and then move onto another related topic. They like to cover all the areas of the subject and tend to perfectionists. This is very good for them because they like to gain knowledge over everything there is towards the topic, although this will take a lot of time, therefore they will be slower than the rest of the group. But, they will know a lot about the subject.

Global learners pick what they want to learn and tend to shift between subjects. They take information in quickly and get the over all concept of the subject are, but they don't take it in, in big enough proportions to really gain in depth knowledge about the subject; therefore wont be able to answer many questions about the subject.  Although getting the concept of the subject is good, but taking a bit of time to learn it properly is better.

Learning style test (+my learning style)

There is a variety of different ways you can find out what your type of learning style is. You can go out, find a topic of some sort, something you like, and figure out an approach on how you are going to learn it. There are also different websites that allow you to get a rough idea of what type of learning style best suits you. Most of these websites will ask you to fill out numerous multiple choice questions to determine which one suits you the best. The best way to check if they are correct, make sure that there are more than 10 questions, a good number of questions would fit in between 50 and 100 since the more you have, the better results you will receive. The way they are worked out is, each question being related to a specific learning style, or even styles that intervene between each other, and it may apply to both styles. These results are then calculated and presented to you in a grid or a point system. Wherever you have scored the most, is your learning style.

The website that i used was :
http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-learning-styles-quiz





As stated before, in this picture you can see the initial multiple choices that they have presented me with.
This type of quiz provides you with questions to which the answers vary from None to All the time.

I will then go ahead and fill this quiz in, to find out what my learning style is.





I went ahead and done the quiz, it consisted of 4 pages of random questions and it has provided me with the results (below)

As you can see above, these are my preferable learning styles. It shows that my logical thinking is my best area, and that i like to logically go through different scenarios before actually jumping in and doing it. It also shows that i have equally scored high in  visual and interpersonal styles. This means that i seem to learn better when i can see what I'm learning about and that i would like to talk out problems if i have any, with someone who knows what they are talking about. I also like to give and receive feedback on things i've done, so that i can improve in those areas in the future and maybe not make as many mistakes.
Here is an insert from the website (where the quiz was based) of what interpersonal and visual learners mean;

How finding out my learning style has benefited me?

I have found it much easier to learn about Photoshop when Mrs Black was showing us how to use a new tool on the programme. As I am a visual learner, observation would be my speciality. I was able to edit an image for my assignment using the tool I learnt and I was surprised with how well it worked out. Also if there is a subject area which I don't understand, I will observer my fellow students on how to complete a task or to use a tool that I haven't mastered yet to get a grasp of it. 

I've noticed that before i start a new project I tend to try and work out how I'm going to complete it and how its going to look like, before i start it. I write out my plan and then begin to work on it. Since I am a logical thinker, this has become an important step for me to take. After writing up my plan, I would ask some of my friends how to accomplish my goal, and getting feedback from them helped me to learn new tools and understand how they work.

Also I enjoy getting feedback, because it lets me know it which areas I was lacking knowledge. This helps me to develop those areas further so I can be sure not to mess up in this type of task in the future. This is where where my interpersonal side helps my development. I find that tasks are much easier when they are divided up between groups. This is because I can talk different strategies out with my team mates about how we are going to tackle that task.