Learning Styles

Rainbow Light

Learning Styles:

Everyone learns differently. There are 3 main types of learning styles. Auditory, Kinaesthetic and Visual. Since everyone has their own learning styles, it is very important for you to find out what style you prefer.

Auditory:

Auditory learners learn through listening to facts. They find learning through physical interaction or seeing other people carry out tasks difficult. A good way for an auditory learner to learn is through listening to lessons, whether it be from a podcast or a video. In order to learn any new information an auditory learner must listen to the facts. These kind of learners would much prefer to be lectured by their teacher than to do physical tasks such as writing down notes. They may notice more sounds in things like TV shows or films. Being an auditory learner does not mean that they cannot learn by writing information out in the form of notes, but to absorb the information they like to have something like music playing in the background.

Kinaesthetic:

Kinaesthetic learners learn through interacting with the facts. They like to carry out physical tasks such as drawing out mind maps or writing out the same information over and over again. They may struggle with learning through reading or listening. Kinaesthetic learners usually have good hand-eye coordination.They have high energy levels and as a child might have been overactive and not sat still during class. These types learners normally perform excellent in art and drama related things such as playing instruments, singing, acting etc. They have higher levels of energy than normal learners, so may tend to fidget, play with things, bounce their legs while sitting down etc. to release some of the energy.




Visual:

Visual learners learn through seeing the task being performed. They do not usually like interacting with or listening to the facts. They like to see them. Visual learners, like kinaesthetics also enjoy mind maps. They find it easiest to learn when there are different colours for different pieces of information, as they can recall this easier. A visual learner finds sounds distracting while they are trying to learn, and they would prefer complete silence. They also find lectures harder to understand and will have to review the information in note form in order to learn it. Something like a bar graph or pie chart is ideal for a visual learner to use. They are more likely to learn sign language when compared with the other types of learners.

According to an online test, I am an auditory learner, here are my results:

If you have mostly blue results like I have, you are an auditory learner, if you have mostly green results, you are a visual learner, and if you have mostly pink results, you are a kinaesthetic learner. I have 7 blue results and 10 green results. Although I am mostly an auditory learner, I also have a lot of my learning leaning towards the visual side. This does translate to my actual learning, as not only do I like listening to lectures or background music while I work, but I also like to write out notes over and over again in order to learn new information.

Learning what kind of learning style that suits you can aid your learning in a big way. It will let you know how and what you should doing in order to make information stay inside your head when you are trying to learn it. Knowing simple steps such as the fact that you like listening to information rather than writing down pages of notes can save you a lot of time and make your learning far more efficient.