Learning styles and preferenes

Learning styles
and preferenes

“I learn best when I have lots of pictures,” someone might say. “I need to read the directions first; I’m hopeless with watching videos,” another person might say. 
Ask three different people about how they learn best, and you’ll likely get three different answers. These understandings of how we learn are supported by the many assessments that determine what kind of learner we are: there is Walter Burke Barbe’s VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic), the model developed by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (know as the NASSP model), and Neil Fleming’s VARK (Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic), to name a few.

A Visual Approach 
Any visual (a graph, chart, map, or diagram) conveys information differently than a written paragraph might. A student reading that the number of diagnosed cases of a viral infection doubles every five days may comprehend that information easily, but seeing the graph rise exponentially might drive that fact home. Similarly, reading about a battle may be helpful for describing what life is like on the battlefield, but it may be difficult to picture just where that frontline was drawn, or how the line moved over time. A map can convey this information quickly and succinctly and takes away the guesswork of the reader who might struggle to remember where a line two miles south of a town and running to the east might be

Learning Preference, Not Learning Style
So what’s the takeaway? The research is pretty clear that learning styles as they are popularly known don’t exist. However, that doesn’t mean that students don’t have ways they prefer to learn, or that any learner will be open to acquiring new information through any delivery method. What’s key is that instructors don’t rely on one single style during a class session. This allows students to approach course material using a number of modalities and that they have more opportunities for the information to “click.” The variety of presentations also allows students to learn information more effectively and deeply.