Study Guide Part 3: Different Learning Styles, How they affect your approach and process of learning
In this article we'll help you identify your personal learning style. Once you've identified how you learn best, you can utlise the appropriate learning techniques into your study (we'll cover those techniques in the next article).
Visual Learning Style 1: Learning through seeing…
Visual learners like to be able to see the teacher/trainers body language and facial expression to fully comprehend the content of the lesson. In on-campus settings you may tend to choose to sit closer to the front of the classroom to avoid visual obstructions, whilst online students may like to watch online video tutorials to watch a trainer talk.
Do You…
- Have a strong sense of colour
- Successfully follow instructions
- Take time to process auditory information
- Translate words into pictures or images to promote understanding
- Pay careful attention to body language
- Easily get distracted by people or background noise
- Create mental pictures to help with memorising
- Prefer to use visual representations to help you process information e.g: graphs, diagrams, charts
- Recognise something by seeing it
- Have a vivid imagination
- Lose concentration when extensive listening is required
- Take notes or draw to absorb information
Auditory Learning Style: Learning through listening…
Auditory learners need to focus on what is being said and may find their other senses distracting. If you're an auditory learner, you may benefit from verbal discussions along with visual presentations. This can be through the form of live or pre-recorded online video content, podcasts, presentations and forums. You might find written information may lack clarity until read aloud.
Do You…
- Repeat information out loud
- Learn well through lectures
- Often referred to as an excellent listener
- Enjoy talking
- Find it easy to follow verbal instruction
- Think out loud and catch yourself talking to yourself
- Prefer to use others as a sounding board for your ideas
- Prefer small group discussions
- Memorise information by listening to something repetitively
Kinaesthetic Learning Style: Learning through moving, doing and touching…
Kinaesthetic learners prefer a hands on approach to their learning. You learn best by doing or directly being a part of the learning. Information is processed through physical action or participation.
Do You…
- Involve the sense of touch in learning
- Enjoy artwork and creative projects
- Often fidget or find reason to move about
- Find it difficult to concentrate on visual or auditory presentations
- Prefer the opportunity for trial and error when learning
- Talk with your hands
- Get referred to as a poor listener
- Retain information better when you are able to move about when learning
- Choose to take frequent study breaks
- Use bright coloured highlighters when reading material
- Have strong motor skills
The next part of our study guide introduces you to the all-important craft of note taking.
Part 4: Learn how to take notes for studying