Learning Styles

Theory Background

Learning Styles

People learn in different ways and in different approaches. That is the simplest definition for a learning style. It’s true we all learn in different ways, and we all learn with different procedures. But to find out the differences between the styles and what we can do to improve them is a job to be done in a case study.

Learning styles refer to the ways you prefer to approach new information. Each of us learns and processes information in our own special ways, though we share some learning patterns, preferences, and approaches. Conner (1993). It’s clear that a learning style is the different ways we learn and give approach new knowledge. Knowing our own styles would be a great source for improving the ways we learn.

A learning style is a student’s consistent way of responding to and using stimuli in the context of learning. Kolb (1984). Kolb’s definition for a learning styles involves three aspects referring the “way” how learners learn: The first one on the response they give to the learning process, the later is about the stimuli, talking about the environment around the learner that helps him to develop his learning and finally the context of learning, referring the process itself.

The VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic), which is derived from the accelerated learning world, and seems to be about the most popular model nowadays. Its main strength is that it is quite simple, which appeals to a lot of people. Its main weakness, is that the research does not really support it.

The VAK learning Style uses the three main sensory receivers - Vision, Auditory, and Kinesthetic (movement and tactile or touch) to determine the dominate learning style. Learners use all three to receive information. However, one or more of these receiving styles are normally dominant. This dominant style defines the best way for a person to learn new information by filtering what is to be learned. This style may not always to be the same for some tasks. The learner may prefer one style of learning for one task, and a combination of others for another task.

Auditory learners usually talk to themselves a lot. They also may move there lips and read out loud. They may have difficulty with reading and writing tasks. They often do better talking to a colleague or a tape recorder and hearing what was said.

Visual learners have two subchannels - linguistic and spatial. Learners who are visual linguistic like to learn through written language, such as reading and writing tasks. They remember what has been written down, even if they do not read it more than once. They like to write down directions and pay better attention to lectures if they watch them. Learners who are visual spatial usually have difficulty with written language and do better with charts, demonstrations, videos, and other visual materials. They easily visualize faces and places by using their imagination and seldom get lost in new surroundings.

Kinesthetic learners do best while touching and moving. It also has two subchannels - kinesthetic (movement) and tactile (touch) They tend to lose concentration if there is little or no external stimulation or movement. When listening to lectures they may want to take notes. When reading, they like to scan the material first, and then focus in on the details (get the big picture first). They typically use color highlighters and take notes by drawing pictures, diagrams,

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