Unlocking Your Potential: Exploring 3 Different Learning Styles

Everyone learns differently. Understanding your personal learning style can be a game-changer in your career development and academic success. Defining learning styles shouldn’t make you feel boxed in - it should help you find the perfect mix of learning styles that works for you.

Introduction

The concept of "learning styles" acknowledges that individuals absorb, process, comprehend, and retain information in preferential ways. These preferences are influenced by various factors, including environment, cognitive processes, and emotional states. While learning styles emerge as children mature, individuals may blend one or more of these styles together. For the most part, no one relies completely on one learning style over their entire lifetime. Recognizing and understanding these diverse approaches to learning is essential for educators and learners alike to maximize potential and achieve success.

The VARK Model and Multimodal Learning

The VARK model emphasizes that students retain and process information differently and have “preferred learning modes” that allow them to learn their best. VARK is focused on the idea that students retain and process information differently and have “preferred learning modes” that allow them to learn their best. “Allowing students to access information in terms they are comfortable with will increase their academic confidence,” Teach.com explains. As noted in a JPM study, most people favor a blend of two or three or possibly more styles. The JPM study highlights an important point: How you learn is rarely static. In fact, most people learn in different ways, and those ways can change throughout their lives. Nearly 87% of participants identified as having a multimodal style of accessing information, with audio-kinesthetic and audio-read/write as the most common combinations, according to JPM.

Three Primary Learning Styles

While various models exist, three main learning styles are frequently discussed: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

1. Visual Learners: Seeing is Believing

Visual learners best absorb information when they see the material being presented. Information presented in a visual style is best processed by visual learners. They do best with pictures, charts, graphs, and other visual aids that make difficult ideas easier for them to understand. Using images to explain concepts and ideas is the best way to reach a visual learner. However, this type of learning style does not include photographs or videos. Instead, visual learners learn best when information is presented using patterns, shapes, and other visual aids in the place of written or spoken words. Charts and graphs are your forte. If you’re studying written material, you may find it helpful to actually copy words straight from the text, organizing them as you go. Seeing the information laid out in a structured format can help you retain it.

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Ideal training for visual learners involves:

Charts
Maps
Graphs
Diagrams

One way teachers can differentiate their instruction for visual learners is by using graphic organizers to teach a lesson.

Characteristics of Visual Learners:

Good Visual Memory: Compared to textual learners, visual learners frequently have a strong visual memory and can recall details from visual stimuli with greater ease. They can readily recall faces and locations thanks to this skill.
Preference for Visual Aids: Visualisers typically favor learning from visual resources like maps, graphs, and movies. They may be more productive in subjects that use visual data due to this preference.
Creative Ability: Since many visual learners have an innate need to express themselves through painting, drawing, or other visual media, they frequently succeed in creative pursuits.
Attention to Detail: Those who learn visually are frequently excellent observers, picking up on subtleties that others might miss. This level of detail-orientedness can be useful in many domains, such as science and design.
Mental Imagery: They have a lively imagination that helps them picture ideas and situations, which promotes creativity and problem-solving.

Teachers and parents may help visual learners by using strategies like mind mapping, color coding, and integrating multimedia into courses. These techniques can improve their educational experience and facilitate more successful engagement with the subject matter.

2. Auditory Learners: Learning Through Sound

Auditory learners take in information through listening and speaking. Sound is an excellent medium for communicating information to auditory learners. They are skilled in verbal communication because they learn best by speaking and listening. This learning style describes students who learn best when information is heard or spoken. They benefit from lectures, group discussion, and other strategies that involve talking things through. When you ask questions, you further solidify the subject matter in your mind. You may find it helpful to look for recordings of training collateral. If that’s not an option, record yourself as you read the material aloud - listening to the recording later can help you absorb the information.

Ideal training for auditory learners involves:

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Verbal explanations
Discussions
Recordings of training material

“Often people with this preference want to sort things out by speaking first, rather than sorting out their ideas and then speaking,” VARK Learn Limited explains.

Characteristics of Auditory Learners:

Excellent Listening Skills: Spoken material is easily remembered by auditory learners. They frequently remember information from talks or lectures more easily than from printed documents.
Preference for Verbal Instructions: Rather than written instructions, these students would rather hear them. While they might have trouble following written directions, they do well in situations where they can converse and ask questions.
Appreciation of Music and Rhythm: A lot of auditory learners are naturally drawn to music, and they frequently use rhymes or songs to help them remember facts. When they can connect new ideas to sounds, they frequently find learning new concepts easier.
Excellent Storytelling Skills: Auditory learners are often adept at orally retelling stories and elucidating concepts. They can express their ideas clearly and frequently take pleasure in contributing to conversations.
Distractibility by Noise: Although auditory learners do best in auditory surroundings, too much background noise can be distracting. In calmer environments where they may concentrate on listening, they frequently perform better.

Teachers can use group projects, conversations, podcasts, and lecture recordings to improve the learning process for auditory learners. With the use of these techniques, auditory learners can interact with the content in ways that suit their personal learning style.

3. Kinesthetic Learners: Learning by Doing

Kinesthetic learners tend to learn best when physical movement is involved in the lesson or activity. The greatest ways for kinaesthetic learners, sometimes referred to as tactile learners, to learn are through practical applications and physical exercises. More often than not, they would rather work directly with the content than observe or listen. Tactile, or kinesthetic, learners are “doers.” They can read or listen to information all day long, but for it to really sink in they prefer firsthand experience with practical applications. Kinesthetic learners learn best when they can use tactile experiences and carry out a physical activity to practice applying new information.

Ideal training for kinesthetic learners involves:

Firsthand experience
Practical applications

“People who prefer this mode are connected to reality, ‘either through concrete personal experiences, examples, practice or simulation,’” VARK Learn Limited explains. To fully understand what you’re doing, you need to see exactly how everything works in real time as you take part in the process. So your best bet is to dive into a new undertaking while an experienced manager or coworker supervises or assists. You won’t learn much when you watch someone navigate a database, so ask your trainer to instead give you instructions as you attempt to do it yourself.

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Characteristics of Kinaesthetic Learners:

Preference for Movement: When seated stationary for extended periods of time, kinaesthetic learners frequently become restless. They do best in dynamic settings where they can move around and interact with the content in a hands-on way.
Hands-on Learning: When able to manipulate objects or take part in experiments, these learners do best. Whether it’s via role-playing, making models, or doing experiments, they frequently learn best by doing.
Difficulty with Conventional Learning Methods: Traditional lecture-based learning environments may be challenging for kinaesthetic learners. They frequently struggle to understand information that is conveyed only through reading or listening.
Expressive Physicality: Movement is a common way for kinaesthetic learners to express themselves. When speaking, they could make gestures or choose to act out ideas rather than explain them vocally.
Good at Physical Activities: Because kinaesthetic learners naturally prefer to utilise their body as a means of self-expression and learning, they frequently succeed in sports and other physical activities.

Teachers can use movement in their courses by employing role-play, simulations, or hands-on activities to promote kinaesthetic learners. Giving them the chance to participate physically can greatly improve their learning process.

Additional Learning Styles

The 4 types of learners in education include visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic.

Read/Write Learners

Read/Write learners prefer information in written form. Students who have a reading/writing preference prefer information to be presented using words. They love to read and perform well on written assignments such as stories or book reports. “This preference emphasizes text-based input and output - reading and writing in all of its forms,” VARK Learn Limited notes. A great way to help these students learn is by having them describe diagrams or charts using written statements. Not to be confused with auditory learners, verbal learners excel when they can engage with material through spoken words and written text. For verbal learners, effective training often involves discussions, explanations and writing. Participate in group discussions where you can articulate your thoughts and questions. Make writing a part of your study routine, such as summarizing information, drafting outlines, or creating written notes. Read/Write learners prefer information in written form.

Strategies for Identifying and Leveraging Your Learning Style

Discovering what type of learner you are is the first step in using learning styles for improving your productivity and long-term career success.

Self-assessment tools: Online quizzes and assessments can help pinpoint your learning style. These tools often present scenarios or questions to determine how you prefer to learn.
Reflect on past experiences: Think about times when you learned something new effectively. Did you find it easier to understand concepts when they were explained with visual aids, through discussions, or by engaging in hands-on activities?
Experiment with different methods: Defining learning styles shouldn’t make you feel boxed in - it should help you find the perfect mix of learning styles that works for you. For instance, even if you find you’re mostly a hands-on tactile person, it doesn’t mean you can’t also benefit from listening to an audiobook or writing notes.

The Importance of a Growth Mindset and Addressing Barriers

The concept of a growth versus fixed mindset is key. According to Psychology Today, a growth mindset is when a learner knows that if they work hard and put in the effort, they can succeed at anything they put their mind to. “It’s important to have a mindset that serves learning," she said. There are a number of types of barriers that students find along the way to learning. “Barriers can be lack of time, technology, lack of support and lack of essentials,” Johnson said.

Embracing a Holistic Approach to Learning

The best way to determine your own learning style is to take a similar holistic approach. Be open to the fact that you likely learn according to multiple styles. What a person already knows is important for making connections to anything new. “There are two levels to this,” said Johnson. For learning course-specific content, the process starts with recognizing what looks familiar, what terms and vocabulary stand out from prior classes and how this information relates to what you already know. This knowledge serves as a foundation for acquiring and understanding new course content.

The Power of Collaboration and Explanation

For many people, it can be challenging to learn new things alone. Joining student clubs. Engaging with others in your household or friend groups. Even if you’re learning different things than a partner, family member or friend, that doesn’t mean you can’t help each other. “There is a lot of power in parallel work to help keep focus and motivation,” Johnson said. If you can explain something to someone else, that’s when you know you really understand a new concept. “I hear many great stories of parents having their children sit side-by-side with them and do homework together,” Johnson said.

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