Research: VARK & Learning Styles

To start this research, I thought I would go on the VARK website and take the test to see what “Learning Style” I prefer.

As you can see above, I am a MultiModal learner. This means that I have no real preference as to how information is passed onto me.

But what are the elements and possible strategies for each of the learning types?

Visual:

Visual learners learn best from Colour, Fonts, Symbolism and Formats.

They take in information through…

• lecturers who use gestures and picturesque language
• pictures, videos, posters, slides
• flowcharts
• underlining, different colours, highlighters
• textbooks with diagrams and pictures
• graphs
• symbols @ and white space

To perform best in tests, Visual learners need to…

• Draw things, use diagrams to explain
• Recall the pictures that you made in notes and revision
• Practice turning your visuals/images back into words

Aural:

Aural learners learn best from listening.

They take in information through…

• attend classes
• attend discussions and tutorials
• discuss topics with others
• discuss topics with your teachers
• explain new ideas to other people
• use a tape recorder
• remember the interesting examples, stories, jokes…
• describe the overheads, pictures and other visuals to somebody who was not there
• leave spaces in your notes for later recall and ‘filling’

To perform best in tests, Aural learners need to…

• Imagine talking with the examiner.
• Listen to your voices and write them down.
• Spend time in quiet places recalling the ideas.
• Practice writing answers to old exam questions.
• Speak your answers aloud or inside your head.

Read/Write:

Read/Write learners take in information through…

• lists
• headings
• dictionaries
• glossaries
• definitions
• handouts
• textbooks
• readings – library
• notes (often verbatim)
• teachers who use words well and have lots of information in sentences and notes
• essays
• manuals (computing and laboratory)

To perform best in tests, Read/Write learners need to…

• Write exam answers.
• Practice with multiple choice questions.
• Write paragraphs, beginnings and endings.
• Write your lists (a,b,c,d,1,2,3,4).
• Arrange your words into hierarchies and points.

Kinaesthetic:

Kinaesthetic learners learn best through doing things.

They take in information through…

• all your senses – sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing …
• laboratories
• field trips
• field tours
• examples of principles
• lecturers who give real-life examples
• applications
• hands-on approaches (computing)
• trial and error
• collections of rock types, plants, shells, grasses…
• exhibits, samples, photographs…
• recipes – solutions to problems, previous exam papers

To perform best in tests, Kinaesthetic learners need to…

• Write practice answers, paragraphs…
• Role play the exam situation in your own room

How these styles suit my business idea?

As I have stated in my mission statement, I am going to incorporate all of the learning styles into my performance/experiences. By using the research above, I will now outline how.

Visual learners will benefit from Bright colours and Fonts on the worksheets as well as from watching the performance itself.

Aural learners will benefit from listening to the performance while watching and also listening to what is being said in the workshops.

Read/Write learners will benefit from reading the worksheets and also taking notes during the performances and workshops.

Kinaesthetic learners will benefit from the interactive elements in the performances and also the workshops.

The Opposing argument:

As with everything in life, there is always an opposition. There are people who believe that Learning styles aren’t actually beneficial to anyone and that the fact that they can help a child’s learning experience is a myth.

The below video is a TEDx TALK explaining how Learning Styles aren’t helpful for the classroom.

Comparing the two:

Okay, so the video made some very clear points that we can not ignore, as I have noted above. However, what we can deduce through our own experiences as well as the sources of research on this page is that; maybe the Learning Styles are not massively distinct. But, we can say that everyone does have a preference as to how they learn and take on information, therefore there theoretically are learning styles. They just are not as set in stone as we first believed. I remember, as will you as a reader that at school there were always children in your class that you could easily put into the designated categories above. But it is definitely fair to say that we can’t segregate the children into these categories as we are stopping them from learning in a different style. But children do have a preferred type of learning that will change over time.

As an actor, I am MultiModal as I spend most of my time on my feet going through scripts. This means that as I am doing a scene (Kinaesthetic), I am also reading lines of dialogue and listening to cues etc from other cast members. To learn from a rehearsal, I will then watch a video back of the rehearsal; this clearly shows that I am a MultiModal learner.

Now going back to my Mission Statement; I never once said that I would be segregating the kids into their learning styles. This is where my idea works as all the kids watch, read and do from the worksheets, performance and workshops. Therefore we are giving every child the opportunity to learn in its preferred style, but at the same time allowing them to open themselves up to non-preferred styles and possibly take elements from these non-preferred styles, in order to create a maximum benefitting style for that individual child.

Bibliography:

Vark-learn.com. (2018). The VARK Questionnaire | VARK. [online] Available at: http://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/?p=results [Accessed 1 Feb. 2018].

TEDx TALKS (2018). Learning styles & the importance of critical self-reflection | Tesia Marshik | TEDxUWLaCrosse. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=855Now8h5Rs [Accessed 1 Feb. 2018].

Vark-learn.com. (2018). Visual Strategies | VARK. [online] Available at: http://vark-learn.com/strategies/visual-strategies/ [Accessed 1 Feb. 2018].

VARK. (2018). Aural Strategies. [online] Available at: http://vark-learn.com/strategies/aural-strategies/ [Accessed 1 Feb. 2018].

Vark-learn.com. (2018). Read/Write Strategies | VARK. [online] Available at: http://vark-learn.com/strategies/readwrite-strategies/ [Accessed 1 Feb. 2018].