Learning Styles

Recognising which style is your preferred one is not to suggest that one is better than the other, rather it serves to help you work out strategies when certain teaching and learning methods don't suit your style and to challenge you to develop in all areas. For example, if you know that you are a great visual learner who loves diagrams and concept maps, then use that technique frequently in your note taking. If you are not a strong auditory learner, make sure you take copious notes and type them up so you can read them later, or ask your lecturer for the lecture notes. Basically, once you identify your preferred style(s), take advantage of your strengths and work to develop your weaker areas.

...talking is only one way we think, and express intelligence. The most embedded misunderstanding about the nature of intelligence is that language is required for thought. This simply is not true. This misconception has marginalized the vastly important contribution the arts can make to education. We think in several other "symbol systems" besides language, including the use of line and color in drawing and painting, in musical notes when we sing, or play an instrument, or in physical motion when we dance. [...] As Martha Graham said, "If I could say it, I wouldn't have to dance it."

~ Oddleifson, 1995

Here's a list of questions to identify your learning style according to Gardner's model. Adapted from Rhoden and Starkey's "Learning Styles", 1998.

Visuo-Spatial Learners

1. I like to have my room organised so that the things that go together stay together.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

2. I like to draw a map if someone is giving me directions.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

3. I like to make poster-style charts to study from.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

4. I use my hands or a drawing to help me describe complex things to other people.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

5. When I try to remember things, I can picture the page or the place I first saw them.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

Visuo-Verbal Learners

1. I like to read over the instructions before I try something new.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

2. I like to rewrite things I have to learn.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

3. I like to make lists of things to do.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

4. I use lots of describing words when I'm explaining things to people.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

5. I like to take notes in complete sentences.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

Auditory Learners

1. I like to repeat instructions as I do new tasks.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

2. I prefer to listen to a story than to read the book.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

3. I like to talk over the lessons with some of my friends.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

4. I like people asking me questions so I can talk about what I've done or learned.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

5. I take point form notes and don't like writing essays.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

Kinaesthetic Learners

1. I like to try something without bothering about the written instructions.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

2. I love taking things apart to see how they work.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

3. I like to make patterns of things I have learnt.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

4. I'm good at practical tasks if people don't pester me.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never

5. When I explain something, I use anything around me - knives and forks, sauce bottles - to show how the parts fit together.

   • Always
   • Sometimes
   • Never