Learning Styles
How do you learn best?
Let’s make a paper crane to see
which way you learn best! 
Making a Paper Crane
http://www.origami-fun.com/origami-crane.html
VISUAL
Hand out Instructions
READ/WRITE
Listen to Video (No image)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyC7pkT-dE0
AUDITORY
Kinesthetic… (We are kind of doing that so…. )
Let’s Try a Combination!
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyC7pkT-dE0
• This is Auditory and Visual, as well as Kinesthetic !
How do you learn?
• VARK MODEL
VARK Model
Visual (V):
• This preference includes the depiction of information in such
things as maps, spider diagrams, charts, graphs, flow charts,
labelled diagrams, and all the symbolic arrows, circles,
hierarchies and other devices, that people use to represent
what could have been presented in words.
VARK Model
Aural / Auditory (A):
• A preference for information that is “heard or spoken.”
• Aural learners report that they learn best from lectures, group
discussion, radio, email, using mobile phones, speaking, webchat and talking things through.
• Includes talking out loud, as well as talking to oneself.
• Often they want to sort things out by speaking first, rather
than sorting out their ideas and then speaking.
• They have a need to say it themselves and they learn through
saying it – their way.
VARK Model
Read/write (R):
• This preference is for information displayed as words. Not
surprisingly, many teachers and students have a strong
preference for this mode.
• Being able to write well and read widely are attributes sought
by employers of graduates. This preference emphasizes textbased input and output – reading and writing in all its forms
(reports, essays and assignments).
• People who prefer this modality are often addicted to
PowerPoint, the Internet, lists, diaries, dictionaries, thesauri,
quotations and words, words, words…
VARK Model
Kinesthetic (K):
• By definition, the “perceptual preference related to the use of
experience and practice (simulated or real).”
• The key is that people who prefer this mode are connected
directly, “either through concrete personal experiences,
examples, practice or simulation”
• It includes demonstrations, simulations, videos and movies of
“real” things, as well as case studies, practice and applications.
• The key is the reality or concrete nature of the example. If it
can be grasped, held, tasted, or felt it will probably be
included.
VARK Model
• What about Mixtures?
Multimodality (MM):
• Life is multimodal. There are seldom instances where one
mode is used, or is sufficient, so that is why there is a fourpart VARK profile.
• Many of us do best with a combination!
Do people actually use this?
• Who cares? Do people actually use this? Why?
YES PEOPLE USE THIS!
• Individuals, schools, universities etc. etc. all benefit from
discovering how they learn best and using their preference
modes!
• In the past year over 500,000 people have used the VARK test
to see how they learn!!
Do you know how you learn?
• VARK tells you something about yourself
• It can be used to understand your boss, your friends, your
parents, your boyfriend/girlfriend, your teacher, your relatives,
and yourself!
• It has helped people understand each other and assists them
to learn more effectively in many situations.
• TAKE THE VARK TEST- Together
(You will get an answer sheet for the questions to follow…)
Looking at the Results
• The results indicate a ‘rule of thumb’ and should not be rigidly
applied.
• Remember that the questionnaire is not intended to ‘box’
respondents into a mindset that they have been ‘diagnosed’. Rather,
it is designed to initiate discussion about, and reflection upon,
learning preferences.
• It is not expected that any one preference will be dominant or that
all participants will be multimodal.
• The most consistent finding from VARK questionnaire results is that
our classrooms are very diverse.
• Pay particular attention to zero scores. Zero scores in a profile are
unusual and the person will often have an interesting story to tell.
(Anyone with Zero scores want to share their story?)
• Emphasize that the results indicate preferences not strengths in
whatever way you can!
Once you have your results…
• Once you know how you learn best, the VARK model has some
strategies for you!
• Really consider this as EXAMS are looming, and you could pick
up a tip or two!
Avoid this in exams……
Visual Strategies
INTAKE
• lecturers who use gestures
and picturesque language
• pictures, videos, posters,
slides
• flowcharts
• underlining, different colours,
highlighters
• textbooks with diagrams and
pictures
• graphs
• symbols
HOW TO STUDY
• Use all or most of the
techniques listed
• Reconstruct the images in
different ways… try different
spatial arrangements.
• Redraw your pages from
memory
• Replace words with symbols
or initials
OUTPUT
To perform well in any test,
assignment or examination:
• Draw things, use diagrams
• Write exam answers
• Recall the pictures made by
your pages
• Turning your visuals back into
words
Aural Strategies
INTAKE
• 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’
HOW TO STUDY
• Speak your answers aloud or inside your
head.
• Put your summarized notes onto tapes
and listen to them.
• Ask others to ‘hear’ your understanding
of a topic.
• Read your summarized notes aloud.
• Explain your notes to another ‘aural’
person.
OUTPUT
To perform well in any test, assignment or
examination:
• 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.
Read/Write Strategies
INTAKE
• 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)
HOW TO STUDY :
• Write out the words again and again.
• Read your notes (silently) again and again.
• Rewrite the ideas and principles into other words.
• Organize any diagrams, graphs … into statements,
e.g. “The trend is…”
• Turn reactions, actions, diagrams, charts and flows
into words.
• Imagine your lists arranged in multiple choice
questions and distinguish each from each.
OUTPUT
To perform well in any test, assignment or examination:
•
•
•
•
•
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.
Kinesthetic Strategies
INTAKE
• 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
HOW TO STUDY
• Your lecture notes may be poor because the
topics were not ‘concrete’ or ‘relevant’.
• You will remember the “real” things that
happened.
• Put plenty of examples into your summary. Use
case studies and applications to help with
principles and abstract concepts.
• Talk about your notes with another “K” person.
• Use pictures and photographs that illustrate an
idea.
• Go back to the laboratory or your lab manual.
• Recall the experiments, field trip…
OUTPUT
• To perform well in any test, assignment or
examination:
• Write practice answers, paragraphs…
• Role play the exam situation in your own room.
Get ready to study.
Hopefully you have a better idea of how you learn and have
some tips that may help you study! Also, here is a great video
for test motivation! As I think you may need some right now 
(Note: it is highly dramatic but speaks great truth!!)
Example: When you are in school are thinking about the opportunity presented
to you, or the obligation….?? Change how you see this challenge!
Stop being average…you are better than average!!
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5n1aP0i6aQ
Also… mind the random ‘male weight gain ad…. Sorry :/
• Focus on the motivation to study and do amazing!
Note:
• Wednesday and Thursday you will be working on your SelfDirected Group Project
• There will be a quick review on Thursday
(4 types of learning (Classical, Operant, Social), Intelligence, IQ,
Creativity and the VARK model)
• There will be a QUIZ Friday