My pal, Kitty Pope at the Alliance Lbrary System, pointed me to this simplifications of the learning styles concept. Usually the theory goes, there are 7 learning styles for we humans.
There are many studies on learning styles (just search Google and ou’ll find tons). Kitty pointed me towards Neil Fleming (from the Lincoln University, New Zealand) and his theory of learning called VARK. He has developed a questionnaire that creates a profile of your learning preferences and the way you mentally receive and provide information. In his very complex study, Fleming notes four basic types of learners.
Visual learners learn best via pictures, diagrams, illustrations, video, patterns, and colors.
Auditory learners learn best by listening, e.g. lectures, recordings, radio.
Reading /writing learners learn best by reading /writing.
Tactile learners learn best by experience, activity, or experimentation.
Information basically becomes knowledge through a process called learning. I believe that by understanding how learning happens we can mazimize the learning experience and improve information and knowledge transfer.
You can try VARK out or yourself. Just complete VARK ‘s sixteen multiple-choice questions (which takes about four minutes), then you’ll be asked a few general questions about yourself. Kitty reports that from more than twenty years of VARK responses:
“58% thought VARK matched their leaning style.
38% were unsure if VARK had, in fact, identified their learning style.
4% said VARK had not matched their learning style.”
Can VARK be of any use to the library community?
Take the questionnaire (it’s free) and let me know what you think in the comments.
VARK Learning Styles Questionnaire
http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire
Here are my scores (and not a surprise to me):
Your scores were:
Visual: 4
Aural: 3
Read/Write: 3
Kinesthetic: 6
I have a mild Kinesthetic learning preference.
Stephen
8 Responses
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It’s fun to think about these things, but sometimes I think they go to far (as the link below wonderfully satirizes).
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28606
my results:
visual 3
aural 1
read/write 6
kinesthetic 6
no surprises here.
This was a very interesting test to take. My results were the following:
Visual: 7
Aural: 8
Read/Write: 5
Kinesthetic: 10
I have a VARK multimodal
* Visual: 2
* Fonética: 2
* Lectura / Escritura: 7
* Kinestésica: 8
Thanks for the link Stephen
Nice one from a Visual: 7, Aural: 6, Read/Write: 3 Kinesthetic: 5
I’m also VARK multimodal –
Visual: 10
Aural: 7
Read/Write: 11
Kinesthetic: 7
Fits me (or maybe I just can’t make up my mind 🙂 – I checked more than one response for every question).
I’ve found that my learning style has become more visual over the years. I’m sure this is correlated with the evolution and development of the www and the availability of more visual tools for learning.
Thanks for the opportunity to take this test.
That was fun. Here are my scores:
Your scores were:
* Visual: 7
* Aural: 7
* Read/Write: 8
* Kinesthetic: 7
I learned about this model last year when I was learning library instruction. I think keeping it in mind, and, more importantly, remembering that our style is not going to be other people’s style, is very important. I try to do all for, when possible, in every speech or lecture I do.
Came out heavily on read/write but found that the answers often didn’t include the exact answer I would have given – o me that makes the whole exercise somewhat flawed.