Learning Styles

In a previous session, I learnt about the different ways that people learn.

People learn in many ways, and it is our job as teachers to teach in a way that suits all the students and get the student to understand what learning style they are.  If the students know how they learn, they can enhance their learning. 

There are two main tests that can help someone to determine what type of learner they are:

1. The Honey and Mumford test (1986)
2. The V.A.R.K test

Honey and Mumford
Peter Honey and Alan Mumford created the Honey and Mumford test and identified four learning styles:

1. Activist
2. Reflectors
3. Theorists
4. Pragmatists

Activist
People who are activists learn by doing and they like to get their hands dirty by involving themselves fully into activities.  Activists are also open-minded to learning. 
To engage the students during my sessions I could include activates such as:

• Brainstorming,
• Group discussions,
• Problem solving, and,
• Role playing.

Reflectors
Reflectors are leaner’s that like to observe and think about what has happened and will prefer to watch from the sidelines. 
The activities that I could do during my sessions to engage these learners are:

• Paired discussions, and,
• Observation activities.

Theorists
Theorists like to understand the theory behind the activity or actions, and they like to have models, facts and different concepts to aid their learning.
I could use various activities during my sessions to aid the theorists:

• Stories,
• Quotes,
• Statistics, and,
• Models.

Pragmatists
These learners are a mixture of the one above.  They like it when they can see how to put their learning into the real world. 
I could use the following activities in my classes for these learners:

• Discussions,
• Case studies, and,
• Problem solving.

V.A.R.K

VARK is an online questionnaire created by Neil Fleming that allows people to identify what their leaning preference is.

V = Visual - Visual learners like to use images, maps and graphs to gain and understand new information.

A = Auditory – Learners that fall under this learning preference will understand information by listening and speaking.  They like to repeat information to fully understand it. 

R = Read/write – The learners that have the read/writing preference will learn best using words.  They may like to take notes in sessions or will like to read. 

K = Kinesthetic – These learners are hand-on people and learn best through figuring things out by hand/making things.

More information on V.A.R.K and Honey and Mumford. 

In all my sessions it is important that I make sure, I am teaching to all of the different types of learners by using lots of different techniques.