The Four Learning Styles The following information goes into detail about the VARK learning styles, how to recognize these styles in learners and how to integrate the style into classwork. It is good to remember that not all learners fit exactly into one category. There is often overlap in learner preference when it comes to style, especially across subject matter and activity. 1. Visual Learning Recognizing visual learners: The visual learners in your classroom like to see and observe the things that they are learning about. Visual learners like to use pictures, diagrams and written directions to access information. This learning style has also been known as “spatial.” The students who are visual or spatial learners might draw, make lists or take notes in order to interact with and process information. Supporting visual learners: Some of the more traditional styles of teaching support visual learners, such as whiteboards or projecting information onto a screen. Assignments could ask learners to make pictures or diagrams. In addition, providing class notes or handouts that students can follow along with are a great way to integrate visual learning into your curriculum. Visual learners may have a tough time with lectures and could need more time to process information that they hear auditorily. 2. Auditory Learning Recognizing auditory learners: The auditory learners in your class learn best by listening and relating information to sound. These are students who prefer listening to a lecture or a recording rather than taking written notes. They may also be students who think out loud and speak through a concept in order to dive into it. Your auditory learners are most likely your most vocal students in class. They may also be the ones who read out loud to themselves. Auditory learners often repeat what a teacher has said to process what the directions are. Supporting auditory learners: Including a lot of time for discussion can support the auditory learners in your classroom. They want to hear what others have to say and share their own ideas in order to learn and process information. When you are giving a lecture, ask auditory learners to repeat what they have learned back to you. Call and response or question-and-answer processes can also benefit auditory learners. In addition, auditory learners appreciate watching videos about a topic and listening to audiobooks or recordings. 3. Reading/Writing Learning Recognizing reading/writing learners: This learning style is often confused with visual learning because reading/writing learners like to learn using the written word. This may seem like visual learning, but reading/writing preference learners can be discerned as those who express themselves through writing. They also enjoy reading articles and writing in diaries or journals. Your reading/writing learners may be experts with search engines and even old-school encyclopedias. They hunger for knowledge that they gather through reading.

1. Learningstyles
Aural/Auditory
Kinesthetic
Visual
Read/Write
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Learning Styles

2. The Pieces of Academic Success
Rationale
Essay
Academic
Research

3. Maximize Learning & Instructional Styles!

4. •Most people have developed apreference
for how they learn.
•One style is not better than another,
and allof approaches to learning can be
improved.
•Effective learners know how their minds
workand are able to adapt their studying
strategies to any learning situation.
TheBasics

5. Characteristics of Visual Learners
• Have a keen sense of aesthetics, visual media and art.
• Easily remember information presented in pictures or diagrams.
• Have strong visualization skills. They can look up and “see” the
information invisibly written or drawn.
• Make “movies in their minds” of information they are reading.
Their movies are often vivid and detailed.
• Have very strong visual-spatial understanding of things such as
sizes, textures, angles and three-dimensional depths.
• Pay close attention to the body language of others (facial
expressions, eyes, stance, etc.).
VISUAL
Visual learners tend to:

6. learn best when information is
presented visually and in apicture or design
format.
In aclassroom setting, benefit from
instructors who usevisual aids such asfilm,
video, mapsand charts.
benefit from information obtainedfrom
the pictures and diagrams in textbooks.
When trying to remember something,can
often visualize apicture of it in their mind.
have an artistic side that enjoysactivities
having to do with visual artand design.
Visual learners:
Visual

7. Study Tips for Visual Learners
• Convert information into visual studytools
(diagrams, maps, charts)
• Copy & write new info - see it in your own writing.
• Visualize & makemovies asyou read and study.
• Usenonverbal clue’s by instructors to provide you with importantinformation.
• When learning mathematical or technical information, makecharts to organizethe
information. When amathematical problem involves asequence of steps, draw a
series of boxes, each containing the appropriate bit of information in sequence.
• Use the computer to assist in organizing material that needs to be memorized. Using
word processing, create tables and charts with graphics that help you to understand
and retain course material. Usespreadsheet and database software to further
organize material that needs to belearned.
• Use"color coding" of new information in your textbook or notes. Mark up the
margins of your textbook with keywords, symbols, and diagrams and usehighlighter
pens of contrasting colors to "color code" theinformation.

8. Characteristics of Aural/Auditory Learners
Aural/Auditory learners tend to:
• Remember quite accurately details of important information heard
during conversations or lectures.
• Have strong language skills, which include a well-developed
vocabulary and an appreciation for words.
• Have strong oral communication skills. They can carry interesting
conversations and can articulate their ideas clearly.
• Have a “fine tuned ear” auditory may lead to learning a foreign
language more easily.
• Often have musical talents, can hear tones, rhythms, and individual
notes.
AURAL/
AUDITORY

9. Tendto find when tryingto
remember something,
can often "hear" the way someone
told you the information, or the way
you previously repeated it outloud.
learn best when interactingwith
others in alistening/ speaking
exchange.
Aural/Auditory learners:
Aural/Auditory

10. Study Tips for Auditory Learners
• Discuss/study with friends. Join a study group to assist you in learning
course material. Or, work with a "study buddy" on an ongoing basis. If
not possible, talk out loud and recite information your are learning.
• You can retain and understand information better by teaching another
person, or conversing with an instructor.
• Record information and listen to it. You may benefit from using a
recording device to make audio files to listen to later. Use
computerized technology – Text to Speech in Word, Audacity, etc.
• When learning mathematical or technical information, "talk your way"
through the new information. State the problem in your own words.
Reason through solutions to problems by talking out loud to yourself or
with a study partner.
• Try games or interaction activities that provide the sounds of words
being spoken.
• Add rhythms or tunes to your learning.

11. Characteristics of Kinesthetic Learners
Kinesthetic learners tend to:
KINESTHETIC
• Work well with their hands and may be good at repairing
work, sculpting, art or working with various tools.
• Often have well coordinated and have a strong sense of
timing and body movement.
• Learn with movement = often do well as performers:
athletes, actors, or dancers.
• Often wiggle, tap feet or move their legs when seated.
• Have been often labeled “hyperactive” as children.

12. Kinesthetic learners:
learn best when physically engagedin a"hands on" activity.
In the classroom, they benefit from alab setting where you
canmanipulate materials to learn newinformation.
learn best when you can be physically active in thelearning
environment.
benefit from instructors who encourage in-class
demonstrations, "hands on" student learning experiences,and
field work outside theclassroom.
Kinesthetic

13. Study Tips for Kinesthetic Learners
• Take notes as you read – text and/or graphic organizers.
• Pace as you study. When studying, walk back and forth with textbook,
notes, or flashcards in hand and read the information out loud.
• Make large-sized study tools – flipcharts, chalk/white boards. When
reviewing new information, copy key points onto a chalkboard, easel
board, or other large writing surface.
• Learn by doing. Think of ways to make your learning tangible, i.e.
something you can put your hands on. For example, make a model
that illustrates a key concept. Spend extra time in a lab setting to
learn an important procedure. Spend time in the field (e.g. a museum,
historical site, or job site) to gain first-hand experience of your subject
matter.
• Use your hands and your fine motor skills. Study with pen/pencil in
hand.
• Use exaggerated movement for emphasis and expression.
• Use case studies, examples and applications.

14. Characteristics of Read/Write Learners
Read/Write learners tend to:
• Like lists and words to keep ideas and “To Do”
items straight.
• Remember information displayed as words.
• Emphasize text-based input and output -
reading and writing in all its forms.
• Prefer PowerPoint, the Internet, lists, filofaxes,
dictionaries, thesauri, quotations and words,
words, words...
READ/
WRITE

15. learn best when information is presented visually and in
a written language format.
In a classroom setting, they benefit from instructors who
use the blackboard (or PowerPoint, overhead projector,
etc.) to list the essential points of a lecture, or provide an
outline to follow along with during lecture.
benefit from information obtained from textbooks and
class notes.
often see the text "in your mind's eye" when trying to
remember something
Read/Write learners:
Read/Write

16. Study Tips for Read/Write Learners
• Use a word processor – take notes as you read. Rewrite the
ideas and principles into other words.
• Use dictionaries and/or make flashcards to remember key
vocabulary.
• Write out the words again and again. Read your notes (silently)
again and again.
• When learning information presented in diagrams or illustrations,
write out explanations for the information. Organize any
diagrams, graphs ... into statements, e.g. "The trend is..."
• When learning mathematical or technical information, write out
in sentences and key phrases your understanding of the
material. When a problem involves a sequence of steps, write
out in detail how to do each step.

17. AURAL/
AUDITORY
KINESTHETIC
READ/
WRITE
VISUAL
MULTI-
MODAL

18. Life is multimodal. There are seldom instances where one
mode is used, or is sufficient.
Those who prefer many modes almost equally are of two
types.
There are those who are context specific who choose a single
mode to suit the occasion or situation.
There are others who are not satisfied until they have had
input (or output) in all of their preferred modes. They take
longer to gather information from each mode and, as a result,
they often have a deeper and broader understanding.