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Knowledge of learning styles is helpful for everyone. This is especially significant for those with learning disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorder.

For parents, an understanding of your children’s preferred learning styles can help you to help them to learn more effectively. These days, schools and colleges routinely carry out learning style assessment of their students and then use this information to help students to capitalise on their strengths and plan classes and teaching that best suit the varied learning styles in a group. However, it is important to remember that any assessment should not be used to dictate an individual’s learning style.

Learning styles are often broadly categorised under three main headings: visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. Another model of learning styles (Honey and Mumford’s theory) divides learners into pragmatists, theorists, activists and reflectors. While it is questionable whether any single model can accurately identify an individual’s precise learning style they can all provide some constructive clues about how they learn best.

Visual learners prefer to learn through visual stimuli. They are likely to prefer to use written information, notes, diagrams and pictures. They prefer to take detailed notes during classes and presentations in order to absorb information. They may tend to sit near to the front of the class in order to avoid visual obstructions and to have a clear view of the instructor’s body language and facial expression.

Auditory learners have a preference for listening. They tend to relate best to the spoken word, discussion and hearing what others have to say. Often, auditory learners will not fully understand written information until they have heard it read aloud. They will tend to be perceptive of the tone of voice and other nuances of verbal communication and use this to interpret and understand the underlying meaning of spoken communications.

Kinaesthetic or tactile learners will tend to learn best through actively doing something. Maybe observing and then imitating and practicing. They will tend to prefer a practical, hands-on approach using touch, physical investigation and exploration. Some can become restless in situations where they need to sit still for long periods of time.

An understanding of ones own learning style, or that of a child, can be enormously useful in a number of ways. It can help an individual to take responsibility for their own learning by being aware of the style that is most effective for them. For a parent it might help explain why a child appears to enjoy and do well in certain activities and classes but may be less enthusiastic about others.

Teachers may effectively use knowledge of their learner’s preferred learning styles to inform their classroom activities and lesson planning. It is also useful in choosing classroom resources that would be beneficial to the learners.

It should be remembered that every individual will actually use a mixture of all learning styles, but may have a preference for one or more. Also, there are some skills that are best taught using one particular approach. For example, teaching someone to drive a car will require a significant amount of practice and hands-on kinaesthetic instruction. There aren’t many people who can learn to drive through verbal communication or note-taking.

Assessing your own or your child’s learning style can be carried out using a number of free online resources. These tend to be multiple choice questionnaires from which you can determine the favoured and less favoured learning styles e.g:
Ageless learner - What’s Your Learning Style
University of Arizona Learning Style Assessment
NC State University Learning Styles Questionnaire

Those who learn most effectively using Visual Skills will tend to benefit from:

• Clearly written, uncluttered handouts
• Diagrams, flowcharts, graphs and images
• Demonstrations
• Role play and simulation
• Keypoints summarised on a whiteboard or OHP

Those who learn most effectively using Auditory Skills will tend to benefit from:

• Clear verbal explanations
• An expressive variety in the tone of voice and verbal delivery
• Discussion with question and answer sessions
• Quizzes and debates
• Using a voice recorder for note taking

Those who learn most effectively through Kinaesthetic or Tactile skills will tend to benefit from:

• Physical involvement and moving about
• Demonstrations and practical exercises
• Fieldwork and investigations
• Writing things down step by step
• Use of multimedia presentations

Some knowledge of learning styles is clearly beneficial for teachers, parents and individual learners. This knowledge can help us all to understand our own preferences and how to make our learning experiences, and those of our children, more effective.

By Tony Gee
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