Legal Research

What?s Your Learning Style?

By admin

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

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on March 12, 2010 (boomark / email).