>>Dr. Morvant: We all have preferences. We have preferences in our music; we have preferences
in our clothes, food. We also have preferences in learning. Learning styles is a preference
or how we take in new information. It's important to understand what learning styles can do
and what it can't do. What it can do is let you know what your preferences are. What it
can't do is tell you the only way you can learn, because although we have preferences,
we also have a wide variety of ways we learn. Before we look at learning styles, let's talk
about multiple intelligences.
Multiple intelligence is a theory of the giftings or abilities we have based in a series of
different intelligence, meaning that we may have multiples of these and some people will
have more ability in one than another. The multiple intelligences are: logical mathematical,
spatial, linguistic, kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic.
If we look at most of what has been evaluated through your lives up to college it's really
the first three: logical mathematical, spatial, and linguistic. We think about a standardized
test, they're usually based on some type of arithmetic, there's going to be some type
of geometry, spatial, and then of course there is going to be linguistic, or verbal. So if
we look at it, this is really where most of the evaluation and the assessment up to this
point has been. But moving forward, all of these become important. Since all of these
become important, certain things will happen. Certain students that have excelled from K-12
will all of a sudden start to struggle, and some students who have never excelled will
start to auto accelerate as they start to be able to utilize some of these skills.
Because of these different intelligences, we can look at learning styles as a way to overcome our
weaknesses. Again remember, the fact that you don't have a certain skill doesn't mean
that you cannot acquire it. So there's a few models of learning styles. The first one we'll
talk about is VARK.
VARK is an acronym for Visual, Audio, Reading, writing, and Kinesthetic. If you think about
these preferences it makes sense, right? Visual - I like to input data visually. Audio, I
want to hear new information. Reading and writing: Leave me alone, let me read it, let
me write it. And then kinesthetic - I'd rather be moving around and drawing or kinesthetically
intaking that information. Again, these are learning styles that are preferences. You
can take assessments to figure out what your learning styles are. You're not isolated just
one. In my case, I'm audio and kinesthetic. But over time, I have built up my reading,
writing, and my visual, so that I have all four learning preferences to me. Naturally
I have two, but I've worked on developing those other skills. Another learning style
model is the Soloman and Felder model. In this model, we're looking at spectrums. The
fours spectrums are: Active to reflective, sensing to intuitive, visual to verbal, and
sequential to global. Again these are preferences of how you take in information, and if we
look at these, they're just a different way at looking at your preferences. A global person
would want to see the big picture, but the big picture alone will not get you to the
details that is probably needed for success in the course. Reversely, a student may need
a sequential order to learn the information, but they still need to understand the global
perspective to do well in the course. When we look at learning styles, it is helpful
for you to know yours. There's websites out there where you can go and evaluate and know
your learning style--but it is important to remember that it's just a preference. It's
also very important to understand that certain disciplines match with certain learning styles.
The way that you are learning information in let's say, a history class, may match your
learning style preferences perfectly, but you also have to take your biology class.
It may need to utilize a slightly different style. You can do this. You can do this by
understanding that, you know, "I don't want to read and write, I'd rather visualize."
And taking that textbook and visualizing it into something like a concept map, into a
graphical representation. So what you can do is one: always work on expanding how you
learn. But also remember where your style is and see if there's a way you can take that
information that is coming from that course, and that discipline, and modify it to match.
Have somebody read you the notes. Turn them into a dance. Whatever it takes to make sure
you learn the content. Learning styles can be a important understanding for you to maximize
your learning, to enhance your success in college.