learning styles

Discover Your Learning Style
This infographic uncovers part of the puzzle. Now you'll know why your "auditory" child never looks at you when you're teaching (but can repeat everything you said) and how to engage your "wiggle worms"!
Also see these articles:
An interview with the authors of Discover Your Child's Learning Style (a book we HIGHLY recommend)
Developing Your Teaching Style

Want to start enjoying the benefits of homeschooling? Then... 1.     Read How to Get Started in Homeschooling 2.     Buy Mary Pride's Complete Guide to Getting Started in Homeschooling 3.     Subscribe to Practical Homeschooling Magazine

Overview of Learning Styles

Many people recognize that each person prefers different learning styles and techniques. Learning styles group common ways that people learn. Everyone has a mix of learning styles. Some people may find that they have a dominant style of learning, with far less use of the other styles. Others may find that they use different styles in different circumstances. There is no right mix. Nor are your styles fixed. You can develop ability in less dominant styles, as well as further develop styles that you already use well.
Using multiple learning styles and �multiple intelligences� for learning is a relatively new approach. This approach is one that educators have only recently started to recognize. Traditional schooling used (and continues to use) mainly linguistic and logical teaching methods. It also uses a limited range of learning and teaching techniques. Many schools still rely on classroom and book-based teaching, much repetition, and pressured exams for reinforcement and review. A result is that we often label those who use these learning styles and techniques as �bright.� Those who use less favored learning styles often find themselves in lower classes, with various not-so-complimentary labels and sometimes lower quality teaching. This can create positive and negative spirals that reinforce the belief that one is "smart" or "dumb".
By recognizing and understanding your own learning styles, you can use techniques better suited to you. This improves the speed and quality of your learning.

The Seven Learning Styles

·         Visual (spatial):You prefer using pictures, images, and spatial understanding.
·         Aural (auditory-musical): You prefer using sound and music.
·         Verbal (linguistic): You prefer using words, both in speech and writing.
·         Physical (kinesthetic): You prefer using your body, hands and sense of touch.
·         Logical (mathematical): You prefer using logic, reasoning and systems.
·         Social (interpersonal): You prefer to learn in groups or with other people.
·         Solitary (intrapersonal): You prefer to work alone and use self-study.

Why Learning Styles? Understand the basis of learning styles

Your learning styles have more influence than you may realize. Your preferred styles guide the way you learn. They also change the way you internally represent experiences, the way you recall information, and even the words you choose. We explore more of these features in this chapter.
Research shows us that each learning style uses different parts of the brain. By involving more of the brain during learning, we remember more of what we learn. Researchers using brain-imaging technologies have been able to find out the key areas of the brain responsible for each learning style.
For example:
·         Visual: The occipital lobes at the back of the brain manage the visual sense. Both the occipital and parietal lobes manage spatial orientation.
·         Aural: The temporal lobes handle aural content. The right temporal lobe is especially important for music.
·         Verbal: The temporal and frontal lobes, especially two specialized areas called Broca�s and Wernicke�s areas (in the left hemisphere of these two lobes).
·         Physical: The cerebellum and the motor cortex (at the back of the frontal lobe) handle much of our physical movement.
·         Logical: The parietal lobes, especially the left side, drive our logical thinking.
·         Social: The frontal and temporal lobes handle much of our social activities. The limbic system (not shown apart from the hippocampus) also influences both the social and solitary styles. The limbic system has a lot to do with emotions, moods and aggression.
·         Solitary: The frontal and parietal lobes, and the limbic system, are also active with this style.

Where to next?

Click the links in the navigation menu on the left (or above) to learn more about the individual learning styles, or go to the learning styles inventory page to try a test to discover your own learning styles. [size=54]Management[/size]
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[size=33]Why your own learning style is important to know[/size]
Posted by Mshai in Management on November 9, 2012
The first thing I noticed when I went through the School of  Management Programme Handbook was the section titled ‘Learning Styles’. This came as a surprise to me as I had never really taken time to explore what my learning style – or styles for that matter – is.
Learning styles in adulthood are not entirely different from your learning experience when you were younger. In fact, all of us have been learning since the moment we were born and the style in which we effectively learn will remain the same throughout our lifetime – at least that’s what psychologists say. Adult learning styles fall into one of four categories:

1. Visual/Verbal
   
2. Visual/Non-Verbal
   
3. Auditory/Verbal
   
4. Tactile/Kinesthetic
   

To aid in the lifelong process of learning, it is important to identify and understand the differences between the various adult learning styles. Even if you are through with your academic career, you will still need to learn all you can about adult learning styles if you haven’t already. This is because learning is a lifelong process and you will most likely  continue learning every day of your life, regardless of whether you are in school or not. Television shows, magazines, books, the internet and our jobs will constantly be teaching us something and if you do not know the best way to process information according to your learning style, you will not retain the information as well as you otherwise should.
The different adult learning styles have nothing to do with intelligence. There is no right or wrong way to learn. The important thing to understand is how you learn and process information, so you can help yourself study in the ways most conducive to you.
Of the four adult learning styles, you will most likely find one that describes you.
If you are a Visual/Verbal learner, you tend to work best in an environment that allows you to absorb information both visually and in a written language format as well. Blackboards (including the Leicester virtual learning environment Blackboard), overhead projectors and written handouts are the best ways to help you understand, process and retain information.
If you are a Visual/Non-Verbal learner, you will show a tendency to work best when information is presented to you visually in a picture or graphic design format. You process information best when there are visual aids like film and maps to help you. On Blackboard, students who learn best by visual/non-verbal means can benefit from the group discussion forums as well as the web chat sessions pre-arranged by participants through the virtual learning environment.
The Tactile learner works well with the hands-on approach. Any type of lab setting or field work that allows this person to get up, touch and “do” will enhance their retention of information.This may pose a challenge on Leicester’s Blackboard though a bridging alternative is the Summer School programme allows for distance learning students to visit the campus and interact on one-to-one basis with their lecturers and other faculty members.
The Auditory/Verbal learner benefits from listening to a lecture or presentation and then participating in a group discussion about it. This method is well integrated within Blackboard that offers a wide variety of multimedia learning materials including pod-casts, audio lectures and most recently webinars.
Which of the four adult learning styles are you?
One important point I’d like to raise will require me revisiting the Learning Taxonomy of Benjamin Bloom that’s also mentioned in the School of Management’s Programme Handbook.
In Bloom’s work, it is evident that “transmission” of information involves the lower order level thinking skills of knowledge and understanding, while “assimilation” involves the higher order thinking skills of application, analysis, creation (synthesis) and evaluation.  In layman’s terms, “real” learning occurs outside the traditional classroom.
The big issue with this traditional model is that as the student’s cognitive load increases, the availability of help, in the form of the professor, decreases.  This model is reversed in a flipped classroom, where (to put it very, very simply) transmission occurs before class, and assimilation takes place during class, with the aid and help of the instructor.
Blackboard presents a unique practical experience of Blooms’ Taxonomy in that the pyramid is reversed: knowledge is first disseminated through the virtual learning environment, followed by a student’s comprehension of the content, application then precedes analysis followed by synthesis and finally evaluation post-completion of the module undertaken.
Having this in mind, I found it much easier to plan my studies especially for the first module on the MBA titled Foundations of Knowledge and Professional Studies and I hope it will help you too.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Auditory/Verbal Learning, Learning Styles, Programme Handbook, School of Management, Tactile/Kinesthetic Learning, University of Leicester, University of Leicester School of Management, Visual/Non-Verbal Learning, Visual/Verbal Learning | 4 Responses

Thank you

thanks