My Learning Style

Image courtesy of learning-styles-online.com

My learning style profile was not any surprise to me. I have done this test previously but even before that had realised that my preferred learning style is verbal. I love words! I love reading and writing and my preferred subjects at school were English and modern history and economics. Even in primary school I loved words. I loved looking at words and analysing word roots and learning about prefixes and suffixes in order to extend words and make meaning of new words. Being a verbal learner probably explains my learning success at school in the 70s and 80s when (most) classrooms were predominately teacher-centred. I was interested and listened and could understand the information in the format that it was presented. I enjoyed writing and was able to provide written evidence of my understanding of that information.

I also know that my least preferred learning style is visual. Although I love art and enjoy both participating in it and viewing it, I am not an overtly visual person. I don't particularly like graphic organisers (gasp) and would actually prefer to read the information and 'decode' the information for myself. I can read graphs and maps fine (perhaps because I am a logical learner to a degree?) but that is definitely not how I would choose to have learning material delivered. I am fairly sure that a large proportion of learners are predominately visual, so I am careful to acknowledge this in the classroom and to consider visual learners when planning lessons. Visual learners can be accommodated by providing visual aids and models for key information within a lesson. This may be in the form of diagrams or graphic organisers, which may help visual learners to more readily understand a process or internalise a concept. This link provide examples of how spelling activities can be adapted to cater for multiple intelligences in the classroom. Click here.

My graph also displays an equal preference for physical, solitary and social learning. This also makes perfect sense to me. When I am trying to 'think' something out, I will go for a walk, mow the lawn or tackle chores. I complete these whilst vigorously analysing and reviewing the current problem in my head (although I have been known to talk to myself on occasion too!).

I am a reflective learner. I do analyse and reflect on previous events and learning. I also enjoy being able to 'bounce' ideas off other people (learners) and compare understandings and clarify meaning by this method. Although I am capable of completing work as an external student (because I enjoy reading), I miss the opportunity of social learning. Yes, I know...I can still achieve this through contributing to forums and email among other information communication technologies (ICT). The problem with that is that I am a 'digital migrant' (Prensky, 2001)

References

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Teacher Education. (2007, December 1). Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://educ-reality.com/howard-gardners-multiple-intelligences/