The 7 Styles of Learning: Which One Suits You Best?
According to Psychologists, there are diverse kinds of learners and not all these will suit you, at any given time. These 7 styles are; The Visual, The Aural, Verbal, Physical, Logical, Mathematical, and Social. Knowing the best style that suits your personality can simplify the way you learn.
The Visual Learning styles
Also referred to as the Spatial, the visual learners are those that learn at their best when they have an image cue to process an information. They often rely on a visual guideline to write down their thoughts in order to express their thoughts.
They possess a great spatial sense of direction, and they are good at visualizing the outcome of different situations or information. They enjoy coloring, doodling, and drawing and they have a great sense of color balancing. Visual learners are always good in making use of maps hence they rarely get lost. A visual learner for instant can adopt a movie clip to information instead of listening to a piece of literature.
The Aural or musical auditory
Aural learners are those who respond much better and faster to sound. They often enjoy listening to some music while they learn and they possess a great sense of rhythm or pitch. Aural learners can attach a specific sound or bit to an information, to bring such information to remembrance when necessary. Aural learners know that a certain genre of music invokes strong emotions but this type of learning style is not used in most schools because it can be hard to teach everyone while music is being played. Aural learning style, for instance, can help some students remember the alphabetical order of chemical symbols in science. You can learn more here about the use of auditory learning skills.
The Verbal or linguistic learners
Verbal learners seem to perform best under verbal and written instructions. You know you are a verbal learner when you enjoy reading and writing. These learners also enjoy learning new words and may possess a large vocabulary. Verbal learners can process information by reading definitions of words aloud and writing them. Verbal learning will suit your style if you read contents aloud and prefer someone to speak the information to you.
The Physical Learners
Also referred to as the Kinesthetic learners, are those that do not mind getting their hands “dirty”. Most physical learners respond to animations or practical ways of doing things than written or verbal learning methods. You are a physical learner if you learn better when you are physically involved in processing information.
Physical learners often enjoy sports and exercises outdoors, they also enjoy creating prototypes, and models. You should know if physical learning is for you when the only way to learn is to do it. Most physical learners may have to indulge in role play to process information better.
The Logical or Mathematical
These are the most logical thinkers or learners you can find around. Most of them end up being engineers, mathematicians, and scientists. They are always ready to tackle complex calculations, and always want to follow procedures in order to resolve problems. If you always want to understand the rationale or reason behind any content, problem or issue, then you should consider yourself a logical learner. Many logical learners love to play brain-stimulating games such as chess. If you love extracting key points while studying, you are likely going to be a logical learner.
Not all logical thinkers are good in mathematics, some are just good in reasoning deeply, and some are quite good in researching scientific facts to develop new concepts or contribute to existing topics.
The Social and Interpersonal learners
If you learn faster and better within a group of others, then the social learning style suits you more. Social learners are usually involved in so many extra-curricular activities while adults like to engage with others to learn and resolve problems. They like to ask their peers, and subordinates for feedbacks because they always want to improve on their current achievements. Social learners are team-workers.
If you enjoy playing sports in groups, and always listen when others talk and others trust you for your advice, then you will be a great social learner. Social learners tend to benefit from a pool of knowledge especially when tackling assignments and special school projects.
The Solitary or Intra-personal learners
Solitary learners are individuals who prefer to learn on their own. They are independent-minded individuals who don’t like distractions when learning. In most cases, solitary learning style is for introverts who prefer to keep to themselves. On the other hand, not all solitary learners are introverts, some are extroverts when in social cycles, and prefer to do their studies alone, to avoid distractions. Solitary learners are bothered by their personal goals and outcomes.
Solitary learners spend more time on analyzing themselves, they think independently and even prefer to travel alone. They like to keep journal and record personal thoughts as the best possible way to improve on their goals. You are a solitary learner if you find it hard to learn by any other means except to sit by yourself in order to retain most information.
Sometimes, other types of learners often believe that solitary learners are shy or they have some secrets they are keeping, but that is not true. Most students in a class may be solitary learners in the beginning, until they get to know other members personally within their peers. Solitary learners often enjoy reading self-help books as a mean of finding solutions to personal problems within.
In conclusion, some students may exhibit the traits of two or more different types of learning styles. For instance, you may feel like studying socially when you don’t understand some concepts, and at some point, you may become a solitary learner when you don’t have to rely on others to learn. Regardless of what type of learner you are, there will always be one learning style that is most predominant, and you need to figure it out to discover more about your identity.