Tutors@ANU

Adapted from work by Jan Robbins

The term "learning style" refers to the idea that individuals have preferred sensory channels, activities or ways of organising material for learning. One example of a sensory mode schema of learning styles and how this may show up in the person's behaviour is given in the guide to learning styles and strategies. While there has been little conclusive evidence that teaching a person in their preferred learning style actually increases the efficiency of their learning, the concept makes intuitive sense, and with some groups of students, e.g., those with learning disabilities, anecdotal evidence suggests that using their preferred mode may be crucial. In any case, using more than one sensory mode in your teaching (eg drawing diagrams, role playing, using examples, even using verbal images) helps to reinforce concepts and make them memorable, as well as keeping the students in a higher state of arousal (and hence receptivity to knowledge) than simply talking all the time. There are many different categorisations of learning styles, web pages on some (including free tests which you can give students or do yourself) are given below:

The Index of Learning Styles (ILS)

This categorises learners according to their preferences for being:

Active versus reflective 
Sensing versus intuitive 
Visual versus verbal 
Sequential versus global

VARK

Another popular characterisation of learning styles is Gardner's Multiple Intelligences.

You should note that these categories are never totally fixed. Everyone uses all learning modes some of the time and it is desirable that students increase their skills in all methods of learning. All university students will have fairly good ability in verbal modes of learning (any student without some verbal ability will not have been accepted), but if you've given a verbal explanation of something and get looks of incomprehension from your students, then it's smart to change modes, or concretise the topic through an example or analogy.