Learning Styles are the way you learn best. It is your preference for:
- working in groups or alone
- learning by seeing, hearing or doing
- a particular way of reasoning.
It is how you absorb, organize and process information. You will be able to learn more effectively by understanding your own learning style, and choosing or designing your learning experience around your primary preference.
We all have a learning style that is much more ‘preferred’ than the other styles, it is important to note that we often use many or all of them. For example, the repetition of a topic or concept in a variety of formats will help you comprehend and retain more information.
Intrapersonal or Interpersonal, do you prefer to work alone or in groups?
Intrapersonal:
-you prefer to work alone to accomplish tasks
-you are introspective
-you don’t like group activities
-you think things through before expressing them
-you like to work things out alone, and then bring your ideas to the group
Interpersonal:
-you favour working in groups or with others to accomplish tasks
-before making a decision, you like to discuss it
-you are a good communicator
-you enjoy helping others
-you favour social activities
Auditory, Kinaesthetic or Visual Learning Styles, this is how you like to receive information. What format or learning experience works best for you?
Auditory Learning Style:
-you learn best by listening and speaking
-you may even be able to concentrate better with white noise or music in the background
-you retain new information better when it’s talked out
-you prefer verbal instructions over written guides or maps
-you can add spoken numbers mentally, without having to write them down
Visual Learning Style:
-you learn best by seeing and reading
-you prefer to use images, pictures, colours and maps to organize information and communicate
-you ‘dig’ mind maps, they are a natural tool for you
-you can read formulas and easily understand them
-you will likely choose maps over verbal instructions
-you easily can visualize objects, plans and outcomes
-you have good spatial orientation skills (Spatial orientation is our ability to maintain our body orientation and/or posture in relation to the surrounding environment (physical space) at rest and during motion)
Kinaesthetic Learning Style:
-you learn best by touching and doing
-you prefer to jump in and get your hands dirty
-you often write things down to clarify thoughts
-you like to do something rather than read about something
-you prefer to work out concepts hands on, instead of following instructions
-you like to test-drive new ideas as you implement them
Inductive vs Deductive Reasoning, how you process information.
Inductive Reasoning:
-you like to learn as you go
-you want to be given examples when learning something new
-you go from the specific observations to the general, more broad generalizations
It is often referred to the Bottom-Up approach
Deductive Reasoning:
-you start with the more general view and work your way down to the specifics
-in other words, you look at the big picture, and then get to the fine points
-you take basic signs and deduces specific details
-you like to know all the instructions before beginning, you like to have a map
It is often referred to as the Top-Down Approach
Once again, it is important to remember that we use a combination of these. As for my earlier post on self-awareness, it is going to help you a lot if you know what works best for you. And, as facilitators and trainers, our challenge is to adapt our preferred teaching styles to match our audience’s multiple preferred learning styles.
Alain
January 5th, 2011 at 8:19 pm
Thanks for this. I work in an organization of 170 people, and this will be a great article to share with other managers!
January 5th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
I’d like to add that for Management to be able to build on the Personality Styles and Strengths of each employees/partners/colleagues can greatly improve productivity, motivation and communication across the whole organization.
There are numerous test that can help you with getting that information. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
March 14th, 2011 at 9:22 pm
[...] it very much depends on YOUR learning style. I wrote about Learning Styles in a an earlier post so I won’t add too much about it right now. What I need to say is that discovering your [...]