Finding & Understanding Your Preferred Learning Style
Tags: learning, codenewbie, tips, productivity
Published: 2021-05-03 06:00:37

If you’ve ever heard of the ‘Myers-Briggs Type Indicator’ or an ‘Enneagram’, then you are probably familiar with the concept of learning about your personality type. Some personality types might include 'The Inspector' (ISTJ), 'The Counsellor' (INFJ), 'The Architect' (INTP), and so on. Embedded in the results of these tests and tests alike is information about your preferred learning style, meaning how you digest and demonstrate theories and learned material best. There are all sorts of types of personality assessments and carefully designed learning style examinations that test and shed light on people’s various styles of learning so people are then are able to approach studying or completing assignments in a more comprehensible manner. In some cases, the crossover between personality and learning style types will be able to predict one from the other. “A sensing personality will predict a sensing learning style, while an intuitive personality will predict an intuitive learning style. A thinking personality will predict a verbal learning style, while a feeling personality will predict a visual learning style.” -  Personality Type as an Indicator of Learning Style. Jenna Melvin - the University of Rochester, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning 

To become clear on how your brain provides you with a preferred learning style, it looks something like this. When we learn, information enters the brain in three main ways, sight, touch, and sound/hearing. Your unique learning style will distinguish which sense resonates with you in such a way that triggers the brain to light up and store information and use the data it has received.

Sometimes a lack of understanding about our learning styles can lead us to feel discouraged or exhausted. For example, if you are an active or visual learner, you may feel overwhelmed when learning in a classroom setting and when reading and writing. If you are a logical learner, you may feel disengaged when learning in groups or when working on creative projects. If you are an auditory learner, you may feel disinterested when attempting to learn visually, and so on. This is a feeling with which many people are familiar and continue to struggle with. If you have ever experienced this difficulty in retaining and repeating information in a specific capacity such as reading, it might be because you are an auditory learner, and hearing things vocally allows you to fully understand the material. As we know, each one of us is extremely different in just about every way, and one of the reasons for this is how we learn, which is unique to every person. Knowing and fully understanding how you prefer to learn is valuable information that will help you throughout your life, so let’s dive even further into the levels of its significance. 

Learning styles that are commonly identified within people are; Auditory Learning (A learning style in which a person learns through listening), Visual Learning (A learning style where a learner needs to see information in order to process it), and Tactile / Kinesthetic Learning (A learning style in which physical activity takes place by students rather than listening to a lecture or watching demonstrations). Other styles include reading and writing learners, logical learners, social or solitary learners, and verbal learners. At first glance, it might appear that you learn best given a perfect combination of all of these learning styles, and although that might be the case on rare occasions, it’s more likely you are better aligned with one specific learning style. Deeply knowing and utilizing your preferred learning style has the ability to positively change your entire approach to learning and decision making in a variety of settings. This includes academic, personal, and professional. Academically speaking, it reduces the stress, frustration, and anxiety of experiencing learning in a classroom-like environment and expands your existing studying strategies. Professionally, it heightens your emotional intelligence as you are then able to recognize and distinguish emotions in a functional manner as well as manage yourself, your team, and your work in a productive way. And on a personal level, knowing your preferred learning style enables you to actually enjoy the learning process while gaining insight into your habits, strengths, and weaknesses while taking advantage and harnessing your natural skills and abilities. Finally, a great way to comprehend the importance of understanding both your own, and the learning styles of others is to imagine if you were a teacher and how useful and beneficial it would be to know the learning styles of each of your students in order to help them grasp the material and enjoy the process. 

Having already discussed the different learning styles (visual, auditory, reading/writing, logical, verbal, social and solitary), How do we go about finding which learning style we are? The first step may require some introspection and reflection on your history with learning. Think back on a time when you found learning new material difficult or frustrating, and then on a time when you enjoyed learning and where you were completely engaged with the information you were receiving. These observations might help indicate which learning style your brain prefers. Another way to determine your learning style is through taking quizzes, tests, and questionnaires. It is a good idea to investigate and attempt multiple assessments that characterize your preferred learning style to ensure you are seeing similar results, as opposed to drastically different ones with each outcome. Some of the more popular questionnaires and resources available online for you to dive into are;  

The VARK questionnaire, 
Questionnaires through a variety of different educational institutes 
How To Study.com Learning Style Assessment
Educational planning facilities that offer online quizzes
The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Learning Styles
Human Metrics, the 16 personality types + learning styles.
And the list goes on as there are hundreds (possibly thousands) of assessments. 
Once you have explored and become familiar with some ways you can discover your learning style, another valuable option and resource is speaking with a professional, such as a career counselor or an organizational specialist. These people are trained to help your personal development and aid in identifying influencing factors of how you learn and why, as well as understand your strengths and weaknesses. These conversations are then typically followed up with how to proceed in order to achieve your goals.

As previously mentioned, you may discover that your brain requires a combination of a few different learning styles which could require extra work when learning, but this also provides the opportunity to really digest the material to which you’re being introduced. No matter what industry and field you are- or plan on going into, once you are made aware of your preferred learning style, you soon realize how beneficial it is in all areas of your life. Much like understanding your personality type (why you are the way you are), the comprehension of your own learning abilities allows you to view and approach learning strategically and without discouragement or confusion. Try to remember that knowing your learning style is not meant to limit you, but rather help you grow and develop into a more effective learner.‍

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Resources for finding your preferred learning style: 

VARK questionnaire
https://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/

ThoughtCo.
https://www.thoughtco.com/learning-style-quiz-4076781

How-To-Study.com 
https://www.how-to-study.com/learning-style-assessment/‍‍‍‍

Originally published at [codecast.io](codecast.io/blog) by [Elsa Krangle](https://info.codecast.io/author/codecast-community-editor)