Discovering How You Learn

Suppose you and your friend Harry are in an American history class, studying the events that led up to World War I. Films and tapes of speeches about the period are in the school library. Since you love movies, you might get more out of watching the films. Since Harry prefers listening, he might get more out of listening to speeches. If you were to just listen to the speeches and Harry were to watch the films, neither of you would fully understand what you're studying.

PEOPLE THINK AND LEARN DIFFERENTLY

How do you learn? We all have two eyes, two ears, a nose, but we each look unique. People aren't the same on the outside, and they're not the same inside either. Everyone has their own learning style. You were born with yours and Harry was born with his; different parts of everybody's brain are-well, different!

Think of a person as a seesaw. It's pretty unusual for someone to be a perfectly level seesaw, with all learning styles having the same strength, or weight. For most of us, the seesaw is tilted. Where it goes up, we have more learning strength, and where it goes down, we have less.We tilt one way or another but we all stay in the air because one side compensates for the other. It's important to know how you learn best, so you can do more of what works best for you.

You can find clues about how you learn best by looking for a similarity in the things you like to do. You learn in many different ways, and you have your own combinations of learning styles. Usually, you're comfortable doing certain activities and you get more out of these activities because they match your learning styles.

The purpose of this article is to help you get in touch with the styles with which you're most comfortable. Once you've identified these styles, you can move on to the later chapters that focus on a specific style of learning.

FIVE LEARNING STYLES

There are five different learning styles. Most people have at least one dominant style, but everyone uses a combination of learning styles, sometimes depending on the activity they're doing.

-Eyes. If you like to watch movies and draw or paint, or get involved in other activities that rely on your eyes, you are probably a visual learner. Visual learners mainly use their eyes to learn.

-Ears. If you'd rather listen to the radio than read the paper, if you like listening to music and/or lectures, or participate in other activities that depend on your ears, you are probably an auditory learner. Auditory learners mostly use their ears to learn.

-Order. If you like to do crossword puzzles, fill out forms, work math problems, or do other activities in an orderly way, you are probably a sequential learner. Sequential learners need to put things in a particular order so they can learn them.

-Images. If you make pictures or designs in your head as you're looking at or listening to something, you are learning through images. People who learn through images are usually global learners. These people like to see the whole picture and often don't need to work through individual parts, as sequential learners do.

-Doing. If you like to keep moving-whether it's the big-movement action of sports or dancing, or a small-movement action such as doodling, playing an instrument, or needlework, you might learn best by motion, and be a kinesthetic learner. Kinesthetic learners learn best when they keep their bodies or hands moving.