essay about ways of learning

Essay on Importance of Learning

Students are often asked to write an essay on Importance of Learning in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Importance of Learning

The value of learning.

Learning is a crucial part of our lives. It helps us understand the world, make informed decisions, and grow as individuals.

Knowledge and Skills

Learning equips us with knowledge and skills. It makes us competent and confident, enabling us to face challenges and solve problems.

Personal Growth

Learning stimulates personal growth. It encourages curiosity and creativity, fostering a lifelong love for exploration and discovery.

Building Connections

Learning helps us connect with others. It promotes empathy and understanding, strengthening our relationships and communities.

250 Words Essay on Importance of Learning

The power of learning.

Learning is an integral part of human existence. It is a process that starts at birth and continues throughout our lives, shaping our understanding of the world and our place within it. Learning is not confined to the acquisition of knowledge in a formal education setting. It extends to our daily interactions, experiences, and the continuous process of personal and professional development.

Learning and Personal Growth

Learning is the cornerstone of personal growth and self-improvement. It broadens our perspectives, fosters curiosity, and encourages us to question the status quo. Our ability to learn and adapt is what has allowed humankind to evolve and progress over time. Learning cultivates critical thinking skills, enabling us to analyze situations, solve problems, and make informed decisions.

The Socio-economic Impact of Learning

Learning also plays a significant role in socio-economic development. Education equips individuals with the skills needed to contribute to the workforce effectively, thereby driving economic growth. Moreover, it promotes social cohesion by fostering a shared understanding of societal values and norms.

Learning and Technological Advancements

In the era of rapid technological advancements, the importance of learning cannot be overstated. With the advent of AI and automation, the job market is in a constant state of flux, and the ability to learn new skills is more crucial than ever. Lifelong learning is now a necessity, not a luxury.

In conclusion, learning is a powerful tool that not only enriches our personal lives but also contributes to societal progress. It is the key to unlocking our potential and adapting to the ever-changing world around us.

500 Words Essay on Importance of Learning

The essence of learning, personal growth and development.

Learning is essential for personal growth and development. It equips us with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate life effectively. Through learning, we acquire the ability to think critically, solve problems, and make informed decisions. It fosters creativity and innovation, enabling us to generate new ideas and solutions. Learning also facilitates emotional growth, helping us understand ourselves better, manage our emotions, and build strong interpersonal relationships.

Contributions to Society

On a societal level, learning plays a crucial role in driving progress and development. It is through learning that we gain an understanding of societal norms, values, and structures, enabling us to function effectively within our communities. Additionally, learning fosters social cohesion by promoting mutual understanding and respect among diverse groups. It equips us with the tools to challenge societal injustices and contribute to social change.

Global Impact

In the broader global context, learning is indispensable for addressing complex global challenges. It equips us with the knowledge and skills to understand these challenges, develop innovative solutions, and drive sustainable development. For instance, through learning, we can gain an understanding of climate change, develop sustainable technologies, and promote environmentally responsible behaviors.

The Role of Lifelong Learning

In an era marked by rapid technological advancement and societal change, lifelong learning has become increasingly important. It enables us to stay relevant and competitive in the evolving job market, adapt to technological advancements, and navigate societal changes effectively. Lifelong learning fosters resilience, adaptability, and a growth mindset, qualities that are crucial for success in the 21st century.

In conclusion, learning is a vital aspect of human life that shapes our personal growth, contributes to societal development, and drives global progress. It equips us with the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to navigate life effectively, foster social cohesion, and address global challenges. In the face of rapid technological and societal change, lifelong learning has emerged as a critical component of learning, enabling us to adapt and thrive in the evolving world. Therefore, it is essential that we embrace learning as a lifelong pursuit, striving to expand our knowledge, enhance our skills, and deepen our understanding of the world around us.

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Create Your Course

The 7 main types of learning styles (and how to teach to them), share this article.

Understanding the 7 main types of learning styles and how to teach them will help both your students and your courses be more successful.

When it comes to learning something new, we all absorb information at different rates and understand it differently too. Some students get new concepts right away; others need to sit and ponder for some time before they can arrive at similar conclusions.

Why? The answer lies in the type of learning styles different students feel more comfortable with. In other words, we respond to information in different ways depending on how it is presented to us.

Clearly, different types of learning styles exist, and there are lots of debates in pedagogy about what they are and how to adapt to them.

For practical purposes, it’s recommended to ensure that your course or presentation covers the 7 main types of learning.

In this article, we’ll break down the 7 types of learning styles, and give practical tips for how you can improve your own teaching styles , whether it’s in higher education or an online course you plan to create on the side.

Skip ahead:

What are the 7 types of learning styles?

How to accommodate different types of learning styles online.

• How to help students understand their different types of learning styles

How to create an online course for all

In the academic literature, the most common model for the types of learning you can find is referred to as VARK.

VARK is an acronym that stands for Visual, Auditory, Reading & Writing, and Kinesthetic. While these learning methods are the most recognized, there are people that do not fit into these boxes and prefer to learn differently. So we’re adding three more learning types to our list, including Logical, Social, and Solitary.

Visual learners

Visual learners are individuals that learn more through images, diagrams, charts, graphs, presentations, and anything that illustrates ideas. These people often doodle and make all kinds of visual notes of their own as it helps them retain information better. 

When teaching visual learners, the goal isn’t just to incorporate images and infographics into your lesson. It’s about helping them visualize the relationships between different pieces of data or information as they learn. 

Gamified lessons are a great way to teach visual learners as they’re interactive and aesthetically appealing. You should also give handouts, create presentations, and search for useful infographics to support your lessons.

Since visual information can be pretty dense, give your students enough time to absorb all the new knowledge and make their own connections between visual clues.

Auditory/aural learners

The auditory style of learning is quite the opposite of the visual one. Auditory learners are people that absorb information better when it is presented in audio format (i.e. the lessons are spoken). This type of learner prefers to learn by listening and might not take any notes at all. They also ask questions often or repeat what they have just heard aloud to remember it better.

Aural learners are often not afraid of speaking up and are great at explaining themselves. When teaching auditory learners, keep in mind that they shouldn’t stay quiet for long periods of time. So plan a few activities where you can exchange ideas or ask questions. Watching videos or listening to audio during class will also help with retaining new information.

Reading and writing (or verbal) learners

Reading & Writing learners absorb information best when they use words, whether they’re reading or writing them. To verbal learners, written words are more powerful and granular than images or spoken words, so they’re excellent at writing essays, articles, books, etc. 

To support the way reading-writing students learn best, ensure they have time to take ample notes and allocate extra time for reading. This type of learner also does really well at remote learning, on their own schedule. Including reading materials and writing assignments in their homework should also yield good results.

Kinesthetic/tactile learners

Kinesthetic learners use different senses to absorb information. They prefer to learn by doing or experiencing what they’re being taught. These types of learners are tactile and need to live through experiences to truly understand something new. This makes it a bit challenging to prepare for them in a regular class setting. 

As you try to teach tactile learners, note that they can’t sit still for long and need more frequent breaks than others. You need to get them moving and come up with activities that reinforce the information that was just covered in class. Acting out different roles is great; games are excellent; even collaborative writing on a whiteboard should work fine. If applicable, you can also organize hands-on laboratory sessions, immersions, and workshops.

In general, try to bring every abstract idea into the real world to help kinesthetic learners succeed.

Logical/analytical learners 

As the name implies, logical learners rely on logic to process information and understand a particular subject. They search for causes and patterns to create a connection between different kinds of information. Many times, these connections are not obvious to people to learn differently, but they make perfect sense to logical learners. 

Logical learners generally do well with facts, statistics, sequential lists, and problem-solving tasks to mention a few. 

As a teacher, you can engage logical learners by asking open-ended or obscure questions that require them to apply their own interpretation. You should also use teaching material that helps them hone their problem-solving skills and encourages them to form conclusions based on facts and critical thinking. 

Social/interpersonal learners 

Social or interpersonal learners love socializing with others and working in groups so they learn best during lessons that require them to interact with their peers . Think study groups, peer discussions, and class quizzes. 

To effectively teach interpersonal learners, you’ll need to make teamwork a core part of your lessons. Encourage student interaction by asking questions and sharing stories. You can also incorporate group activities and role-playing into your lessons, and divide the students into study groups.  

Solitary/intrapersonal learners 

Solitary learning is the opposite of social learning. Solitary, or solo, learners prefer to study alone without interacting with other people. These learners are quite good at motivating themselves and doing individual work. In contrast, they generally don’t do well with teamwork or group discussions.

To help students like this, you should encourage activities that require individual work, such as journaling, which allows them to reflect on themselves and improve their skills. You should also acknowledge your students’ individual accomplishments and help them refine their problem-solving skills. 

Are there any unique intelligence types commonly shared by your students? Adapting to these different types of intelligence can help you can design a course best suited to help your students succeed.

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Use Thinkific to create, market, and sell online courses, communities, and memberships — all from a single platform.

How to help students understand their different types of learning styles 

Unless you’re teaching preschoolers, most students probably already realize the type of learning style that fits them best. But some students do get it wrong.

The key here is to observe every student carefully and plan your content for different learning styles right from the start.

Another idea is to implement as much individual learning as you can and then customize that learning for each student. So you can have visual auditory activities, riddles for logical learners, games for kinesthetic learners, reading activities, writing tasks, drawing challenges, and more.

When you’re creating your first course online, it’s important to dedicate enough time to planning out its structure. Don’t just think that a successful course consists of five uploaded videos.

Think about how you present the new knowledge. Where it makes sense to pause and give students the time to reflect. Where to include activities to review the new material. Adapting to the different learning types that people exhibit can help you design an online course best suited to help your students succeed.

That being said, here are some tips to help you tailor your course to each learning style, or at least create enough balance. 

Visual learners 

Since visual learners like to see or observe images, diagrams, demonstrations, etc., to understand a topic, here’s how you can create a course for them: 

• Include graphics, cartoons, or illustrations of concepts 
• Use flashcards to review course material 
• Use flow charts or maps to organize materials 
• Highlight and color code notes to organize materials 
• Use color-coded tables to compare and contrast elements 
• Use a whiteboard to explain important information
• Have students play around with different font styles and sizes to improve readability 

Auditory learners prefer to absorb information by listening to spoken words, so they do well when teachers give spoken instructions and lessons. Here’s how to cater to this learning type through your online course: 

• Converse with your students about the subject or topic 
• Ask your students questions after each lesson and have them answer you (through the spoken word)
• Have them record lectures and review them with you 
• Have articles, essays, and comprehension passages out to them
• As you teach, explain your methods, questions, and answers 
• Ask for oral summaries of the course material 
• If you teach math or any other math-related course, use a talking calculator 
• Create an audio file that your students can listen to
• Create a video of you teaching your lesson to your student
• Include a YouTube video or podcast episode for your students to listen to
• Organize a live Q & A session where students can talk to you and other learners to help them better understand the subject

Reading and writing (or verbal) learners 

This one is pretty straightforward. Verbal learners learn best when they read or write (or both), so here are some practical ways to include that in your online course:

• Have your students write summaries about the lesson 
• If you teach language or literature, assign them stories and essays that they’d have to read out loud to understand
• If your course is video-based, add transcripts to aid your students’ learning process
• Make lists of important parts of your lesson to help your students memorize them
• Provide downloadable notes and checklists that your students can review after they’ve finished each chapter of your course
• Encourage extra reading by including links to a post on your blog or another website in the course
• Use some type of body movement or rhythm, such as snapping your fingers, mouthing, or pacing, while reciting the material your students should learn

Since kinesthetic learners like to experience hands-on what they learn with their senses — holding, touching, hearing, and doing. So instead of churning out instructions and expecting to follow, do these instead: 

• Encourage them to experiment with textured paper, and different sizes of pencils, pens, and crayons to jot down information
• If you teach diction or language, give them words that they should incorporate into their daily conversations with other people
• Encourage students to dramatize or act out lesson concepts to understand them better 

Logical learners are great at recognizing patterns, analyzing information, and solving problems. So in your online course, you need to structure your lessons to help them hone these abilities. Here are some things you can do:

• Come up with tasks that require them to solve problems. This is easy if you teach math or a math-related course
• Create charts and graphs that your students need to interpret to fully grasp the lesson
• Ask open-ended questions that require critical thinking 
• Create a mystery for your students to solve with clues that require logical thinking or math
• Pose an issue/topic to your students and ask them to address it from multiple perspectives

Since social learners prefer to discuss or interact with others, you should set up your course to include group activities. Here’s how you can do that:

• Encourage them to discuss the course concept with their classmates
• Get your students involved in forum discussions
• Create a platform (via Slack, Discord, etc.) for group discussions
• Pair two or more social students to teach each other the course material
• If you’re offering a cohort-based course , you can encourage students to make their own presentations and explain them to the rest of the class

Solitary learners prefer to learn alone. So when designing your course, you need to take that into consideration and provide these learners a means to work by themselves. Here are some things you can try: 

• Encourage them to do assignments by themselves
• Break down big projects into smaller ones to help them manage time efficiently
• Give them activities that require them to do research on their own
• When they’re faced with problems regarding the topic, let them try to work around it on their own. But let them know that they are welcome to ask you for help if they need to
• Encourage them to speak up when you ask them questions as it builds their communication skills 
• Explore blended learning , if possible, by combining teacher-led classes with self-guided assignments and extra ideas that students can explore on their own.

Now that you’re ready to teach something to everyone, you might be wondering what you actually need to do to create your online courses. Well, start with a platform.

Thinkific is an intuitive and easy-to-use platform any instructor can use to create online courses that would resonate with all types of learning styles. Include videos, audio, presentations, quizzes, and assignments in your curriculum. Guide courses in real-time or pre-record information in advance. It’s your choice.

In addition, creating a course on Thinkific doesn’t require you to know any programming. You can use a professionally designed template and customize it with a drag-and-drop editor to get exactly the course you want in just a few hours. Try it yourself to see how easy it can be.

This blog was originally published in August 2017, it has since been updated in March 2023. 

Althea Storm is a B2B SaaS writer who specializes in creating data-driven content that drives traffic and increases conversions for businesses. She has worked with top companies like AdEspresso, HubSpot, Aura, and Thinkific. When she's not writing web content, she's curled up in a chair reading a crime thriller or solving a Rubik's cube.

• The 5 Most Effective Teaching Styles (Pros & Cons of Each)
• 7 Top Challenges with Online Learning For Students (and Solutions)
• 6 Reasons Why Creators Fail To Sell Their Online Courses
• The Advantages and Disadvantages of Learning in Online Classes in 2024
• 10 Steps To Creating A Wildly Successful Online Course

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How to Write Stanford’s “Excited About Learning” Essay

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Johnathan Patin-Sauls and Vinay Bhaskara in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

What’s Covered:

Choosing an idea vs. an experience, learning for the sake of learning, learning as a means to other ends, be specific.

Stanford University’s first essay prompt asks you to respond to the following:

“ The Stanford community is deeply curious and driven to learn in and out of the classroom. Reflect on an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning. (100-250 words)”

For this short answer question, your response is limited to a maximum of 250 words. In this article, we will discuss considerations for choosing to write about an idea or experience, ways to demonstrate a love or enthusiasm for learning, and why you should be as specific. For more information and guidance on writing the application essays for Stanford University, check out our post on how to write the Stanford University essays .

Regardless of if you choose either an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning as a topic, there are a few considerations for each.  

Most people gravitate towards writing about an idea. One challenge that arises with an idea-focused essay is that applicants who are passionate about an idea often become hyper focused on explaining the idea but neglect to connect this idea to who they are as a person and why this idea excites them. 

When writing about an experience, it is important to strike a balance between describing the experience and analyzing the impact of the experience on you, your goals, and your commitment to learning.

This essay question allows you to expand on your joy for learning and your genuine curiosity. Stanford is searching for students who are naturally curious and enjoy the process of learning and educating themselves. For example, a compelling essay could begin with a riveting story of getting lost while hiking the Appalachian Trail and describing how this experience led to a lifelong passion for studying primitive forms of navigation. 

There is a strong tendency among applicants to write about formal academic coursework, however, the most compelling essays will subvert expectations by taking the concept of learning beyond the classroom and demonstrating how learning manifests itself in unique contexts in your life.

If you’re someone for whom learning is a means to other ends, it is important that you convey a sense of genuine enthusiasm and purpose beyond, “I want to go to X school because it will help me get Y job for Z purpose.” You may be motivated to attend college to obtain a certain position and make a comfortable income, however these answers are not necessarily what admissions officers are looking for. Instead, it can be helpful to relate an idea or experience to something more personal to you.

Academic & Professional Trajectory

Consider relating the idea or experience you choose to a major, degree program, research initiative, or professor that interests you at Stanford. Then go beyond the academic context to explain how the idea or experience ties into your future career. 

For instance, if you are interested in the concept of universal health care, then you might describe your interest in applying to public health programs with faculty that specialize in national health care systems. You might then describe your long term career aspirations to work in the United States Senate on crafting and passing health care policy.

Personal Values & Experiences

Another way to tie the ideas in this essay back to a more personal topic is to discuss how the idea or experience informs who you are, how you treat others, or how you experience the world around you. 

You could also focus on an idea or experience that has challenged, frustrated, or even offended you, thereby reinforcing and further justifying the values you hold and your worldview.

Community Building & Social Connectedness

You may also explore how this idea or experience connects you to a particular community by helping you understand, build, and support members of the community. Stanford is looking to find students who will be engaged members of the student body and carry out the community’s core mission, values, and projects, so this essay can be an opportunity to highlight how you would contribute to Stanford. 

Be specific in your choice of idea or the way in which you describe an experience. For example, a response that focuses on the joys of learning philosophy is too broad to be particularly memorable or impactful. However, the mind-body problem looking at the debate concerning the relationship between thought and consciousness is a specific philosophical idea that lends itself to a rich discussion. 

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Learning Strategies That Work

Dr. Mark A. McDaniel shares effective, evidence-based strategies about learning to replace less effective but widely accepted practices.

How do we learn and absorb new information? Which learning strategies actually work and which are mere myths?

Such questions are at the center of the work of Mark McDaniel , professor of psychology and the director of the Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education at Washington University in St. Louis. McDaniel coauthored the book Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning .

In this Q&A adapted from a Career & Academic Resource Center podcast episode , McDaniel discusses his research on human learning and memory, including the most effective strategies for learning throughout a lifetime.

Harvard Extension: In your book, you talk about strategies to help students be better learners in and outside of the classroom. You write, “We harbor deep convictions that we learn better through single-minded focus and dogged repetition. And these beliefs are validated time and again by the visible improvement that comes during practice, practice, practice.”

McDaniel: This judgment that repetition is effective is hard to shake. There are cues present that your brain picks up when you’re rereading, when you’re repeating something that give you the metacognitive, that is your judgment about your own cognition, give you the misimpression that you really have learned this stuff well.

Older learners shouldn’t feel that they’re at a definitive disadvantage, because they’re not. Older learners really want to try to leverage their prior knowledge and use that as a basis to structure and frame and understand new information coming in.

And two of the primary cues are familiarity. So as you keep rereading, the material becomes more familiar to you. And we mistakenly judge familiarity as meaning robust learning.

And the second cue is fluency. It’s very clear from much work in reading and cognitive processes during reading that when you reread something at every level, the processes are more fluent. Word identification is more fluent. Parsing the structure of the sentence is more fluent. Extracting the ideas is more fluent. Everything is more fluent. And we misinterpret these fluency cues that the brain is getting. And these are accurate cues. It is more fluent. But we misinterpret that as meaning, I’ve really got this. I’ve really learned this. I’m not going to forget this. And that’s really misleading.

So let me give you another example. It’s not just rereading. It’s situations in, say, the STEM fields or any place where you’ve got to learn how to solve certain kinds of problems. One of the standard ways that instructors present homework is to present the same kind of problem in block fashion. You may have encountered this in your own math courses, your own physics courses.

So for example, in a physics course, you might get a particular type of work problem. And the parameters on it, the numbers might change, but in your homework, you’re trying to solve two or three or four of these work problems in a row. Well, it gets more and more fluid because exactly what formula you have to use. You know exactly what the problem is about. And as you get more fluid, and as we say in the book, it looks like you’re getting better. You are getting better at these problems.

But the issue is that can you remember how to identify which kinds of problems go with which kinds of solutions a week later when you’re asked to do a test where you have all different kinds of problems? And the answer is no, you cannot when you’ve done this block practice. So even though instructors who feel like their students are doing great with block practice and students will feel like they’re doing great, they are doing great on that kind of block practice, but they’re not at all good now at retaining information about what distinguishing features or problems are signaling certain kinds of approaches.

What you want to do is interleave practice in these problems. You want to randomly have a problem of one type and then solve a problem of another type and then a problem of another type. And in doing that, it feels difficult and it doesn’t feel fluent. And the signals to your brain are, I’m not getting this. I’m not doing very well. But in fact, that effort to try to figure out what kinds of approaches do I need for each problem as I encounter a different kind of problem, that’s producing learning. That’s producing robust skills that stick with you.

So this is a seductive thing that we have to, instructors and students alike, have to understand and have to move beyond those initial judgments, I haven’t learned very much, and trust that the more difficult practice schedule really is the better learning.

And I’ve written more on this since Make It Stick . And one of my strong theoretical tenets now is that in order for students to really embrace these techniques, they have to believe that they work for them. Each student has to believe it works for them. So I prepare demonstrations to show students these techniques work for them.

The net result of adopting these strategies is that students aren’t spending more time. Instead they’re spending more effective time. They’re working better. They’re working smarter.

When students take an exam after doing lots of retrieval practice, they see how well they’ve done. The classroom becomes very exciting. There’s lots of buy-in from the students. There’s lots of energy. There’s lots of stimulation to want to do more of this retrieval practice, more of this difficulty. Because trying to retrieve information is a lot more difficult than rereading it. But it produces robust learning for a number of reasons.

I think students have to trust that these techniques, and I think they also have to observe that these techniques work for them. It’s creating better learning. And then as a learner, you are more motivated to replace these ineffective techniques with more effective techniques.

Harvard Extension: You talk about tips for learners , how to make it stick. And there are several methods or tips that you share: elaboration, generation, reflection, calibration, among others. Which of these techniques is best?

McDaniel: It depends on the learning challenges that are faced. So retrieval practice, which is practicing trying to recall information from memory is really super effective if the requirements of your course require you to reproduce factual information.

For other things, it may be that you want to try something like generating understanding, creating mental models. So if your exams require you to draw inferences and work with new kinds of problems that are illustrative of the principles, but they’re new problems you haven’t seen before, a good technique is to try to connect the information into what I would call mental models. This is your representation of how the parts and the aspects fit together, relate together.

It’s not that one technique is better than the other. It’s that different techniques produce certain kinds of outcomes. And depending on the outcome you want, you might select one technique or the other.

I really firmly believe that to the extent that you can make learning fun and to the extent that one technique really seems more fun to you, that may be your go to technique. I teach a learning strategy course and I make it very clear to students. You don’t need to use all of these techniques. Find a couple that really work for you and then put those in your toolbox and replace rereading with these techniques.

Harvard Extension: You reference lifelong learning and lifelong learners. You talk about the brain being plastic, mutability of the brain in some ways, and give examples of how some lifelong learners approach their learning.

McDaniel: In some sense, more mature learners, older learners, have an advantage because they have more knowledge. And part of learning involves relating new information that’s coming into your prior knowledge, relating it to your knowledge structures, relating it to your schemas for how you think about certain kinds of content.

And so older adults have the advantage of having this richer knowledge base with which they can try to integrate new material. So older learners shouldn’t feel that they’re at a definitive disadvantage, because they’re not. Older learners really want to try to leverage their prior knowledge and use that as a basis to structure and frame and understand new information coming in.

Our challenges as older learners is that we do have these habits of learning that are not very effective. We turn to these habits. And if these aren’t such effective habits, we maybe attribute our failures to learn to age or a lack of native ability or so on and so forth. And in fact, that’s not it at all. In fact, if you adopt more effective strategies at any age, you’re going to find that your learning is more robust, it’s more successful, it falls into place.

You can learn these strategies at any age. Successful lifelong learning is getting these effective strategies in place, trusting them, and having them become a habit for how you’re going to approach your learning challenges.

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Harvard Division of Continuing Education

The Division of Continuing Education (DCE) at Harvard University is dedicated to bringing rigorous academics and innovative teaching capabilities to those seeking to improve their lives through education. We make Harvard education accessible to lifelong learners from high school to retirement.

10 Types of Learning and How to Teach Them: A Complete Guide to Learning Styles

If you have been a part of the education sector, you probably already know how different each child is. Every student has their own set of strengths and weaknesses which make them unique. Similarly, every student has a preferred way of learning and retaining the material. These preferences are called “learning styles”. 

Each learning style describes how a learner best receives information, interprets it, organizes it, and stores it. A majority of the learners today even have multiple or overlapping learning styles, also called multimodal learning . As an educator, it is extremely important to know the different types of learning – since this will help your students build on their strengths and retain information better. The original model of VARK only describes four of these - visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic. However, in this article we explore 10 types of learning and how to teach them. 

Another factor that contributes to learning and retaining information is the subject of the information. It is a well known fact that some people excel better in creative fields like design, fine arts, photography, while others might excel in practical or calculative fields like mathematics, engineering, science, and so on.

Thus, different people have different interests and these interests contribute to different learning areas or subjects as well. 

1. Physical (Kinesthetic) Learning

Physical or kinesthetic learners prefer a hands-on experience rather than listening to lectures or sitting in a class. They like interacting physically with things that are tangible in nature. These learners could see the idea of studying for hours as a daunting experience but are better with actually doing things themselves. They possess qualities like being restless, preferring to get their hands “dirty”, outgoing and energetic.

Ways to engage physical learners:

• Encourage movement within lessons. Example: role play
• Give them well-spaced breaks between lessons to move around
• Use props and interactive models
• Declutter desks to promote better focus

2. Visual (Spatial) Learning

Visual or spatial learners learn best with the help of visual cues like charts, images, diagrams, graphs, etc. These learners respond best to colours and mind maps . They use their visual memory to retain information for longer periods of time. Many visual learners possess characteristics like frequent planning and doodling, they have a good attention span and are extremely observant, and they prefer visual directions.

Ways to engage visual learners:

• Use maps, diagrams, imagery
• Include technology like projectors
• Use colour coding techniques
• Encourage mind maps and flowcharts

3. Auditory Learning

People who tend to understand and retain information by hearing it or saying it out loud (oral) are called auditory learners. These types of learners can quickly notice the change in someone’s pitch, tone, and other voice qualities. They usually prefer discussing topics, participating in debates, and conversing about things to remember them. Most auditory learners are easy to distract and might even hum, sing, or talk to self frequently.

Ways to engage auditory learners:

• Try using different pitches and tones while reading the material
• Record voice lessons
• Encourage class presentations, group discussions, debates
• Ask them to teach others verbally

4. Verbal (Read/Write) Learning

These types of learners prefer traditional methods like using multiple written resources for learning. Verbal learners learn best through written material or by writing the material themselves. They usually possess a broad vocabulary and might even like using tools like acronyms, rhymes, tongue twisters, among others. Verbal learners are known to be bookworms.

Ways to engage verbal learners:

• Make use of mnemonics while teaching (song, rhyme, acronym, phrase)
• Inculcate scripts
• Encourage students to jot down and voice their ideas
• Include word games like crossword

5. Logical (Mathematical) Learning

Logical or mathematical learners tend to categorize information into groups to learn them better. They have a knack for quickly recognizing patterns and sequences; and understand equations, numbers, and relationships easily. These learners love structure and logic to things. Naturally, mathematics comes easy to them.

Ways to engage logical learners:

• Create an easy to navigate system to your lessons
• Try and inculcate statistics to subjects other than mathematics
• Classify concepts into groups or categories
• Generate cause-effect relationships between variables throughout all subject areas

6. Musical Learning

Where music or background noise is a distraction to most of us, musical learners prefer them. They tend to learn better with music, beats, and rhythm. Like logical learners, they too find patterns and relationships, but between different sounds. Some sources say they even think in sounds and rhythms instead of words and pictures.

Clearly, these learners often grow up to be musicians or instrumentalists. More often than never, some people are a combination of auditory and musical learners. This is why strategies to engage these two kinds aren’t too different.

Ways to engage musical learners:

• Encourage listening to soft background music
• Promote podcasts

7. Naturalist Learners

Naturalist learners learn best through experimentation and practical experiences. They like making observations of the world around them. Just like the name suggests, naturalistic learners are also said to be one with nature. They retain information best when they are outdoors, around plants, animals, among others. 

These types can also be somewhat related to kinesthetic learners since they appreciate tactile sensations. All-in-all, they apply scientific reasoning to the world around them and are highly interested in nature, as well as the things created by man.

Ways to engage naturalistic learners:

• Take students out for a field trip 
• Give lessons in outdoor spaces 
• Promote journaling, drawing, sketching, photographing or natural phenomena
• Encourage work that involves getting into nature (especially in subjects like biology)

8. Linguistic Learners 

Linguistic learners are the combination of auditory and verbal learners. They absorb knowledge best by writing, reading, and sounding the material out. These learners can use the traditional methods of learning just like verbal learners and also prefer listening to the information. Linguistic learners also make their own notes while studying. 

Ways to engage linguistic learners:

• Read out to them and have them read it back to you
• Include written projects and assignments
• Avoid using too many diagrams; use verbal methods of engaging them 
• Avoid using a monotonous voice; use different pitches, voices, and characters

9. Interpersonal (Social) Learners

Social or interpersonal learners learn best while working in groups or with other people. They often make good leaders and others even come for advice to them. Social learners learn by relating their ideas and thoughts to the lives of other people. These learners are usually empaths and possess qualities like sensitivity to others, excellent communication, leadership skills, and  problem-solving skills. This type of learning can fall adjacent to one or more types mentioned above. 

Ways to engage social learners:

• Figure out their adjacent learning style and inculcate those strategies 
• Encourage role-playing
• Assign group activities and projects

10. Intrapersonal (Solitary) Learners

In a complete contrast to interpersonal or social learners, intrapersonal or solitary learners prefer solitude while studying. They are more independent and introspective by nature and prefer to be with their own thoughts and ideas without too much external interference. Usually, you can find these types sitting at the back of the class or you might refer to them as the “quiet kid” but they may end up acing the exam. Solitary learning too can fall adjacent with other learning styles. 

Ways to engage solitary learners:

• Designate a quiet area
• Check in with them every once in a while 
• Define a specific time for collaboration so they feel prepared enough

To summarize, remember to not put your students in a box. It is not necessary and probably unlikely that a student is only one type of learner. There can exist multiple variations and combinations between their learning styles. This is also called a multimodal approach. According to statistics, more than 60% of people are multimodal learners. 

Acknowledge that each child is different and you might have the need to find varying ways to approach their education. Again, these differences can also exist with regards to the subject area. Certain people are simply better suited and more interested in some, while others might have completely opposing interests. These learning styles only provide you with a framework to follow. 

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General Definition of Learning and Its Forms Essay

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• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

The basic reason for learning is to archive an ability to communicate effectively and convey information efficiently. Future endeavours of a learner depends on his/her ability to understand the importance of knowledge acquisition and embrace the fact that learning determines one’s future prospects.

Appreciating the need to obtain skills and knowledge is crucial since the procedure of acquisition requires patience from both the learner and trainer. Learning involves the conscious mind that various learning regulations that are simple requirements as opposed to tough form of drilling as most learners think.

The learning process is however gradual for instance, when learning a new language, the skills acquisition procedures involves first attaining the listening before the speaking skills. The fluency, mastery or proficiency of skills occurs latter on during the process of learning when one starts to specialize in the field of study.

General Definition of Learning

According to (2008), learning is ability to understand behavioural changes occurring due to person’s ability to survey some insatiable aspects of life, which often occur due to curiosity.

Stipulation that learning is a practice that changes behaviours is a clear indication that the approach Pritchard considers shows that learning is the outcome or product of performing a certain action or undergoing a given process (2008). In this case, learning is recognizable since it is a highlight of various crucial aspects of a lifestyle especially changes of behaviour.

A good learner must place huge amount of effort such as keenness and patience within a give attempt. In line with Pritchard, one of the key aspects of learning involves ability to recognize that it is only possible to achieve improvements if the input is comprehensible and does not necessarily force productivity (2008). For that reason, the most effective way of learning is by ensuring adherence to professionalisms and proficiency.

Learning Skills

According to Leonard, various research findings attribute learning as an articulate procedure where one is able to consider both the input and output as essential aspects in accruing knowledge (2002). Effective learning must therefore involve some form of interaction between the learner and tutor since the learner must contribute through participation. The input is consequently the learner’s contribution, while the output from the learning process is the ability to comprehend and use the leant skills productively.

Learning new skills or acquiring knowledge depends on personal ability to understand and have a personal interpretation of the aspects that assist in logical revelation of various outputs (Swain, 2005). According to Swain, personal interpretation of various aspects forms the basis for learning or acquiring new skills effectively (2005).

On the same procession of defining learning, Swain’s explanation of learning includes ability to use a variety of learnt functions fluently, to build personal skills. Secondly, the learner must have the ability to take note of functions that can trigger the conscious mind into achieving an objective. Lastly, the learner must be in a position of engaging deep thoughts as a utility that enhances easy and enjoyable learning (2005).

Analysis of Learning Procedure

In accordance with Van Patten’s (2003) learner’s contribution involves ability to identify the unrestrained involvement that the learner hears or is able to read in context and meaning. Learning is thus a procedure that must involve an interactive environment and other illustrative aspects that assist to exemplify meaning.

A learned person expresses his/her understanding of meaning through manipulation of tasks or formulation of personal meaning during interaction. Failure to use the acquired skills leads to stalemate. This is a clear support to the notion ‘practice makes perfect’ and the expression applies to learning procedure as well.

With a close reference to swain’s explanation of the meaning of learning, students often fail to interpret or use the acquired knowledge in their day-to-day activities because they lack interest or have poor foundational skills (2005). Failure is not overcome through better or long-learning sessions but through practice, application or general use of the acquired skills.

Literature Review on Learning

Learning is a procedure that involves acquiring knowledge, which is achieved through experience, training and interaction (Lipshirtz, 2000). Ability to acquire, sustain and eventually change an aspect depending on interpretation of meaning and joint actions is very important. Lipshirtz also defines learning as an ongoing system set within a social-cognitive system (2000).

A sustainable form of learning therefore comprises of a coordinated system where various aspects are built in as procedures, guides and cultural setting for group or individuals to access, use as well as modify. This form of knowledge acquisition is a measure that involves integration of knowledge for expertise performances.

What Is Learning?

At no one given time has there been correct definition of learning. According to Wakefield, many scholars, lecturers and professors have tried to put down several explanations and meaning to learning with no avail (1996). Wakefield described learning as “a relatively permanent change in the behaviour of an individual based on his/her experiences or discoveries” (1996).

This definition meant that knowledge that learners get determines the quantity as well as quality of knowledge needed for various life applications. The definition as a result emphasized on the need to form a transition from possession of knowledge to knowing where that knowledge need to be applied, and how to apply.

What Is Knowledge?

Knowledge is far different from learning in a curriculum form of schedule. Acquiring knowledge is a more human-based procedure than just being taught. Various researchers have come up with their own ways of defining and interpreting the meaning of knowledge.

According to Eggen, ‘Bruning, Schraw and Ronning’ were theorists who compared three types of knowledge that comprised of Declarative, Procedural and Meta-cognitive knowledge (2001). These researchers found that declarative knowledge has reference to information and factual analysis.

The procedural form of knowledge is based on skills, which are mainly concern with performing various educative tasks and other related executive or formal assignments. The meta- cognitive was defined as the way people think and how people are able to create awareness about process of reflecting through various aspects (Eggen, 2001).

The knowledge that people encompass over particular subjects is called knowledge, based on a particular domain called the “Domain knowledge” (Eggen, 2001). This form includes declarative, procedural and meta-cognitive knowledge. In line with Eggen, the study of the nature of knowledge is known as epistemology (2001).

For this reasons, there has never been any theory about learning and knowledge that emerged to be superior to others. Theories have therefore been known to create platforms for practical assessment of the meaning of learning and progressive analysis.

These theories and practical implementation of learning therefore meet at a point called praxis, that means creating a method of teaching or explaining the meaning of learning (Eggen, 2001).

What Is Teaching?

Teaching is vital because it creates a link between the learning process and the knowledge acquired by the learner. The duty of the teacher is to guide through or assist students in gathering the required skills or knowledge about a certain aspect of life.

Teaching therefore provides the platform for interaction between the teacher and students. According to Schunk, teaching can be classified into three categories namely planning interaction and assessment (2011).

In planning, the teachers think about the outcome of their interaction with students. Here they design learning experiences where learners ought to be involved. Interaction is thus the rapport created between the teacher and the learner.

The teacher should also assess the teaching experience to find out chances of misunderstanding or lack of understanding and consequently assist the learners who never got their preferred outcome.

Learning Theories

Over the years, learning theories have been frightening most researchers since they worry that such studies have a connection to various dictionary terminologies and logical jargon. Learning theories can be referred to as the theoretical psychology of understanding concepts and diverse human actions such as need to acquire knowledge. Learning theories can also be interesting besides being complex.

The complexities and interests to advanced discoveries have resulted to implementation of more diverse approaches that assist in formulation of positive attitudes towards educational theories, especially those presented by different researches.

The greatest effect of diverse theories is often seen in learning institutions like Colleges and Universities, where performance can be analyzed and students classified in reference to their performance. Some students perform incredibly well in practical papers but fail in theory.

Some of the common learning theories form an analysis of these differences, where psychologists are keen on the trend that occur when changes are made on teaching procedures. Various theories also emphasize the need to unveil new or effective learning and teaching skills.

Behaviourism

In references to his 19 th century the book, ”The Origin of Species”, Charles Darwin concluded that despite the fact that human being are different and unique from other animals, they have similar biological characteristics to other members of the animal kingdom (Schunk, 2011).

Thorndike Theory

Arguably, from the preceding theories approaching the 20 th century, Thorndike made an experiment to study behaviour of cats and dogs. He designed a puzzle box where an animal was kept. This animal had to learn the procedure of pressing a lever that would consequently open a locked door.

The procedure was an experiment to measure the animals’ intelligence, since Edward wanted to know whether the animals learn through imitation or observation.

He noticed that an animal was likely to come out of a situation where it had been, by means of the same skill it used before, particularly when rewarded by the owner for the proficiency (Schunk, 2011). This confirmed that rewards act to strengthen stimulus-response associations.

Watson Theory

JB Watson based his research after the classical conditioning that was founded by Ivan Pavlov. The research revealed that a dog’s behaviour would turn into a habit (Schunk, 2011).

This was also part of his analysis of human learning. Just like the dog, human beings also have habits that originate from common behaviours. For instance, a reading habit can emerge from an initial simple and inevitable behaviour to reading with the intention of performs well.

Skinner Theory

In 1930s, BF skinner did numerous researches on rats and pigeons. They included teaching a pigeon to dance by bringing into play some rewards that were given for a good performance. After the experiment, skinner was able to discover same peculiar habits of learning in human beings (1966).

He wrote that “while we are awake, we act upon the environment constantly, and many of the consequences of our actions are reinforcing” (skinner, 1966). In his theory, he concluded that human beings possess various behavioural aspects as indicated below.

Criticism of behaviourism

• Views learning as a personal occurrence in a passive state
• Does not account all types of learning
• Does not explain forms of learning like languages

Gestalt Theory

According to Pritchard (2008), Gestalt theory was propagated by Kohler, Koffka and Wertheimer. The theory emphasized on the existence of higher order in cognitive process of managing behaviours. It states that knowledge is an element like the one of proximity, similarity, closure and simplicity elements, which are used to determine human behaviours.

This theory indicates that from 1887 to 1967 Kohler researched through chimpanzees as they solved their problems. Through his research analysis, he concluded that learning in apes took place through an act of insight.

In 1959, Worhteimer presented his research through use of examples from Galileo and Einsten’s findings, where he indicated that problem solving was the ability to see the overall structure of a problem and come up with a conclusive solution.

Cognitive Theory

This theory indicates that knowledge acquisition as a process of providing the learner with absolute guidance (Pritchard, 2008).

Piaget Theory

Between 1896 and 1980, Jean Piaget who was a psychologist and pioneer in the study of child intelligence believed that humans’ capacity to think and learn was an adaptation that helped them to deal effectively in their environment. His research was in three stages namely sensor-motor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational stages (Leonard, 2002).

Constructivism Theory

This theory views knowledge as a constructed entity. The theory is based on meaning, parts and application of knowledge. According to Schunk, between 1896-1934 Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist noted that humans are the only living things that had cultures (2011). The theory showed how children traced characters from their parents.

This is a clear indication that learning is therefore dependent on social interaction of human beings. On the other hand, Bruner’s research was based on child development as he worked with children in a similar manner as Piaget’s research. He identified three stages of development, which included enactive, iconic and symbolic stage (Schunk, 2011).

Forms of Learning

Administrative learning.

This is a more comparative method of knowledge acquisition that denies competitors chances of imitating others. Administrative learning is a continual procedure that caters for the cumulative procedure of molding unique characteristics of performance. Uniqueness makes it hard for others to impersonate.

The learning is thus a sustainable form that involves acquisition, distribution, application and translation of knowledge especially for the applications or daily operation procedures. Administrative learning is illustrated in the chart below (Reason, 2010).

According to Reason (2010), the school setting has the potential to produce various forms of resources such as human ability, social relationships and organizational capital, which are essential aspects of ensuring sustainability.

The enhanced learning therefore provides learners with some form of independent abilities such as professionalism that support other dependent aspects such as human, social and organizational capital. These human values have interactional effects that influence behaviour and action and eventually produce a form of sustainability.

Human Capital for Sustained Learning

A School or learning institution has potential to instil required knowledge as a measure of enhancing growth. The ability to support unique entities or resources in support for higher knowledge levels is the sustainable human capital (VanPatten, 2003).

Some unique learning activities implemented in institutions include selection of information, and training or exposure to activities in the aim of enhancing required experiences or expertise. There is a huge advantage when an individual is involved in learning since it leverages the team resourcefulness through organizational contribution.

Other benefits of having a school setting include the ability to have limited and controlled form of competition, that enhances batter knowledge based growth or participations.

The learner within a school setting are obliged to find measures of disseminating acquired knowledge or individual resources to various sectors especially on the work-based platforms for extra benefits and applications. The organizational change therefore emerges from the new skills that various school-based challenges present.

Learning institutions assist in enforcing or discovering and nurturing young talents. The institutions also cater for unique skills as well as strategic knowledge. Knowledge is also distributed to those who need it and there is an overall benefit for firms. Need to advance and manage human capital remain one of the main reason why people have to guarantee that learning is the most feasible way of advancing.

According to VanPatten, development of human capital means ability to nurture performance proficiency, reasonable agility and individual’s unique skills (2003). Learning institutions also provide organizations with key resources that enhance management of system structures, reputation and intellectual abilities.

However, school-based learning is a process that is highly dependent on previous experiences especially on the individual efforts and amount of accumulated knowledge. Learning is hence a process that depends on social growth, collaboration and emulation efforts in an intrinsic and collective manner.

The involvement of individuals causes formation of logistic activities and unique techniques that makeup the cultural routine. Institutional learning is thus a form of interaction where learners and tutors form a formal but social form of interaction and build rapport to enhance exchange of knowledge.

In line with Lipshirtz, learning is a social capital way of enhancing interaction to share knowledge (2000). The process of learning is unique in every organization and therefore difficult to control or impersonate especially among competitors.

Sustainable Organizational Learning

Learning calls for those involved to implement a competitive performance level. The differences associated with performances provide learners with the advantage of ability to form various improvements that respond to advancement of the work environment. For example, learning enables people to accept and implement technological changes as they occur.

In line with Reason, “leading a learning process requires people who are willing to discover the reasons for problems’ existence, thus posing questions to existing systems and challenging the occurring paradoxes” (2010). In current situations, learning institutions indicate that there is a fast and aggressive transformation of technology and business markets.

This is a call for implementation of latest applications and other achievement aspects. The social and technical characteristics also assist in maintaining a competitive edge due to need for enhanced complexity in performances, as a way of making certain that learners get useful knowledge.

Performance challenges involve learning and translation of knowledge requires the school organization to can come up and implement various ways of transferring knowledge distinctively in the aim of meeting various requirements such as support of competence among aspiring professionals.

The procedural activities of a school have a social correlation between the way a school functions and the internal policies, teaching strategies and organizational culture of the institution. These are the reasons why it is possible that learners are able to understand, facilitate and implement various behavioral changes that are concern with improvement of performance levels.

The recourse-based theory of acquiring knowledge assists in analysis of tangible aspects that relate to competitiveness of the environment and devotion of various internal strengths.

A learning institution is in a position of devoting the learning process to the development issues such as environmental provision. Acquiring knowledge therefore assists in neutralizing threats, while making the best use of competitiveness and resources for excellent performance.

Development depends solemnly on acquisition, transfer and sharing or knowledge and developmental skills. The technological advancement of various sectors is a clear indication that every person must acquire the required skills for enhancing performance. Knowledge is an intellectual asset that determines the sustainability of organizations through enhanced competition and maintenance of skill that enhance further knowledge growth that is important for the competitive markets.

Knowledge acquisition and management is therefore an arrangement that presents people with the ability to share information, skills and strategies. Learning is a system that is increasing competitiveness and thus enhancing quality of goods and services.

Eggen, P. & Kauchak D. (2001). Educational Psychology: Windows on Classrooms . 5 th Edition. New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Leonard, D. C. (2002). Learning theories, A to Z . Connecticut, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Lipshirtz, R. (2000). Exploring the divide-Organizational learning and learning Organization . The learning Organization, 10, 4: 202-215.

Pritchard, A. (2008). Ways of learning: learning theories and learning styles in the

classroom . (2 nd Ed). New York, NY: Routledge Publishers.

Reason, C. (2010). Leading a learning organization: The science of working with others . Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Schunk, D. H. (2011). Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective. Boston, Ma: Allyn & Bacon, Incorporated.

Skinner, B.F. (1966). Science and Human Behaviour . New York: MacMillan

Swain, M. (2005). The Output Hypothesis: Theory and Research . In E. Hinkel (Ed) Handbook on Research in second language teaching and learning, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

VanPatten, B. (2003). From Input to Output: A Teacher’s Guide to Second Language Acquisition . In James F. Lee＆Bill Vanpatten, The McGraw-Hill Second language professional series. Direction in second Language learning. USA: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Wakefield, J.F. (1996). Educational Psychology: Learning to be a Problem-Solver . Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

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What are the 7 different learning styles and do they work?

July 1, 2021

Following are the 7 different learning styles. Visual, Kinaesthetic, Aural, Social, Solitary, Verbal, Logical.

You may have heard of the idea that we all respond best to different styles of learning. That is exactly what the seven learning styles theory supports. All of the styles capture an individual strength that likely helps a person retain information more effectively. They each focus on one of the five senses or involve a social aspect. This theory is popular because, by finding an individual learner’s style and tailoring teaching to it, it was thought their efficiency could be improved. The 7 styles of the theory are:

• kinaesthetic

However, more recent studies have debunked this theory as an effective way of teaching and highlighted it as a neuromyth. This Guardian article says, ‘Such neuromyths create a false impression of individuals’ abilities, leading to expectations and excuses that are detrimental to learning in general, which is a cost in the long term.’

In other words, attempting to put learners into boxes and trying to only give them material that matches their “style” isn’t going to make them retain information any better. Most people benefit from a range of teaching techniques, and utilising different learning methods can actually improve learners’ adaptability.

Nevertheless, it’s certainly true that there are a variety of learning methods people respond to. So, just for fun, we’ve produced 7 different explanations of the 7 styles, each using techniques that learners of that style should find most useful.

Have a look through each one, and ask yourself: do you find them all equally engaging? Is there one (or more) that you prefer above the others? Maybe you have your own learning techniques that aren’t covered by any of the learning styles. Or perhaps you find one style more useful for this exercise, but when learning German verbs or mathematical formulae you know you prefer another? How effectively we learn isn’t just affected by the medium, but the content too.

While the 7 styles theory isn’t going to give you your one definitive style, you might still pick up a few useful techniques.

Visual or spatial learners supposedly retain information best by viewing pictures or images and respond well to colours and mind maps. These logos represent the main aspect of each learning style. Do you like to learn by remembering symbols and images?

Fill in the form to view a free, full sized, printable version.

Kinaesthetic

According to the theory, kinaesthetic learners are all about doing things physically. Role playing, using things like flashcards or carrying out the action physically can help them learn things better. Print and build this seven-sided die to see whether a hands-on approach could help you retain information.

Aural or auditory-musical learners should retain the most information after hearing it. Click below to listen to this recital of the different learning styles: do you tune out or find yourself remembering more than if you read the transcript?

Fill in the form to download and listen to the aural learning style.

Social, or interpersonal learners are meant to work best when they participate in study activities with other people such as quizzing each other or having a study group. Print and use these Top Trumps style cards with a group of friends.

Solitary, or intrapersonal learners supposedly work best alone. Making notes and reciting them back are useful activities when studying by yourself. Most of us will have to do some solitary revision at some point in our lives, so download and complete this worksheet to see if it works for you.

Verbal, or linguistic learners are supposed to respond well to written or spoken words, using tools like rhymes and acronyms. Download and complete this worksheet to figure out if these could be techniques that work for you.

Logical, or mathematical learners use logic and structures in order to learn effectively. If you’re good with numbers and statistics, you might find the logical style in this essay helpful. Have a read below:

What are the 7 Different Learning Styles?

Learning styles is the theory that learners can be categorised depending on how they take in information. Therefore, teaching students according to their specific learning styles will result in improved learning. While there is no concrete evidence to support the success of these learning styles, a 2012 study revealed that 93% of teachers in the UK agree that students learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style.

These learning styles derived from Howard Gardner’s 1960s theory of Multiple Intelligences. This theory states that: “we are all able to know the world through language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of ourselves.” This essay plans to outline the seven different learning styles while categorising them into three main categories: personal, sensory and informational. It will then recommend study methods for each type of learner.

1. Personal Learning Styles

The personal category links learning styles which depend on other persons to be present or absent. These are different from other learning styles which focus on how the learner takes in information, instead they depend greatly on the learners’ surroundings and whether they are studying with or without people. These types of styles split into Interpersonal learners or intrapersonal learners.

1.1 Interpersonal Learners

Interpersonal learners work best in groups and social elements help improve their concentration. Debates, group study and interactions are the best methods. Interestingly, while they work best in groups, they also have the most empathy when it comes to others. “Interpersonal intelligence builds on a core capacity to notice distinctions among others – in particular, contrasts in their moods, temperaments, motivations and intentions.”

1.2 Intrapersonal Learners

Intrapersonal learners are also known as solitary learners. Unlike interpersonal learners they work best when studying alone. They are known to be interested in philosophy, psychology and theology because of their proficiency in self-reflection.

“They’re in tune with their inner feelings; they have wisdom, intuition and motivation, as well as a strong will, confidence and opinions,” said a 2008 study on bridging educational divides. Unsurprisingly, these are the most independent learners from all the seven styles. Recommended study methods for intrapersonal learners include keeping a journal and finding a personal interest in the topics being studied.

2. Sensory Learning Styles

The sensory category links learning styles which use the senses. These are split into spatial/visual learners, auditory-musical learners and kinaesthetic learners. According to various studies of the sensory learning styles, roughly 65 percent of the population are visual learners, 30 percent are auditory learners and 5 percent are kinaesthetic learners. However, many students show traits of multiple learning styles.

2.1 Spatial Learners

Spatial learners are visualisers, which is why they’re also known as ‘visual learners’. As educational writer Stacy Mantle describes , these types of learners are good at working with colours and pictures and using the “mind’s eye.” Visual learners use spatial understanding; thus Gardner discusses that their problem solving is useful for navigation and map reading. This type of learning is also helpful for visualising an object from different angles and in playing chess.

2.2 Auditory-Musical Learners

Auditory-musical learners take in information through their sensitivity to rhythm and sound.  They have the capacity to discern pitch, rhythm, timbre, and tone . “Good or bad, their response to any music they hear is immediate, and they tend to be more in tune with nature sounds, and the sounds of their environment than their counterparts,” said Gilam in a study about multiple kinds of intelligence . The best methods for auditory-musical learners are to study with music in the background or to turn their notes into rhymes.

2.3 Kinaesthetic Learners

Kinaesthetic learners take in information through the use of their body and touch. Obvious kinaesthetic learners include dancers or surgeons. For these physical learners, a hands-on education and carrying out the activity themselves is more effective than listening to an explanation. According to Mantle, many of these kinaesthetic learners are often misdiagnosed as having Attention Deficit Hyper Activity Disorder, usually because they often have more energy than other types of learners.

3. Informational Learning Styles

The last category for the learning styles is informational, which refers simply to how the brain parses information, many in form of language or data. These learning styles do not depend on the senses or the learner’s social surroundings. Informational learners can be split into linguistic learners or mathematical learners.

3.1 Linguistic Learners

Linguistic learners, which are also known as verbal learners, work best with words. Whether information is spoken or written, these learners memorise information through language use. Gardner states “the linguistic intelligence is activated when individuals encounter the sounds of a language or when they wish to communicate something verbally to another person.” However, this learning style doesn’t correlate exclusively with the spoken word. For example, deaf people could demonstrate linguistic intelligence through the use of signs, according to Gardner.

For linguistic learners, recommended approaches include reading writing and telling stories. So taking notes while reading is a successful method of study.

3.2 Mathematical Learners

As the name implies, mathematical learners work best using numbers, structures and reasoning, this is why they are also referred to as logical learners. According to Mantle, these learners make the best engineers and work by categorising and classifying abstract patterns or relationships. Gardner notes a similarity between mathematical and musical learners, because both are drawn to structural patterns, which can often exist in music.

To summarise, despite the lack of substantial evidence supporting the success of these learning styles, they remain widely popular and are still used in schools throughout the country. According to this Wired article “Parents, understandably, like to think that their children are receiving a tailored education. Teachers, also understandably, like to think that they are sensitive to each child’s needs and many are clearly motivated to find out more about how to fulfil this ideal.” However, while there is still value in tailoring teaching methods based on the content and intended audience, attempting to strictly organise individuals into specific styles is not likely to be helpful, and could even prevent them from developing more rounded learning skills.

Jarrett goes on to describe how “learning is improved (for most everyone) by combining different activities – such as drawing alongside more passive study.” While it is not as useful as once thought for categorising learners, the 7 learning styles theory may still be of some use in making both teachers and learners alike aware of a greater variety of learning techniques and methods.

Our courses are designed to embed these fundamental learning styles so that our learners can cover the curriculum in a way that suits them. You can find our CIPD courses here, where you can request a brochure or start online today.

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Did you find any of these techniques helpful? You probably don’t fit neatly into one “style” in the way people used to think, but we hope this has helped you to figure out some of your preferred learning methods so you can plan for future study sessions!

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Why is Learning Important? A Deep Dive Into the Benefits of Being a Lifelong Learner

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Learning and development is changing and to stay ahead of the curve you need to know the ways in which it’s doing so.

Learning is important (at least to us here at Learnerbly 😉). 

But why is learning important? 

Education - both formal and informal - is essential to the development of considerate, compassionate, and cooperative societies, the success of organizations, and the personal pursuit of happiness. 

In this article, we unpack what continuous learning and education can mean to the life of each individual, to the organization's they are part of, and to their broader societies.

Looking at this issue from a different angle, we then reflect on some of the potential consequences of not practicing continuous learning—or at least of not prioritizing education in our day-to-day lives.

What Does Learning Even Mean? 

Learning is essential to humanity. It’s so embedded in our lives that we rarely consider what it means . 

Learning is the process of gaining new skills, knowledge, understanding, and values. This is something people can do by themselves, although it’s generally made easier with education: the process of helping someone or a group of others to learn.

With educational support, learning can happen more efficiently. Education is also how we collect and share all the skills and knowledge we learn individually. Benefitting from education instead of having to build new skills and knowledge by ourselves from scratch is part of what it means to live in a society instead of in isolation.

Learning and education impart more than just knowledge and skills. They also transmit the values, attitudes, and behaviors we have decided to share. 

For example, education has helped us to create and maintain the shared belief that when someone does something particularly harmful, they deserve a fair legal trial no matter their crime.

In simple terms, learning and education help hold together human life and civilization as we know it. They are what we use to make our societies better for ourselves, those around us, and those who come after us.

This is why the right to free elementary education is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , which states that “education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms” and that “it shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups”.

What Does Learning Mean for Us Today?

Learning is not unique to humans. Scientists have observed many different animals teaching their young skills like how to find food and keep themselves safe.

Among humans, educational practices can be traced back practically as far as human life goes. Evidence of teaching and learning has been found from remnants of human life dating back thousands of years BCE—and that’s just where we’ve found written evidence. Oral and practical education (for example, early humans physically teaching their children to hunt and forage for food) likely go back even further.

Learning has continued all over the world throughout the history of human life, in more ways than we have time to write about here. However, the Fourth Industrial Revolution will have a massive impact on how we as a global society approach education going forward. 

The Fourth Industrial Revolution refers to the rapid rise of new technologies including big data, artificial intelligence, automation, and the Internet of Things. Life in this new technological landscape demands that we change our approach to education in a number of ways. 

One major shift we’ll all have to make is the move from viewing education as something finite (something we do at school and university so we can go into the working world and then never have to study again) to something that keeps going throughout our lives as we gain new skill after new skill.

To face a future of constant technological change, we’ll need to adapt to continuous learning as a new norm. In his book Future Shock, US writer and businessperson Alvin Toffler wrote that “the illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn and relearn.”

The future of education lies in integrating continuous learning into our everyday personal and professional lives even more than we already do. 

This might be why the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra has proposed that compulsory, publicly funded education covers not just elementary school—as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights puts forward—but continuous learning, too. 

Sitra cites US American biologist E.O. Wilson, who said “We are drowning in information, but yearn for wisdom. Therefore, the world will be led by those… who are able to compile the correct information at precisely the right moment while thinking critically and making important decisions wisely.”

How Learning Supports Our Wellbeing

We’ve talked about why education is important to society as a whole, but continuous learning also benefits the personal life of anyone who engages with it. Here's how.

Research suggests that people who practice continuous or lifelong learning are happier on average. This may be because lifelong learning helps people to keep developing their passions and interests, which bring us happiness. 

Learning about topics that interest us makes most of us feel happy, at least in the moment, as does spending time honing hobbies we are passionate about (which is also an act of lifelong learning!). It stands to reason that building time for these things into your personal life would contribute to your overall happiness.

Continuous learning also helps us to keep pursuing our personal and professional development goals, and all the achievements along the way are a great source of happiness for many of us. 

It also helps us keep boredom at bay, which is another way of increasing our happiness.

Several scientific studies have shown that lifelong learning activities can help people maintain better brain function as they age. 

One study found that people with Alzheimer’s who practice more learning throughout their lives start to display dementia symptoms later than those who have spent less time learning. In other words, lifelong learning might be able to slow the onset of Alzheimer’s. 

Another study found that spending time learning to play a new musical instrument can help delay cognitive decline. A third study found that spending time learning new skills, namely digital photography and quilting, helped elderly people to improve their memories.

How Learning Supports Our Work

Continuous learning—especially in the form of workplace learning—also offers a host of professional benefits for both employees and their organizations. These include:

One key way that continuous learning helps both employees and their companies is by helping people upskill, which means improving their existing skill sets and broadening them with new skills.

Upskilling is good for employees because it equips them with the knowledge and skills they need to pursue their personal and professional development goals, for example by upskilling towards a promotion.

Building a more highly skilled workforce through continuous learning is also beneficial to companies. More skilled employees can do their jobs better and faster, and research shows that companies with a strong learning culture are 52% more productive.

Employees learning new skills to pursue promotions also benefits companies because internal promotion is generally a more time-efficient and cost-effective solution than hiring externally. 

Lastly, companies who support their employees' continuous learning boast demonstrably higher staff engagement, which in turn boosts productivity and profitability . This is also beneficial to individual employees, because being engaged at work generally means enjoying your job and finding it meaningful.

Adaptability

As we mentioned earlier, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is pushing employees to pursue continuous learning throughout their lives as they will have to constantly adapt to new knowledge and technological changes, which keep appearing faster and faster.

Engaging in continuous learning means becoming accustomed to incorporating new knowledge all the time, and this is essential in order to keep adapting. 

It's important to make learning continuous because this gives people the skills they need to adapt, empowering them to stay competitive in the job market, pursue promotions in their current jobs, and keep pace with knowledge and technological changes in their everyday lives. 

Investing in an adaptable workforce by supporting continuous learning is also key to any company that wants to remain competitive and relevant in its industry.

Learning also drives innovation, which describes the new ideas and technological and cultural developments that people come up with to solve problems and improve their societies. 

Research shows that companies that have a strong learning culture are 92% more likely to innovate by developing new products and processes, and 56% more likely to be first to market with these new developments. 

Innovation is important for society as a whole because the benefits of these new developments can be shared to help improve all of our lives. The fast-tracking of the Covid-19 vaccines are a great example of an organizational innovation that has been developed to combat a global pandemic.

Learning can also help people build the critical thinking skills they need to view problems in new, innovative ways.

What Happens If We Don’t Prioritize Learning?

Another way to reflect on why learning is so important is to think about all the potential negative consequences of not prioritizing learning enough. 

The flipside of everything we’ve said in this article is that a society that didn’t prioritize learning would have a lack of shared knowledge and skills for people to benefit from. It would also have a lack of shared ideas and values, which could stoke conflict and war as people and their leaders might struggle more to find common goals on which they can agree.

Not prioritizing learning about other people and cultures would also diminish our ability to understand people who are different from us, and this too would contribute to increased conflict and violence.

People who don’t prioritize continuous learning enough in their own lives are likely to be less happy or fulfilled, as they spend less time exploring their interests and working on personal development.

Elderly people who spend less time on learning are likely to experience faster cognitive degeneration than those who learn regularly.

Companies that don’t prioritize their people’s learning are less productive, less profitable, and have lower staff engagement rates than those that do. They’re also less likely to remain competitive in their industries or produce novel products or services. 

People who don’t get enough learning support at work are more likely to be disengaged and see their skills stagnate compared to those who work with companies that invest in their people’s learning. 

They will also struggle more with pursuing career development , as they have little support for the upskilling they need to do to grow in their work.

Lastly, if we don’t prioritize learning enough as we face an uncertain—but certainly technologically advancing—future, we will likely have a more difficult time adjusting to the changes ahead of us and making the most of future opportunities.

Continuous learning is important because it helps people to feel happier and more fulfilled in their lives and careers, and to maintain stronger cognitive functioning when they get older. 

Making learning continuous helps companies boost their productivity, profitability, adaptability to change, and potential to innovate in their industries. 

Learning is important to society as a whole because it helps different groups of people to share knowledge, agree on mutual values, and understand one another better. 

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What Is the Psychology of Learning?

Learning in psychology is based on a person's experiences

The psychology of learning focuses on a range of topics related to how people learn and interact with their environments.

Are you preparing for a big test in your psychology of learning class? Or are you just interested in a review of learning and behavioral psychology topics? This learning study guide offers a brief overview of some of the major learning issues including behaviorism, classical, and operant conditioning .

Let's learn a bit more about the psychology of learning.

Definition of Learning in Psychology

Learning can be defined in many ways, but most psychologists would agree that it is a relatively permanent change in behavior that results from experience. During the first half of the 20th century, the school of thought known as behaviorism rose to dominate psychology and sought to explain the learning process. Behaviorism sought to measure only observable behaviors.

3 Types of Learning in Psychology

Behavioral learning falls into three general categories.

Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning is a learning process in which an association is made between a previously neutral stimulus and a stimulus that naturally evokes a response.

For example, in Pavlov's classic experiment , the smell of food was the naturally occurring stimulus that was paired with the previously neutral ringing of the bell. Once an association had been made between the two, the sound of the bell alone could lead to a response.

For example, if you don't know how to swim and were to fall into a pool, you'd take actions to avoid the pool.

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is a learning process in which the probability of a response occurring is increased or decreased due to reinforcement or punishment. First studied by Edward Thorndike and later by B.F. Skinner , the underlying idea behind operant conditioning is that the consequences of our actions shape voluntary behavior.

Skinner described how reinforcement could lead to increases in behaviors where punishment would result in decreases. He also found that the timing of when reinforcements were delivered influenced how quickly a behavior was learned and how strong the response would be. The timing and rate of reinforcement are known as schedules of reinforcement .

For example, your child might learn to complete their homework because you reward them with treats and/or praise.

Observational Learning

Observational learning is a process in which learning occurs through observing and imitating others. Albert Bandura's social learning theory suggests that in addition to learning through conditioning, people also learn through observing and imitating the actions of others.

Basic Principles of Social Learning Theory

As demonstrated in his classic Bobo Doll experiments, people will imitate the actions of others without direct reinforcement. Four important elements are essential for effective observational learning: attention, motor skills, motivation, and memory.

For example, a teen's older sibling gets a speeding ticket, with the unpleasant results of fines and restrictions. The teen then learns not to speed when they take up driving.

The three types of learning in psychology are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning.

History of the Psychology of Learning

One of the first thinkers to study how learning influences behavior was psychologist John B. Watson , who suggested in his seminal 1913 paper Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It that all behaviors are a result of the learning process. Psychology, the behaviorists believed, should be the scientific study of observable, measurable behavior. Watson's work included the famous Little Albert experiment in which he conditioned a small child to fear a white rat.

Behaviorism dominated psychology for much of the early 20th century. Although behavioral approaches remain important today, the latter part of the century was marked by the emergence of humanistic psychology, biological psychology, and cognitive psychology .

Other important figures in the psychology of learning include:

• Edward Thorndike
• Ivan Pavlov
• B.F. Skinner
• Albert Bandura

A Word From Verywell

The psychology of learning encompasses a vast body of research that generally focuses on classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. As the field evolves, it continues to have important implications for explaining and motivating human behavior.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."