How to identify a student’s primary learning style and guide them to success?

The ultimate goal of education is to provide knowledge and improve learning in students. There are many techniques and methods used in education to help students learn. However, it is important to note that the same teaching methods may not produce the same results in all students as each student’s learning style is unique.

What is Learning Style?

The term “learning style” refers to a student’s method of comprehending new information, which is often done through sight, touch, and sound. Taste and smell can also be useful in remembering information, but are used less frequently. A student’s ability to absorb, process, understand, and retain information depends on their preferred learning style. There are several types of learning styles that have been identified.

Student Learning Styles

Each student possesses a unique learning style that influences how they absorb and process information. For example, Sarah thrives in a hands-on approach, excelling when engaged in practical activities. On the other hand, Alex prefers visual aids, comprehending concepts better through diagrams and charts. Understanding these individual preferences allows educators to tailor teaching methods, ensuring each student grasps and retains information effectively. Recognizing diverse learning styles enhances the overall learning experience, fostering a more inclusive and impactful educational environment for every student.

Types of Learning Styles

Learning styles in students are influenced by cognitive, emotional, contextual, and prior experience factors. To provide the best teaching methods, teachers must be aware of the variations in their students’ learning styles. Learning styles are not a guide for teaching, but they can help identify a student’s preferred method of processing and retaining knowledge. Thus, learning styles are still encouraged in education as a tool for teachers to support students and differentiate lessons.

1. VARK model

Education continues to promote learning styles as a way for teachers to support students and differentiate lessons. Learning styles are not a prescription for teaching students, but they help a teacher recognize the preferential way a student processes and retains information. There are several modes of learning styles identified in students. Primary learning styles (VARK model) are the ones that play a significant role in achieving successful learning outcomes in students. This is among the most widely used since it sufficiently addresses learner diversity and needs.

VARK

The VARK model stands for:

Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, Kinesthetic/Tactile

Also Read: Back at school, Indian teachers face a crisis of discipline. How to solve these issues?

What are the Objectives of a Student’s Learning Style?

Understanding students’ learning styles is key to effective teaching. By tailoring methods to individual preferences, educators can boost engagement and comprehension, leading to better academic outcomes. The aim is to personalize learning and enhance the educational experience.

1. Understanding Individual Preferences

Objective: Identify and cater to the unique ways each student prefers to learn, whether through visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or reading/writing methods.

2. Enhancing Engagement

Objective: Tailor teaching methods to match students’ learning styles to increase their interest and participation in lessons.

3. Improving Retention and Comprehension

Objective: Use appropriate strategies to help students better understand and remember information by aligning instruction with their preferred learning style.

4. Promoting Self-Awareness

Objective: Encourage students to recognize their learning preferences, enabling them to adopt strategies that best suit their needs for studying and problem-solving.

5. Facilitating Effective Communication

Objective: Adapt communication and instructional approaches to match students’ learning styles, ensuring that information is delivered in the most accessible way for each individual.

6. Supporting Diverse Learning Needs

Objective: Address the varied learning needs of all students by incorporating multiple teaching methods, thus creating an inclusive learning environment.

What are the Aims of Students’ Learning Styles?

Recognizing students’ learning styles can help with personalized strategy not only enhances academic performance but also supports students in developing skills that align with their strengths, leading to a more fulfilling learning experience.

• Tailored Instruction: Adapting teaching methods to match individual learning styles, making education more effective and accessible for each student.
• Increased Student Engagement: Using strategies that align with students’ preferences to keep them more interested and actively involved in their learning.
• Better Academic Performance: Enhancing students’ understanding, retention, and application of knowledge by teaching in ways that suit their learning styles.
• Empowering Students: Encouraging students to recognize their learning preferences, enabling them to develop stronger study habits and self-management skills.
• Promoting Equity: Ensuring that diverse learning needs are met, fostering an inclusive environment where all students can thrive.

Benefits of Primary Learning Style

Understanding a student’s primary learning style offers numerous benefits that extend well beyond the classroom. Here’s how it can positively impact teaching:

• Improved Learning Efficiency: Tailoring teaching methods to accommodate students’ preferred learning styles enhances how quickly they grasp and retain information. For instance, visual learners may benefit from diagrams and videos, while auditory learners thrive in discussions and lectures.
• Enhanced Motivation and Engagement: When lessons align with students’ natural learning preferences, they become more engaging and enjoyable. This alignment boosts motivation, encouraging students to tackle complex topics with enthusiasm.
• Increased Confidence: Mastering subjects through their preferred learning style builds students’ confidence in their abilities. Understanding their learning style empowers them to take ownership of their education and approach challenges with greater self-assurance.
• Promoting Effective Study Habits: Identifying students’ learning strengths allows teachers to guide them in developing effective study techniques. This could involve using visual aids for visual learners, hands-on activities for kinesthetic learners, or collaborative group work for auditory learners.
• Fostering Lifelong Learning Skills: Teaching students about learning styles equips them with a valuable skill applicable throughout their lives. It prepares them to adapt their learning strategies in various contexts, whether learning a new skill, advancing in their careers, or staying informed about current events.

How to Measure Learning Styles?

Measuring learning styles involves assessing how students prefer to receive and process information. Here are common methods to determine learning styles:

1. Questionnaires and Inventories: Use standardised assessments like the VARK (Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, Kinesthetic) or Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles Questionnaire. These tools typically ask students about their preferences for learning activities and how they prefer to study.
2. Observation: Teachers can observe students’ behaviours and preferences in the classroom. This includes noting how students interact with materials (e.g., preferring visual aids or hands-on activities) and how they respond to different teaching methods.
3. Self-Reflection: Encourage students to reflect on their own learning experiences. This can be done through guided discussions or journaling prompts that ask them to identify which learning activities they find most effective and engaging.
4. Feedback from Peers: Peer feedback can provide insights into how students collaborate and learn from each other. Observing how students explain concepts or work together on projects can reveal their preferred learning styles.
5. Learning Style Inventories: These are structured assessments administered by educators or counsellors to categorise individuals into different learning style categories based on their responses to specific questions or tasks.
6. Parent/Teacher Feedback: Gathering input from parents or guardians, especially for younger students, can provide additional perspectives on how students engage with different learning materials and activities.

What’s the Best Way to Figure Out a Child’s Learning Style and How to Guide Them to Success?

1) Visual: Visual learners learn by sight

Identification:

The visual learners in class enjoy seeing and observing the things they are studying. Visual learners prefer to access information through images, diagrams, and textual instructions. It has also been referred to as “spatial” learning. To interact with and absorb information, visual or spatial learners may create lists, draw pictures, or take notes.

These learners benefit from the following:

• Images and diagrams
• Graphics and visuals
• Charts
• Maps
• Mind-maps
• Flashcards

Guide students to success: What can be done?

• Use visual aids; most other students will gain from seeing things.
• To aid with visual imagery, offer visual parallels and metaphors.
• When using graphics for a particular topic, it can be challenging, but writing out essential ideas in front of the class can help students understand them visually.
• In place of colors and images, use words.
• Because this requires looking at your presentation or visualizing what you’re delivering, instruct the students to take notes and write down explanations.
• Use of color or emphasize the text’s main points.
• Don’t use a lot of text at once.
• Include activities that require kids to draw mental maps.
• Use narrative to aid with visualizing.
• Any resources you supply should be color-coded and organized, as this will aid in their mental organization.
• Encourage kids to visualize using words like, “ picture this”, “imagine”, etc.

2) Auditory: Auditory learners learn by hearing

Identification:

Students who are auditory learners do best when they listen and connect the concepts to sound. These are the students who would rather listen to a lecture or a tape than take notes in writing. They might also be students who speak through and think aloud about ideas before diving into them. The loudest participants in the class are probably auditory learners. In addition, they can be the ones that read aloud to themselves. To understand the directions, auditory learners frequently repeat what the teacher has stated.

These learners benefit from the following:

• Listening
• Speaking
• Group discussions
• Verbal repetition
• Sound recordings
• Mnemonic devices

Guide students to success: What can be done?

• Use visual aids; most other students will gain from seeing things.
• To aid with visual imagery, offer visual parallels and metaphors.
• Encourage the participation of your students in class discussions.
• If reading is necessary, consider suggesting audiobooks.
• Encourage them to play music while they study the content.
• Allow recordings of your training sessions or make your lessons available via online course platforms. This is useful for different learning styles as well.
• Pair up with students so they may discuss concepts.
• Encourage problem-solving aloud.
• Recommend that they read their notes aloud to themselves once they get home.
• Use rhyming and mnemonic techniques.
• Play relevant sounds from your computer when you are explaining a story.

3) Reading/Writing: Read/write learners learn by reading and writing

Identification:

Because reading and writing learners prefer to learn through the written word, this learning style frequently needs to be clarified with visual learning. Although it may appear that this is learning through visual means, reading/writing preference learners can be identified as those who prefer to express themselves through writing. They also like to write in journals or diaries and read articles. Students with reading and writing styles may be encyclopedia and search engine specialists. They seek information through reading.

These learners benefit from the following:

• Reading
• Writing
• Making detailed notes
• Re-writing notes to revise
• Viewing information in word form

Guide students to success: What can be done?

• Use writing exercises and verbal instruction.
• Instruct them to present.
• Make use of mnemonics or acronyms.
• Request that the class read aloud. Instead of reading in a monotone, try to get them to read in a variety of ways.
• Suggest that they teach certain knowledge to the class’s members.
• Include quizzes in your lessons.
• Encourage them to reread their notes and rework them, including the summaries.
• Include tests in your lesson plans.
• Lists of keywords might be shown to them or given to them.

4) Kinesthetic: Kinaesthetic learners learn by touch

Identification:

Kinesthetic or tactile learners gain knowledge through doing and experiencing. They frequently act out situations and converse with their hands while using their bodies as learning tools. In the classroom, a kinesthetic learner could appear unstable and clumsy. They are skilled at using their bodies to follow instructions in a game or dance, and students who are particularly talented athletes or dancers may learn best through kinesthetic means.

These learners benefit from the following:

• Movement
• Tactile representations
• Models and materials
• Physical interactions
• Hands-on approaches
• Experience and practice

Guide students to success: What can be done?

• Use physical activities and give practical experiences.
• Exercises that require them to walk and stand still are particularly effective.
• Because writing is a physical activity, provide activities where students may map out their thoughts and solve problems with a pen and paper.
• Look for a location that offers these students ample room to write and create.
• Encourage them to create graphs, maps, and diagrams.
• Encourage children to engage with actual objects or finish puzzles.
• Role-playing.
• Give concrete examples from the real world, such as case studies.
• Encourage them to do some activity while they go over their notes.
• Suggest that they teach the other students some of the lesson’s material.
• When you ask them to visualize something, describe the feelings that would be experienced. For example, “The wind was forcibly hitting against the body.

How to Identify Different Learning Styles in Students?

Identifying learning styles involves observing how individuals absorb and process information uniquely. Some grasp concepts better through visual aids, thriving on diagrams and charts. Others excel with auditory learning, benefiting from lectures or discussions. Kinesthetic learners, on the other hand, prefer hands-on experiences, finding practical applications more effective. Educators can identify these styles by paying attention to students’ preferences, and noting if they respond better to visual aids, verbal instructions, or hands-on activities. Tailoring teaching methods to diverse learning styles enhances comprehension and engagement, fostering a more inclusive and effective learning environment.

1 student : 1 learning style – Harmful?

Attributing each student with only one learning style can prove harmful in the due course of a students’ learning. A student may miss out on other learning chances with a higher likelihood of success if they are pigeonholed as a specific “kind” of learner and their classes are all planned with that in mind.

It’s not easy to modify education to fit each student’s unique “learning styles,” So the best practice is Multimodal style of learning.

Multimodal Style: The most crucial style of learning

According to studies (KU -The university of KANSAS), about 50 and 70 percent of students have preferences for a variety of learning styles. These multimodal learners typically perform better in classes when they are exposed to a variety of learning styles simultaneously or in combination throughout the day. A multimodal learner may be bimodal, showing a preference for two of the four main learning styles, trimodal, showing a choice for three out of the four, or fully multimodal, showing a balanced distribution of learning styles. Some students can select the style they want to use to finish an assignment or adjust to the mode that a teacher has decided is the correct answer type.

No matter the type of learner, implementing a multimodal approach to lesson design supports learners of all types.

Evidence against the different learning styles:

According to the evidence cited below, there is no discernible correlation between student grade achievement and their primary learning style or any learning style(s) they scored highly on.

No evidence to back idea of learning styles

Learning styles as a myth

The myth of ‘learning styles’

Teachers must ditch ‘neuromyth’ of learning styles

The concept of different “learning styles” is a myth

It’s beneficial to be familiar with various teaching techniques despite the contradictory evidence regarding the usefulness of various learning styles. It is possible to hold your students’ interest for longer periods of time and improve the learning process by diversifying the teaching strategies.

In short:

1. Monitor how students engage with different types of learning activities—such as visual, auditory, or hands-on tasks—to gauge their preferences and inclinations.
2. Administer learning style questionnaires like the VARK test to categorize students based on their preferred methods of learning, including Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, or Kinesthetic styles.
3. Conduct surveys or discussions where students share their preferred learning methods and reflect on what helps them understand and retain information most effectively.
4. Implement a range of teaching techniques and observe which ones resonate best with students, using this trial-and-error method to identify their most effective learning strategies.
5. Analyze students’ performance across different types of tasks and formats to identify patterns that indicate their preferred learning styles and strengths.
6. Examine how students interact with peers during group work and collaborative projects to uncover their learning preferences and styles through social and communicative behaviors.

By monitoring student engagement with various learning activities, administering structured questionnaires, and analyzing performance, educators can determine each student’s preferred methods.

Conclusion

Recognizing and adapting to students’ learning styles enhances teaching and academic performance. Tailoring methods to individual preferences boost engagement and retention, creating a more effective learning environment. By using observation, assessments, and feedback, educators can identify and support each student’s unique style. For schools looking to fund educational improvements, Varthana provides easy loan repayment options and quick disbursement within 72 hours, ensuring seamless financial support for enhancing learning resources.

Read More: Top 10 ways you can improve the quality of education in your school

FAQs

1. How can I identify learners?

A teacher can identify learners’ preferences by using assessments like the VARK questionnaire or observation in class. Note how students engage with materials—whether they prefer visual aids, hands-on activities, discussions, or reading/writing tasks. Encourage self-reflection and peer feedback to gain insights into how they learn best. This approach helps tailor teaching methods to individual learning styles, enhancing engagement and understanding in the classroom.

2. How to teach students with different learning styles?

To teach students with different learning styles, vary instructional methods such as visual aids, hands-on activities, group discussions, and written assignments. Incorporate multimedia for visual learners, interactive tasks for kinesthetic learners, and verbal explanations for auditory learners. Provide flexibility in assignments and assessments to accommodate diverse learning preferences. Encourage students to self-assess their learning style and advocate for personalized learning strategies.

3. How to identify your child’s primary learning style?

To identify your child’s primary learning style, observe how they naturally prefer to learn and interact with information. Notice if they enjoy using visual aids like charts and diagrams, prefer hands-on activities, excel in discussions and verbal explanations, or prefer reading and writing tasks. Engage them in different learning activities and see which ones they gravitate towards and find most effective. Use learning style inventories or questionnaires designed for children to gather additional insights.

4. What are the primary modes of learning?

The primary modes of learning, often referred to as learning styles, include:

• Visual: Learning through seeing. Visual learners prefer using images, diagrams, charts, and videos to understand and remember information.
• Auditory: Learning through hearing. Auditory learners learn best through listening to explanations, discussions, and lectures, and they may benefit from reading aloud.
• Kinesthetic: Learning through hands-on activities and physical experiences. Kinesthetic learners learn best by doing, touching, and manipulating objects to understand concepts.
• Reading/Writing: Learning through reading and writing. These learners prefer text-based materials like books, articles, and written instructions to absorb information.

5. What are two ways a teacher can identify a student’s learning style?

Teachers can identify a student’s learning style through:

• Observation: By observing how students engage with learning materials and activities in the classroom. This includes noting preferences for visual aids, participation in discussions, enthusiasm during hands-on activities, or enjoyment of reading and writing tasks.
• Assessment Tools: Using standardized assessments or inventories designed to determine learning styles, such as the VARK questionnaire or other learning style surveys. These tools gather information about how students prefer to learn and process information.