Learning Styles

There are numerous typologies, measures, and models that capture learning differences and preferences. Most of these approaches have focused on child learning, but there is evidence that these differences are important for adults as well. Learning style refers to individual differences and preferences in how we process information when problem solving, learning, or engaging in similar activities.

One approach addresses our preference for sensory modality. A sensory modality is a system that interacts with the environment through one of the basic senses. The most important sensory modalities are: Visual: learning by seeing, Auditory: learning by hearing, Tactile: learning by touching, Kinesthetic: learning by doing.

According to researchers, about 20 to 30 percent of American students are auditory; about 40 percent are visual; and the remaining 30 to 40 percent are either tactile/kinesthetic, visual/tactile, or some combinations of the above major senses.

A second approach to understanding learning styles, the Kolb Learning Style Inventory, is one of the more dominant approaches to categorizing cognitive styles. According to David Kolb, the four basic learning modes are active experimentation, reflective observation, concrete experience, and abstract conceptualization.

Learning styles, or individual differences and preferences in how we process information when problem solving, learning, or engaging in similar activities, are also important individual differences and preferences, and there are numerous typologies, measures, and models that capture them.

[tommysuits]

To be blunt, it's hard to take this seriously when the narrator pronounces the author's name wrong over and over...