Learning, an art that is the pivotal element of every education system yet comes in differing ways to people. Students all across the world can relate to the fact that they prefer a specific learning style which might sound extremely absurd to some but serves best for them.
For years, the most common and longlasting quarrel among students has been over the best learning method. As expected, there is no right answer to end the never-ending debate.
Many students prefer recorded lectures to refresh the content whereas others rely on their notes to revise. Both of them contest as their methods to be better than the other, cause they work for them.
However, there has to be a standardized parameter to gauge and categorize these various learning methods. Therefore, the masters of psychology coined a learning model known as the VARK model. In terms of quantity, there are a number of other learning models. However, VARK happens to be the best amongst them.
Let’s dig deep into the different types of learners.
Different Types of Learners (VARK Model)
The term VARK is an abbreviation for visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic. Before you fret further over the choice of these terms, I’ll get to their significance.
According to different educationists and psychologists, the emotional and cognitive factors are the primary instigators of developing a habit or routine.
As mentioned earlier, different students expect and contest for different learning methods. Therefore, it is almost impossible for a teacher to mold its style of teaching in a universally acceptable way to cater to all kinds of students. Which is where the VARK model comes in to play.
Visual
The V in VARK stands for visual. It refers to the type of students/learners that are inclined to obtain a large portion of information through visual aids. How? For instance, instead of monotonous numerical figures, they are likely to understand statistics by observing different types of charts, diagrams, etc.
Furthermore, studies show that the use of images is more appealing to such learners as compared to normal textual explanations. They tend to feel more comfortable in the presence of patterns, eventually understanding the topic at hand better.
Auditory
Auditory is the A in the VARK model. These learners are extremely sharp when it comes to picking up on information. Why the bias? Well, if a person is paying attention to what you are saying and interpreting it correctly, it deserves a bias.
Such learners tend to prefer study groups to hold engaging conversations and debates that lead to a better understanding of concepts.
Reading/Writing
Oh, I must write it down, or I might forget it. We all know someone who is like this, right? Well, these learners are dependent on their skills to noting down points so that they manage to make a psychological link in the hand and the mind.
Surprisingly, when these learners happen to revise topics, the notes serve as magic, pouring words into their minds effortlessly.
Kinesthetic
Last, and definitely not the least, are the kinesthetics. These learners have the habit of connecting the information with some sort of physical experience. The element of touch serves to be a trigger for these learners to help them get hold of information.
With an active imagination, not having the liberty of a tactile experience, these types of learners tend to create scenarios in their heads to help relate to the information to make complete sense of it.
To Wrap it up ..
Learning ways are changing quickly as time progresses. However, they still manage to remain confined within the boundaries of the VARK model. This is why it is still considered to be the best and optimal learning model to gauge the common learning methods.
Please let me know if you enjoyed this article and how helpful was it for you? Tell me about your learning methods, flood the comments!
