How Do You Learn with Intention?
You are getting ready to make big plans.
So it is important to zone in on how you learn effectively, so you can create great plans that work for you.
This May Be Your Now
You are at a stage where you can create a fantastic transformation. Consider it a new beginning. Finally, you have much more control and the time to conceive, plan, research, and do what you want next. You are in the driver’s seat and want to move forward to build the best life for your next stage. This is cause for a grand celebration and much anticipation and excitement.
Why do I want to Talk about Learning Styles?
I am a teacher, and the field of learning styles has a vast bank of information and has been studied extensively. Therefore, we may revisit this area several times in my blogs. Many learning theories have been studied, but the VARK theory of learning preferences is an excellent beginning. I’ll talk more about that later in this blog.
“Learning styles refer to how individuals process, focus, make information meaningful to themselves and gain new information to translate it into building new skills.”
Carol Brady wrote this when she reported a study done for the International Journal of Childbirth Education. The study was about how to help birth teachers better help their clients.
Knowing your learning style and how to apply it in your everyday life is an excellent tool to have in your toolbox.
I am focussing on learning experiences. Knowing our learning style means we can work to our strengths and improve our lives through more effective planning and research. It does apply in the world of academia. However, it also applies to our personal lives and can be used meaningfully.
Suppose you want to move forward with the next stage of your life more confidently. It will serve you well to learn about or revisit your learning style - so you can research and plan more carefully and effectively for your future. But, of course, you also want to carry out your plans effortlessly, and you want your plans to be the right plans for you.
You may have the right idea for your plan, but it may be designed differently than you like. You may have listened to others tell you their version of the right strategy. So you could find yourself fighting and resisting your plans without knowing why.
A few tweaks may make you move forward efficiently and follow the flow. But, of course, that is always the best way forward. Knowing your learning style can help you move ahead with your life in seemingly magical directions.
How does this Translate into Your Real Life?
Let’s say you are moving into a new living arrangement. Or you could be redesigning and redecorating your same nest - but in a way that suits a new you. This is all part of transforming you and your life.
Let’s say you have just discovered the perfect furniture piece in a catalogue from IKEA. It works for your new vision of how you want to live.
By the way, haven’t we all had at least one IKEA assembly experience? I have had many sessions of putting together new IKEA furniture pieces as I moved to new places and wanted things to fit in ways that serve me well.
So you go to the warehouse and find the box; it is all flat-packed. You load it in your car and take it home. You open the box and see the parts waiting for assembly.
Do you grab the instruction sheet, look at the pictures and work efficiently from them? Or do you gather the pieces of wood, the bags of screws and tools and the metal parts and start to assemble and put things together like a jigsaw puzzle? Do you get on the phone and try to talk to someone about how to put the piece together?
I like to lay out the pieces of wood, glance at the instruction manual and try to put things together as they make sense. It never fails. At some point, I make a mistake in the assembly, and I have to take some things apart and intensely study the pictures to figure out where I have gone wrong and how I can make things right. For those who don’t know, IKEA instructions do not have written word descriptions - only pictures.
How you approach problems you have not solved before tells you what learning style is your go-to and is the one you are most comfortable with.
This may be the first time you have thought about it. So here are some examples to get you thinking about how you like to learn.
You have never made microwave popcorn before. You have the package. How would you go about making your movie snack?
You want to learn ballroom dancing. How would you like the instruction to work for you?
You have a personal problem you want to solve. How would you go about finding a solution?
Knowing how you approach these challenges gives you a good idea of your learning style. Also, observing other people tackling learning challenges tells you a lot about how they like to learn. So, if you want to teach or convince them of something, communicating with them, with their learning style in mind, creates a chance for a positive outcome.
Do you want to Complete an Inventory To Help you Understand Your Learning Style?
The VARK questionnaire is a principal learning style instrument to help people understand their learning preferences and help them develop strategies to move forward.
This is a newer version of the questionnaire. I took it and learned some new information about approaching learning challenges. How we approach tasks and learn changes over time as further information becomes available. Likewise, I changed how I take in and process data. As well, my learning style may depend on the task at hand.
In any case, please click on this VARK link and take the questionnaire. It takes about 5 - 7 minutes. There is a lot of information you can learn about yourself.
Why is This Important?
We have all had a lot of instruction in our life. And teachers, including me, may have taught in a way that suited their learning style. But your learning style may be completely different from theirs. As a result, you may have often felt at odds with what you had to learn and how it was taught.
Remember, as we age and plan our next moves, we want to be in the driver’s seat. And we want more efficiency because there is a lot we want to do in the next stage of our lives. So, learning new information in a way that suits us is crucial. That helps create less friction and keeps us more in the flow with our plans. And we encounter fewer loops getting to our goals.
What are the Different Learning Styles?
The VARK inventory tests for four areas of learning:
Visual - Information that comes through the eyes is favoured - charts, graphs, pictures, movies, diagrams.
Aural - information that comes through the ears - discussions, music, podcasts- is preferred.
Read/Write - you are more comfortable with the knowledge that comes as words and texts - lists, books, notes.
Kinesthetic - information is taken in by doing - learning to ride a bike, work with clay, and assemble pieces.
Putting people into learning categories has its critics. People don’t always fit into nice, neat boxes.
In the Vark inventory I took, my learning preference was favoured in two areas - higher in the auditory and kinesthetic regions. I do like to write more than I want to read. Visually, I joke that I see the world as a Monet painting - colourful and blurry. So I have to concentrate on getting details. However, I agree with the results of the questionnaire I took. And there is more to me than the four learning styles VARK tests for.
Some inventories talk about spatial learning. I see that in my daughter when I have watched her choreograph her dancers to perform a piece. She visualizes sections of the stage they stand and move to — side to side, back to front and high to low.
And VARK does not talk about how we like to learn - either in solitude or with others. I see examples of that in the coffee shop I enjoy going to. Some students are sitting by themselves, working hard on their studies. Other students congregate in groups - needing to be around each other, often discussing their learning. Or talking about other things. :)
There is a difference between the theories of Multiple Intelligence and Learning Styles. I will do a blog about Multiple Intelligences in the future because the concept excites me. It is a theory that examines different intellectual abilities. Learning styles is a theory that explores how we approach various tasks - like assembling IKEA furniture.
Why is it Important to Know About Your Learning Style?
On her website, StudyingStyle.com, Rebecca Ezekiel lists many benefits of knowing your learning style, including:
gives you a head start
allows you to learn “your way.”
reduces stress and frustration
increases self-confidence
gives you insight into your strengths, weaknesses and habits
inspires curiosity and motivation
shows you how to take advantage of your natural skills and motivations
Ms. Ezekiel says there is no right or wrong way to learn, and she suggests that knowing your learning style helps expand you.
When you know your learning style and use the information, you can move forward in learning new things and applying that learning more efficiently.
And that is what you want to happen. I know you are going through a huge transition and transformation. You are moving into the next stage of your life. I know you want it to be the best stage. You are thinking and trying things out. You want to move forward. So, explore your learning style and experiment with what that means for your everyday life. As you gain confidence in learning new things, it will be easier and more fun to make the changes you want to. Enjoy!
A Challenge for You:
Find a learning styles inventory you like and complete it to discover your learning style.
Evaluate if the information is correct for you.
Find ways to be more aware of how you learn and how others learn so that communication and completing tasks become more accessible and meaningful.
Please consider sharing a link to this blog or site with people you know who could use it and/or pass it on to others. Also, please share your thoughts with me. And … I would be appreciative of a coffee and croissant.
Other Blogs you might be interested in that highlight Tools in Your Toolbox:
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