Have you ever noticed many people excel in some classrooms while being completely lost in others? There are many things to take into account, for example, background knowledge, natural inclinations, study habits, and most importantly the individuals learning style.
A learning style is basically an individuals most receptive way of learning. For example, if a person is a visual learner, they are more inclined to to remember visual information being shown in class as opposed to reading the same information in their textbook. Aural learners are inclined to remember sound, such as a teacher's lecture or a friend's speech. Read/Write learners are inclined to remember things they read and take notes on. Kinesthetic learners are hands own learners who basically learn by physically doing things.
According to the VARK Questionnaire, I have a Multimodal learning preference, which means I am somewhat well rounded and I can switch methods based on how information is being presented. I found this strange however because my highest score by far was in the Kinesthetic (hands-on) category. I feel this makes sense because if I am faced with learning a new computer program, it is usually most efficient for me to get a copy of the software and just start messing around with it as opposed to being "taught" in a classroom.
After taking the VARK Questionnaire, they provide some strategies and ideas for what I can do to improve my lifelong learning. The strategy/concept suggested for me is called "Study without tears" which basically states my best way of learning from a lecture type class is to reduce my notes to the most important information, and then convert them into "a learnable package". From my understanding, this means that I should basically make my own charts/graphs to express how things correlate, and that the hands on approach will help me understand the material better by somewhat interacting with it.
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