Transcript How do YOU learn Effectively?

How do YOU learn
Effectively?
Learning Styles
Lisa Clughen
Academic Support
 Lisa
Clughen
 E014
 DROP IN THURSDAYS!!
Some Key Points of Lecture

You don’t just ‘learn’ or ‘remember’
something if you are told it.

You need to DO something with
the information to ‘learn’ it
Task 1

Fill in the VAK
questionnaire
(10
mins)
(Cottrell, 2001, 215-6)
What are Learning Styles?
 The
approach that you
consistently take to learning the way in which you deal with
information

YOU WHAT?
Ways of Dealing with
Information
 VISUAL
channel
 AUDITORY
 HAPTIC
channel.
channel
(KINAESTHETIC)
Group Task 2 How do you remember:
•names
•spellings
•your cash
point
number
•phone
numbers?
Group Task 3
How might people with each
different learning style learn most
effectively in ONE of the following
contexts?
 When reading a book?
 Dealing with difficult material?
 When taking notes?
Visual Learners

Use visual aids:
illustrations,
photographs,
maps, diagrams,
videos, films:
Visual Learners

Write things down!

Draw or visualise subject matter
• Take lots of notes
Visual Learners Use


Colour
and
DIFFERENT Fonts and different
SIZE FONTS to highlight main
ideas in notes, textbooks, handouts, etc
Visual Learners


Before reading an assignment set a
specific study goal.
Write it down and POST IT IN FRONT
OF YOU
“From 2:00 to 5:00
I will read 5-10
paragraphs.”
Visual Learners

Preview a chapter before reading by
first looking at all the pictures, section
headings, etc.
Visual Learners

Write typical
subject words in
colour on index
cards with short
definitions on the
back.
Auditory Learners

Study with a friend so you can talk out loud
and hear the information.
Auditory Learners


Recite out loud the
thing you want to
remember (quotes,
lists, dates, etc.)
Talking out loud and
saying what they
think the chapter will
be about.
Auditory Learners

Before beginning an assignment, set out
a specific goal and say it out loud.
“First, I will pick out
the most common
topic words”
Auditory Learners


Read aloud whenever
possible:
‘Hear the words in your
head'.
“To be or not
to be…”
Auditory Learners

Use tape
cassettes (e.g. for
lectures, or read
notes onto a
tape)
Kinaesthetic Learners

Memorize by
pacing or walking
around while at
the same time
reciting to
yourself or
looking at a list or
index card
Kinaesthetic Learners

Study while lying
on your stomach
or back (when at
home!) or with
music on in the
background.
Kinaesthetic Learners




Close your eyes and write the
information in the air with your
finger.
Picture the words in your head.
Hear them too.
Close your eyes and see it with
your 'mind's eye', and 'hear' it in
your head.
Main Point:
LEARN IN AS MANY SENSUAL WAYS AS POSSIBLE

‘All creative activity, as well as much of
your pleasure in life depends on your
sensory awareness. Even your ability
to absorb and use second-hand
information depends on your ability to
relate it to your own first-hand
observations’
(Fred Morgan in Marshall and Rowland, 1998, p. 6)
REFERENCES



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Cottrell, S (2001) Teaching study skills and
supporting learning, Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp 2156
Marshall, L. and Rowland, F. (1998) A guide to
learning independently, Buckingham: Open
University (Key text – includes a long discussion on
how we remember things)
O'Brien, L (1985) Learning channel preference
checklist, Specific Diagnostic Services, Rockville,
MD
Klapper J M, et al (n.d.) DELPHI (Developing
Language Professionals in Higher Education
Institutions), [online],
http://www.delphi.bham.ac.uk/contactus.htm,
Date Accessed: 26/09/04