VISUAL / VERBAL LEARNERS Characteristics: Relate to such words as: see, look, observe, read. Like to read books and magazines for both information and pleasure. Enjoy watching television documentaries and films in which both visual and verbal information are presented simultaneously. Read a newspaper or magazine regularly as a source of news. Prefer to read what an expert has written on a subject than to listen to a lecture or discussion. Prefer to look over written direction and diagrams to assemble or use something rather than to hear someone explain how to do it. Feel frustrated when teachers simply give oral instructions for assignments and tests instead of also writing the instructions on the board or on a handout. Take extensive notes during class lectures and discussions to review later. Make lists regularly of daily goals and activities. Teaching Strategies To Help You Learn: Written instructions for all assignments and tests. Visual / Verbal aids: handouts, outlines or summary notes of lectures, written definitions of new terms, written oral explanations for charts, graphs, and diagrams. Follow-up reading for any class lectures and discussions. Study Strategies To Help You Remember: Take careful notes to concentrate during class lectures and discussions, and then study them several times for a visual review before a test. Write summaries or notes in your own words of material you have read or discussed in class. Ask your teacher or tutor for written explanations of new words, concepts, and assignments. Write down any oral instructions for assignments to have a visual aid to refer to later. Read your textbooks and other assigned material silently instead of aloud to gain maximum meaning. Highlight important ideas in your assigned reading with colored markers and make summary comments in the margins in your own words. Write down any oral explanations your teacher provides for charts, diagrams, and graphs. Make flashcards with definitions, dictionary examples, and your own example sentences of new vocabulary. Make lists and other written reminders of anything you need to remember to do. VISUAL / NONVERBAL LEARNERS Characteristics: Relate to such words as: see, look, picture, observe, show, imagine. Understand and retain information well by looking at pictures, diagrams, charts, maps,films. Like to browse through books and magazines focusing primarily on the pictures. Learn how to do things through observation and modeling rather than verbal explanations. Prefer demonstrated tasks and visual models to oral and written instructions. Would rather see a film on a subject rather than listen to a lecture or panel discussion. Prefer the television as a source of news rather than a newspaper or radio. Have a strong visual memory: remember faces, locations, directions, where they put things. Often doodle or draw while taking notes during a class lecture or discussion. Teaching Strategies to Help You Learn: Demonstrations and modeling of assigned tasks. Models of successfully completed assignments that they can emulate. Visual aids: lists, diagrams, charts, pictures, films, concept maps, real objects. Opportunities to draw pictures, diagrams, or other graphic representations of problems, ideas or concepts.
Guided visualization exercises, which can help you imagine a situation. To have new concepts and vocabulary introduced first through examples you can relate to, imagery, metaphor, and fantasy. Study Strategies To Help You Remember: Draw pictures, diagrams, charts, graphs, or concept maps of vocabulary, concepts, or problems. Use a variety of bright colors to highlight important information in your lecture notes and assigned readings. Try to get a mental picture of what you are reading or listening about in a lecture to keep mentally alert and to better retain this verbal information. Summarize the main points of what you have read in the form of a chart or concept map. Ask your teacher or tutor to provide examples and anecdotes to help you imagine and understand difficult new terms. Ask your teacher or tutor to provide models of successfully completed problems, exam responses, and written work to better understand procedures and grading expectations. Translate written explanations and concepts into symbols: e.g. in math, “cost per foot” becomes $ ÷ Ø.
TACTILE - KINESTHETIC LEARNERS Characteristics: Relate to such words as: feel, touch, grasp, do, move. Enjoy working with their hands; want to feel and touch everything. Tend to be skilled at repairing and assembling things, even without instructions. Tend to be coordinated at sports. Like to explore their environment. Focus well during “hands on” projects and activities. Are frequently in motion: may fidget, get up regularly, doodle or tap pencil. May get restless and distracted during lengthy class lectures, reports or discussions. Like variety in classroom activities. Enjoy opportunities to work collaboratively with a partner or a small group on a task. Teaching Strategies To Help You Learn: Activities that encourage learning by doing and interacting with others. Participating in role plays and simulations. Manipulating and assembling objects, materials, models. Taking notes during class lectures and discussions as the act of writing aids concentration. Drawing, underlining, and highlighting in class notes as well as in assigned readings. Going on field trips. Completing classroom assignments with a partner or a small group. Study Strategies to Help You Learn: Do your “thinking” on paper: make lists, outlines, graphs, concept maps. Take good notes during lengthy class lectures and discussions, even if you think you understand the material, as the act of writing and highlighting important points aids a great deal in learning. Make your own graphs, charts, time lines, diagrams, and concept maps to better understand new concepts and important material. Highlight ideas in your assigned chapters and other reading selections after you have already done an initial reading, and then copy the most important information in your own words is a notebook in whatever form seems helpful to you: e.g., a chart, graph, diagram. Make and use your own “flash cards” to quiz yourself on new vocabulary and material. Write your brainstorming for papers and projects or problem-solving for math first on a large piece of paper, then copy this onto smaller paper.
Schedule your study sessions so that you can take breaks to stretch and move around. Break up your homework into manageable time blocks; vary the activities you work on to concentrate better rather than spend a large amount of time on one activity. Try not to register for classes that meet only once or twice a week which will require you to sit and listen to a lecture / discussion for a long period of time. AUDITORY LEARNERS Characteristics: Relate to such words as: hear, listen, sound, ring, tune. Master new information by listening, then repeating, or discussing with others. Like to socialize, talk, discuss, share ideas. Enjoy working collaboratively with a partner or a small group. Prefer to have someone explain how to assemble or use something rather than look over written instructions or diagrams. Feel frustrated when teachers write assignment and test instructions on the board or on a handout but do not go over them orally. Volunteer answers in class, relate relevant anecdotes and examples, and process what they are learning orally. Would rather listen to an expert lecture on a subject than read an article or textbook. May not read assigned chapters, articles, or stories thoroughly, in hopes of having the main ideas clarified in class by a class lecture or discussion. Remember names and lyrics to popular songs after hearing them once or only a few times. Teaching Strategies to Help You Learn: Information presented through lectures, class discussions, small-group activities, films, tapes. Oral instructions for all classroom tasks, tests, and homework assignments. Oral explanations for all charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, pictures. Brainstorming ideas aloud with classmates before beginning a reading or writing assignment. Small group discussions and problem-solving activities. Opportunities to ask questions and share ideas during class lectures. Oral summaries by the teacher of the main points in lectures or assigned readings. Opportunities to give oral reports on subjects and to listen to oral reports by classmates. Study Strategies to Help You Remember: Make tape recordings of any information you want to learn. Play them in your car, while doing household chores, and before going to sleep. Teach someone else what you have learned. Summarize the content you want to master aloud or to someone else. Make your own “flashcards” to study new vocabulary, including definitions, dictionary examples, and your own original sentences; quiz yourself out loud or ask someone else. Try a solution to a problem verbally before doing it on paper. Ask your teachers or tutor to give you verbal explanations for diagrams, charts, graphs. Ask your teachers to go over any written assignment or test instructions orally. Find a “study buddy” with whom you can discuss class material and prepare for tests.
From Strategies For Enhancing College Teaching and Learning, Kate Kinsella, 1995