Introduction
Every individual is unique in terms of how he or she captures and processes information to complete the learning cycle. Research suggests that approximately 20 to 30 percent of students are good at remembering what they heard; those who recall what they have seen or read make up 40 percent of the student population, while the remaining fraction must manipulate their fingers, write down what they have seen or heard, or even go to the extent of performing what is taught in their real-life so that they can grasp the new facts. It brings rise to the four types of learners’ namely auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and lastly, read/write (Farwell, 2012).
Auditory/aural learner is a student who maintains his or her attention and interest to what is being taught by observing the teacher’s voice tone, body language and movement, and inflection. Such students succeed when information is requested and presented verbally. A visual learner is one who captures data by the virtue of seeing. A kinesthetic learner on his or her part excels through experience; such a student has with the material at hand. While for the read/write learner, he or she depends on reading information then synthesizing it by virtue of writing it down (Farwell, 2012). Therefore, for a learner ranked by the VARK Questionnaire results to score 4 points in visual, 11 points in aural, 7 points in read/write, and 12 points in kinesthetic, one can classify such a learner to be more dependent on tonal variation, body language, taking part in the study through touching and feeling to maintain his or her attention and interest in the study, and also writing down what he or she has read to help synthesize the information better.
The above student should utilize strategies that build on aural and kinesthetic learning skills more so as to help improve on his or her strong points. And with the student being also good with the read/write style it would be wise to also have strategies that build on the style. It will have such a student armed with three styles of learning that leaves him or her well prepared to grasp any new information taught. For starters, aural learner requires to; attend classes, tutorials and discussions, put summarized notes onto the tapes, and explain new ideas, pictures, overheads, and other visuals to another party (Fleming, 2011). Secondly, the student should improve his or her kinesthetic earning skills by; using all of her/his senses in terms of sight, taste, hearing, touch, and smell, should take part in field trips and tours, take notes creatively, study as he or she moves around, and sit where he or she can participate in classroom events actively (UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSUTY, 2013). Lastly, the student should now go and better his or her read/write skills. It will help improve the quality and reliability of the information taken down by the student thus helping him or her improve even more as both an aural and kinesthetic learner (Fleming, 2011).
According to VARK a student with such points should undertake a number of strategies if he or she is to improve in learning. For example, for a kinesthetic learner they have thirteen strategies to help improve such a student’s learning skills. From the thirteen strategies six strategies give a well-directed approach that is realistic and beneficial to a student while the others seem to be a repetition of the same point. VARK gives well spelt out strategies that can help the above student improve in learning as a multimodal learner who utilizes aural, kinesthetic, and read/write styles of learning. Although, VARK has broken down the strategies to a more dilute list that one can easily grasp, they all build to one goal which is the improving a student’s learning skills depending on the type of learner he or she is.
The knowledge of individual learning style and preferences is crucial to both the student and his or her teacher since it gives both parties an upper hand in tackling the poor learning skills that are observed in most students. For the student, it would make it possible for him or her to be able to study alone without a teacher’s supervision while at the same time ensure that what such student learns is not lost after the session is complete, but he or she remembers the contents read even after. The student is also able to become self-aware with his or her strengths and weaknesses, thus, enabling him/her to take advantage of the strengths to minimize the risks brought about by the noted weaknesses (University of Western Ontario, 2009). With knowledge of ones learning style and preference now the student can research and come up with strategies to improve his or her current form. Such student is able to formulate strategies that are fit with his or her situation thus making it easy to improve and better the students' learning skills.
The joy of teaching is having a classroom full of students who understand what ones teach, and failure of such frustrates most teachers. Therefore, it is advantageous for the teacher to be aware of his or her students’ individual learning styles and preferences because from there the teacher can be able to come up with the teaching styles that fit with the students. It will see such a teacher having a clear draft of each of the students learning abilities and from there the teacher can be in a position of teaching easily without leaving even one feeling out. Knowing the preferences of ones students also helps in the selection of teaching materials to prevent presenting information in a method that does not intrigue or interest the students in any way thus losing their attention.
Conclusion
It is wise for a student to have a clear understanding of his or her learning style and preference so as to be able such student formulate strategies that will help improve his or her learning skills. For the teacher, it is his or her duty to note and be informed on his or her students’ learning styles and preferences so that he or she can easily come up with better teaching strategies that fit with the students and accommodate them all without leaving out some.
References
Fleming, Neil, 2011.VARK: Read/Write Study Strategies. Available at:
http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=readwrite
Fleming, Neil, 2011. VARK: Aural Study Strategies. Available at:
http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=aural
Farwell, Terry, 2009. Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic Learners. Available at:
www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDUQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fschool.familyeducation.com%2Fintelligence%2Fteaching-methods%2F38519.html&ei=B95YU8vGIaKGywOps4LoDA&usg=AFQjCNECUKETE20K-rBEcAB6G2cnnNKWKQ&sig2=TN9w18jVZ0rJMcwGXPx6AA&bvm=bv.65397613,d.bGQ
The University of Western Ontario, 2009. Student Development Centre: Learning Styles.
Available at: http://www.sdc.uwo.ca/learning/?styles
UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY, 2013. Learning Styles: Modes. Available at:
https://www.uvu.edu/learningstrategies/styles/kinesthetic.html
