Learning and Teaching Styles

Today's professor is knowledgeable about several frameworks for analyzing learning and teaching styles and uses this information to guide lesson planning. This introduction provides a brief description of Learning Styles and their importance to teaching.

Explore a number of Learning And Teaching Styles Inventories

Sue and Karim are putting together a bicycle they bought for their daughter’s birthday. Sue pulls out the instruction sheet and begins to inventory the materials they have dumped out of the cardboard carton. She has not finished counting the screws when Karim picks up some pieces, takes a screw from her pile and begins to fasten them together.

Three trainees are touring a facility as part of their orientation to their new job. One looks at all the equipment and jots down notes in a small notebook; her colleague cannot seem to pass by a table or piece of equipment without touching it; the third person seems scarcely to look at the equipment she is so intent on listening to everything their guide is telling them.

We have long known that people differ in how they go about learning, thinking and problem solving. Some people like to read about something first and then try it out while others prefer to try it out and then read about it later. Some people find that working alone in a quiet environment helps them to learn better. Others prefer to work in a group setting and are quite comfortable with background noise. Some people like to think and form pictures in their minds, while others are more comfortable if they can touch or feel (sense) an object. Some people have to see things or symbols before they can remember while others prefer auditory or tactile stimuli. Some people like to start from specific examples and discover generalizations that apply while others are more comfortable working from principles and theories to specific applications. There are a myriad of different ways that people describe their preferences for learning. In short, people have different learning styles.

Learning styles are not just preferences. Learning styles refer to characteristic ways that individuals process information and behave in learning situations (Keefe, 1978; Price, 1983). Knowledge of learning styles helps us understand how a person learns and adapts to the environment.

There are many different variables addressed in different learning style inventories. Some learning styles look at how people “take in” information—which of the sensing they seem to be able to use most effectively. Others look at how we prefer to process and “make sense” of information and still others look at how our innate temperament and personality traits influence how we learn, interact with and interpret the world around us.

Formal testing of learning styles can be undertaken but a great deal of information can be obtained informally simply by reflecting and thinking about how learners go about learning and by observing and communicating with our students. In any case, it is safe to assume that there will be a broad range of learning styles represented in any group of learners.

Perhaps even more important than knowing the learning style of our learners is to know our own learning style. Our own preferred ways of learning will influence very much how we teach and coach others. In fact, next to how we ourselves were taught, the way we prefer to learn is the strongest influence on how we are likely to teach!

Keeping different learning styles in mind will make us better facilitators of learning. For example, knowing that some learn best through listening, others prefer to see the material and still others are more comfortable actually trying out information in real situations: a coach who organizes learning activities that involve telling, showing and doing will ensure that each learner will be operating, at least part of the time, in their own preferred learning style. We can use our knowledge of learning styles when coaching students, when selecting learning activities, when assessing performance etc. etc.

Understanding learning styles will also help groups of people who are learning and working together to capitalize on the strength that each different learning style brings to the group’s effort.

A word of caution: understanding one’s learning style is best seen as a tool to help us respect and celebrate differences. Learning style should be seen as a way of understanding preferences and approaches to learning, not as a way to label and categorize people.

Back to Top