Learning Styles Summary Page

ACTIVE AND REFLECTIVE LEARNERS 

• Acive learners tend to retain and understand information best by doing something active with it--discussing or applying it or explaining it to others. Reflective learners prefer to think about it quietly first.
• "Let's try it out and see how it works" is an active learner's phrase; "Let's think it through first" is a reflective learner's response.
• Active learners tend to like group work more than reflective learners, who prefer to work alone
• Sitting through lectures without getting to do anything physical but take notes is hard for both types, but particularly hard for active learners

How can active learners help themselves?

• Study in a group in which the members take turns explaining different topics to each other
• Work with others to guess what you will be asked on the next test and figure out how you will answer
• Find ways to do something with the information in order to better retain it.

How can reflective learners help themselves?

• Don't simply read or memorize the material; stop periodically to review what you have read and to think of possible questions or applications
• Write short summaries of readings or class notes in your own words in order to retain the material more effectively.

SENSING AND INTUITIVE LEARNERS

• Sensing learners tend to like learning facts, intuitive learners often prefer discovering possibilities and relationships
• Sensors often like solving by well established methods and dislike complications and surprises; intuitors like innovation and dislike repetition. Sensors are more likely than intuitors to resent being tested on material that has not been explicitly covered in class.
• Sensors tend to be patient with details and good at memorizing facts and doing hands-on (laboratory) work; intuitors may be better at grasping new concepts and are often more comfortable than sensors with abstractions and mathematical formulations.
• Sensors tend to be more practical and careful that intuitors; intuitors tend to work faster and to be more innovative than sensors
• Sensors don't like courses that have no apparent connection to the real world; intuitors don't like "plug and chug" courses that involve a lot of memorization and routine calculations.

How can sensing learners help themselves?

• Sensors remember and understand information best if they can see how it connects to the real world.
• If you are in a class where most of the material is abstract and theoretical, you may have dificulty.
• Ask your instructor for specific examples of concepts and procedures, and find out how the concepts apply in practice.
• If the teacher does not provide enough specifics, try to find some in your course text or other references or by brainstorming with friends or classmates.

How can intuitive learnershelp themselves?

• Many college lecture classes are aimed at intuitors.
• However, if you are an intuitor and you happen to be in a class that deals primarily with memorization and rote substitution in formulas, you may have trouble with boredom.
• Ask your instructor for interpretations or theories that link the facts, or try to find the connections youself.
• You may be prone to careless mistakes on tests because you are impatient with details and don't like repetition (as in checking your completed solutions).
• Take time to read the entire questions before you start answering and be sure to check your results.

VISUAL AND VERBAL LEARNERS

• Visual learners remember best what they see--pictures, diagrams, flow charts, time lines, films, and demonstrations.
• Verbal learners get more out of words--written and spoken explanations.
• Everyone learns more when information is presented both visually and verbally.

How can visual learners help themselves?

• If you are a visual learner, try to find diagrams, sketches, schematics, photographs, flow charts, or any other visual representation of course material that is primarily verbal.
• Ask your instructor, consult reference books, and see if any videotapes or CD-ROM displays of the course material are available.
• Prepare a concept map by listing key points, enclosing them in boxes or circles, and drawing lines between concepts to show connections.
• Color code your notes with a highlighter so that everything relating to one topic is the same color.

How can verbal learners help themselves?

• Write summaries or outlines of course material in your words.
• Working in groups can be particularly effective; you gain understanding of material by hearing classmates' explanations and you learn even more when you do the explaining.

SEQUENTIAL AND GLOBAL LEARNERS

• Sequential learners tend to gain understanding in linear steps, with each step following logically from the previous one.
• Global learners tend to learn in large jumps, absorbing material almost randomly without seeing connections, and then suddenly "getting it."
• Sequential learners tend to follow logical stepwise paths in finding solutions.
• Global learners may be able to solve complex probelms quickly or put things together in novel ways once they have grasped the big picture, but they may have difficulty explaining how they did it.

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