Working with Your Preferred Learning Style

This information will be most meaningful if you first complete the free, online Index of Learning Styles by Felder and Silverman. Go to www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/ILSpage.html for both the ILS questionnaire, and the general interpretation of your results

 

1. What is this all about?

Learning is an active mental process that involves at least 4 different activities:
getting information into your brain through your senses, thinking about your experiences, remembering, and expressing your thoughts and feelings. The focus of learning is on making sense of the world around you, so you can adapt to new situations.

At university, the goal of learning is to increase your understanding of subject material: see patterns and connections, acquire skills, and develop critical thinking. Ultimately, "adaptation" translates to extending knowledge beyond known limits, creating a new method or product, or discovering a new phenomenon.

Learning style is a loose term that refers to your preferred way of learning, but not necessarily your best or only way of learning

Research in this area goes back at least 50 years. No specific test of learning style has been developed that is widely accepted. Many tests are used that tap different areas, with much attention being given to distinctions among visual/auditory/kinesthetic learning styles. Data is weak on the validity of the concept, and teaching approaches that favour one style of learner are often not specific to only that style. Links derived from Jung's work are made between personality, learning style, and careers. But intuitively, the idea of "learning style" makes sense and many students find the strategies help them approach their work.

Next Part - 2. What's your preferred style? How do you learn?

 

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