Week 7: Reflection on How I Learn
Reflection on How I Learn
Having a deeper understanding of learning styles and learning
theories has broadened the way I view learning. There are four styles of learning
visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and read/write. A person can prefer one style
more so than the other or favor a specific style in different learning scenarios.
Visual learners like to see information in illustrations such as pictures, videos, or drawings. Visual learners are good at following written instructions, are organized, love bulleted lists, and plan for the future, especially if they have a flowchart (Outschool, 2020). For me, I’m a visual learner of new information. I need information presented in bullets, a process, instructions, illustration, and video. I need time to absorb the information and put it into practice to gain and retain the information as knowledge.
Auditory learners love to take about everything. They learn
by hearing, asking questions, and verbal repetition. They enjoy class
discussion and social interaction. People with an auditory preference are good
listeners, storytellers, and speakers. I
work through topics that cause stress reaction as an auditory learner. I use a
sounding board to purge stress thinking to make room for creativity and forward
movement, learning, and doing. Writing things down acts as a sounding board
alternative. When I listen to audiobooks, I also have to see the words together
to focus my hearing and visualize the information taught.
Kinesthetic learners are doers. They need to move their body
as they learn new information such as note-taking and hands-on activity. They
learn best in smaller chunks with an interactive activity. I am a kinesthetic learner with things that require
physical energy. I like to exercise with
a trainer doing a chunk of activity like HIIT or station rotation exercises. Also, for learning things that exert physical
energy like learning how to facilitate a group like teaching yoga or basically anything
that requires being in front of people. The best strategy for me to learn how
to perform things that require physical activities is to show me how to do a
task while explaining it.
Read/write learners are drawn to anything in the written form, such as books, essays, articles, and reports. They love to read! This class, Theories and Instruction, with all of the reading resources of articles, reports, and writing assignments, was a happy place for this learning style. Personally, I struggled like I never had before. As a VAK, I now understand why the last seven weeks were such a struggle to learn. I frequently searched for videos and illustrations that explained the learning styles, theories, and concepts discussed in the many essays and articles.
My view of my learning has changed significantly by learning more about learning styles and theories. I understand better how I learn as a multimodal learner for both style and theory. With my VAK learning style and preference for the behaviorist, cognitive, and adult learning theories, I’ve learned to understand better what learning strategies work best for different scenarios. Now, I know what and why certain strategies have worked in certain situations and not in others. For example, a bullet list doesn’t work when I want to learn to exercise or cook in a new way. I know now that I have to kinesthetically do the activity to have a sustained behavior change. However, suppose I want to learn a new concept or way of working. In that case, I tap into my visual learning style by making a bullet list, creating flowcharts of the process, and finding instructional resources such as videos and illustrations to support my learning. It’s also vital to have help from someone who has more knowledge to assist with kinesthetic learning, like a personal trainer, yoga guru, or cooking coach. According to Vygotsky, a most knowledgeable other (MKO) (someone who has a better understanding or ability of the concept) is vital to the learner who is at the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) (the gap between known and unknown) of the learning goal to providing the “boost” to achieving success (Galloway, 2010).
I’ve also learned the
technology such as YouTube, Linked In Learning, simulation software, and social
media are great tools that I use to support and expand on read/write materials
that are a challenge for me to comprehend.
References
Galloway, C. (2010). Vygotsky Constructivism.
In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.
Retrieved from http://textbookequity.org/Textbooks/Orey_Emergin_Perspectives_Learning.pdf
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