Vark Learning Styles: Read/Write Learning Style

Dictionary.com defines a student as “a person formally engaged in learning” (Student, 2012). Students of any age know that comprehending and retaining information is essential to educational success. Just as every student had unique physical attributes, they also have unique learning styles in which they best retain new and important information. The VARK (Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic) is a questionnaire that is given to help individual find their unique learning style. This allows students and non students alike to explore the way in which the not only retain information, but the best way to present information. Each type of learning style is broken down with ways in which to

In school everyone learns differently; however, according to the article The Myth of Learning Styles, “The idea of learning styles is based on a theory… developed in the early 1980’s.” (pg 1.) A lot has certainly changed from the 1980’s as we learn new more material in every class we take. With this being said, someone the scientists referred to in the article “assumed” that learning styles challenged the way of the educational system when in reality, it is simply a myth. Students, like myself, only prefer to process information that they find useful or interesting to him or her. Thus giving us the problems of that teachers may take too long to cover one idea, and students may miss out out on information because he or she did not prefer that learning style.

For years, there have been many theorists who have shared their views on how individuals learn. Such research has determined that individuals have different learning styles. It is important for teacher to understand the learning styles of both themselves and their students because it helps them to relay the subject knowledge to the students. The teacher is in a position where they must be able to assess the learning styles of their students. This means that the students and teachers are both in a process of learning.

This student’s preferred learning strategy compared to the learning strategy provided by V.A.R.K. is almost identical. The learning strategies that have been used throughout her education have always netted good results, which is evident by her grades. In the past other students have commented about her learning style and the amount of time spent on note taking, outlines, and writing out note cards, but she has perfected this process for her learning style.

i. Understanding the learners learning styles can make my course to be engaging. Flemming (1987) noted three different styles of learning; visual, kinaesthetic and aural. In order to know which method(s) to use to benefit my students the first lesson on my course will centre around discussions on what they already know, the resources they are familiar with, and a learning style questionnaire which will provide me with information on preferred learning styles. Effectiveness can also be enhanced if I adapt my teaching style to give maximum benefit to learners.

“Just as students have different personalities, they also have different ways of learing (Slavin, 107).” Learning styles are another important factor to incorporate when implementing the best learning environment. Learning styles are defined as an individual's mode of gaining knowledge. The most common learning styles addressed are auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Auditory leaners understand information through hearing. Visual learners need more visual aids in the learning process, such as diagrams, webs, or pictures. Kinesthetic learners learn better by using manipulatives or by being physically involved in the learning process. Learning styles is a piece of the “backbone” of differentiated learning. Both are used to individualize instruction to help students achieve the most success.

Introduction: Ways of Reading can be difficult to understand at times, but if you break it down it becomes easier to understand. Some of the quotes written by David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky can be used to look at the greater picture and do not just apply to reading and writing. Three quotes really stuck out to me while I was reading the introduction of this book. It was not just because they were great advice on reading and writing, but because they can also be applied to everyday life or certain situations in life. There are lessons to be learned in this introduction such as challenging others and students, understanding that there are different interpretations of things, and finding the meaning as you go along.

Strategic readers monitor their thinking and recognize when errors are committed but they also know what strategy to use to correct the error. For example, they may need to reread the text to make sense, use context clues to understand unfamiliar words. No matter what the obstacle is, a fix-up strategy is applied. The K-W-L is a well- known teaching technique to assist in the monitoring strategy. The K-W-L chart provides the teacher and students opportunity to participate in discussions before, during, and after reading. It helps the student to ask and answer questions, identify the main idea and detail, and summarize the text (Santoro, Baker, Fien, Smith, and Chard, 2016 p. 284).

It is practical to assume that students will perform better in tasks that reflect their particular style of learning, so knowledge of students’ learning styles, including a variety of tasks will make teaching more inclusive. A learning style questionnaire could be handed out at the start of a course which, once completed will inform the teacher about the learning styles of the students.

Education benefits individual mentally, emotionally and physically by placing them in better place than they were previously before. Everybody would agree that learning something new would take place throughout the life. Learning style defined as "A term that describes the variations among learners in using one or more senses to understand, organize, and retain experience" (Reid, 1987, p. 89). Furthermore, Felder and Henriques (1995, p. 21) explained learning styles as "the ways in which an individual characteristically acquires, retains and retrieves information". However, different learners possess different characteristics and different preferred learning styles to perceive, process, take in and understand information.

The read/write learner is advised to: develop lists, make outlines, obtain study guides, take notes, and write words to the notes several times. It is also recommended to read notes silently, rewrite and paraphrase ideas into other words. Converting graphs, charts, and diagrams into worded statements help the student with a strong read/write preference to understand the meanings contained in the visual material. Meaning is found in words; therefore the student with a read/write learning preference should search for words that describe the meaning of a concept by breaking the concept into textual points. (Fleming, n.d.).

Learning styles and barriers to learning can be by the VARK to give a profile of learning preferences of how a person takes in and gives out information or Tidwell and Rodgers Practical learning styles Questionnaire. The VARK learning styles determines if the person learns by being a theorist, reflector, activist and/or pragmatist. The practical learning styles questionnaire looks at how people learn by their orientation, whether they are a realistic or creative, by their interaction, are they a doer or a thinker, by how they represent things, either by words or pictures, and how they process information, whether they are a surface or deep processor. There are many other

Willingham, D. T., Hughes, E. M., & Dobolyi, D. G. (2015). The scientific status of learning styles theories. Teaching of Psychology, 42(3), 266-271. doi:10.1177/0098628315589505

Learning styles describe the way in which an individual or student uses different methods in the way they acquire, scrutinize, understand and remember knowledge or information (Kharb, 2013). The VARK questionnaire is a tool through which one can identify his/her learning style and is based on how individuals interact and respond to their learning environment. After undertaking the questionnaire, the scores for visual learning was 10, kinesthetic was 12, Aural was 10 and read/write was 16. The preferred learning style was, therefore, determined to be Multimodal which means that multiple strategies can be in cooperated to enable sufficient learning. Read/Write had the highest score followed closely by kinesthetic, aural and visual. This implies that the adequate strategy to acquire and convey information or knowledge is through printed or written words. With Kinesthetic having the second highest score, it shows that learning is also adequate through gaining experience and engaging in practical activities or processes that give real-life examples. Visual and Aural strategies had the same score meaning that learning can also be achieved through presentations in visual formats, drawings or diagrams as well as observations and taking of verbal instructions or listening.

However, the second method being discussed in this paper, the whole language approach, focuses much of its attention on making sure the student understands and enjoys what he or she is reading. Whole language instruction occurs when a student acquires language rather than learning it through direct instruction (Brooks 35-36). This method is more child centered than teacher dominated, because the objective is for the student to learn how to read through talking and doing rather than through passive listening. Unlike phonics, whole language uses a variety of ways to give students the opportunity to interact with the text they are reading. Questioning, discussing, problem-solving, listening, writing, drawing, and dramatizing are among the ways students interact with text. Students are also encouraged to implement simple strategies while reading such as: reading the sentence and guessing what word will come next, looking at the picture on the page to help figure out the sentence, and also rereading the sentence for clarification. This method also does a good job in allowing the students to engage in text at their own speed and often in their own ways (36).