02. Everything You Want to Know About Learning (and Working) Styles
Episode 02
The concept of learning styles has been floating around for many, many years. However, recently (ish) the existence of learning styles has been questioned. In other words: do they even exist?
In this week’s episode, we talk all about learning and working styles:
what they are
if they even exist
how knowing your learning and working preferences can increase your productivity
how to design your work and study spaces according to your learning/working preferences
Resources:
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The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I am choosing not to spend my time fixing them. :)
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Hello. Hello. Thank you for being here.
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Today we are talking all about learning styles. So what they are. Are they even a thing? And then what do they mean for your productivity at school and at work?
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Unknown
Now, in this episode, I'm going to be covering strategies and tips and information for working professionals and for students. So if you are either one of those, you are in the right spot. Definitely. Definitely. Stick around.
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Hello. You are listening to the Learn and Work Smarter Podcast, the podcast for students and professionals who want to learn and work smarter. I'm your host executive function coach and founder of School Habits dot com. Katie Azevedo. As a reminder, everything I mention in today's episode will be linked in the show notes, including a link to the transcript, which you can also find at LearnandWorkSmarter.com/podcast
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So let's just cut to the chase. Our learning styles, even a thing. And in reality, the jury is still out. You can have conversations and do your research and find so much information from people who are adamant that learning styles are a legitimate thing.
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Okay.
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But then on the other camp, there are people who claim that they are not a thing, and it's just sort of a educational sort of pop. I don't know, is exaggeration, I guess we could say.
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where I stand is I prefer to call them learning preferences.
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Okay. I think it's legitimate that we all have certain preferences to the way that we receive information and understand information and work with information, whether that's at school or at work. Now, for the purpose of this episode, I am probably just going to continue to call them learning styles because that is a shorter word than the word preferences.
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But just to be honest here I am coming from a place of I think there are more of learning preferences because there is no hard evidence whatsoever that we are biologically predisposed to having a certain style for a learning. Now, that's not to say that people don't have learning disabilities, right? And that's not what I'm talking about here at all.
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So of course, if someone has an auditory processing disorder, well, then we probably wouldn't consider them an auditory learner. Okay. But that's because there's an actual cognitive deficit,
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at play. And that's not what I'm talking about here. We're just talking about like General learning styles or preferences, shall we say.
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But in reality, if somebody prefers information delivered a certain way, whether it's audio or visual or kinesthetic or read write, then the result is going to be better.
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If you prefer information in charts and graphs and pictures. And that's how your job is set up. Maybe you're a graphic designer. Maybe you employ a lot of visuals in what you do. Maybe you have a teacher. If you're a student in school and there's always visuals to accompany the lessons and you like that. Well, then you're going to have more success in that job or in that class.
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So I think that our preferences for learning are absolutely relevant.
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I'm just not of the camp that that argues that there is a biological foundation for these preferences
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The learning styles are often talked about in the context of school, right? But they are absolutely relevant to people in the workforce too.
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Okay. So in this episode I'm going to talk about learning styles as they apply to both and how you can use this information about yourself to find greater success either in the classroom or in work. Okay, so what are the learning styles according to the learning style experts VARK - You can google them - There are four primary learning styles.
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It's visual, kinesthetic, auditory and read writelearners.
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Now, in most cases someone is going to have a primary learning preference and a secondary learning preference. In very rare cases. And in fact, we don't want this. Is someone going to have just only one preferred way of engaging with and learning and understanding information.
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Okay. In fact, the more flexible you are, the more learning preferences that you have or don't have. Actually, I guess we could say then the greater success you will have in multiple environments, whether again that's work or school, but knowing what your learning preference is, can help you find the right career, can help you find the right job, can help you pick the right courses in school.
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It can help you avoid lecture classes or maybe choose lecture classes. There's important decisions that you can make about your life based on your own personal preferences. Does that make sense? I hope so.
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Now, if you're a student, knowing your learning preference can help you design your study space to support your learning. It can help you choose appropriate course format.
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So again, like lectures or maybe labs, they can better help set you up for success. And of course, knowing your learning preference can help you identify different study methods that, you know, align better with that type of learning. If you are a working professional, knowing your learning preferences can help you set up and design your your workspace, whether it's at an office or whether you're working from home,
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it can help you choose the right companies or teams that support the way that you like to engage with information and for you to It can help you choose study methods, right, that are more appropriate if you're doing professional development or even personal development or future education
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as an adult. Okay. So these are just some of the ways that really having some self-awareness about your own learning preferences can serve you.
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Before we dive into this episode, breaking down the characteristics of each of the learner types and ways that you can use that information to your advantage. I want to let you know that in the description box of this, you know, so you see, YouTube isn't not even called the description box.
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If you're watching this on YouTube, it will be in the description box. If you are listening to this on a podcast app, then it will be in the show notes. Okay, I have a free learning style checklist that you can access in the show notes or the description box with a breakdown of all of the characteristics of each of the four learning styles.
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Yes, I'm going to go over it in today's episode, but if you're listening to this, it can be hard, especially if you're not an auditory learner, for you to retain all of the information. I'm going to rattle off to you today.
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Okay. Just wanted to put that out there.
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So let's start with a description of the learning styles, and I want you to see where you fit in. Okay. As I describe the common characteristics of each of the learning preferences and learning styles. I want you to
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check
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into yourself. Think. Does that sound like me? And then maybe as I move on to describing another learning style, you might say, Wait, that also sounds like me.
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That's normal. Because as I explained earlier, sometimes we have more than one learning preference, and the more we have, the more flexible we are, which makes us more successful.
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So we're going to start with visual learners. Visual learners better understand process and recall information when they see it presented visually.
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Often in graphs, charts, pictures, flow charts, even videos.
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So some common characteristics of visual learners have them in my notes here because I cannot memorize this. Okay. And I want to make sure that I'm very clear in how I articulate them. Visual learners tend to better process information when it's presented in a visual format, kind of just one over that struggled with listening to lectures struggle with following directions when they're given orally, prefer to read and write information rather than listen to it.
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Often prefer paper and pen instead of digital tools. Visual learners benefit from the use of color, often have neat handwriting and tend to pay attention to detail.
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If any of that sounded like you and you're perking up, then yeah, maybe you're a visual learner. Maybe you already suspected you were. And then hearing about this validates that suspicion. So visual learners should use study methods that involve visuals, charts, graphics,
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images, videos, things like that.
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If possible, you would want to choose classes with instructors who use slide presentations, videos and handouts to supplement what their lectures are. Okay, I have another list that I'm going to go through. Okay. Visual learners should also absolutely take notes during class. If you are a student, take notes during meetings and trainings if you are working professional. No, I do not want you to continue to tell yourself the story that you are going to remember.
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What is happening at the meeting are happening in a class. No, you will not. That is not what our brains are designed for. You are going to write it down. Okay. You should find images and videos of concepts rather than written explanations of them.
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Let's say you're learning something new in biology and your textbook is sort of like describing, I don't know, the parts of the brain, right. Or that maybe that's in psychology.
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I want you to go into Google Images and find a diagram. Maybe maybe your teacher gives you a diagram that's photocopied like junk, Right? And it's all smeared and dark and you can't see the different regions of the brain. Go to Google images, find a visual that aligns with your preferences and use that. Okay, So this is sort of the backbone of why I'm even making this first episode about learning styles, because they're empowering.
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Acknowledging the way that you prefer to learn and work can be empowering. You can take that information and do something with it. Okay, that's the whole point. Everything I teach you guys, I talk about on these episodes going forward, I want you to chew on it, think about it. Yes, it's awesome. And then do something with it. The magic's in the action.
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Okay. I'm also considering writing out concepts on whiteboards.
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They don't need to be massive, but if you have a whiteboard or if you're thinking about getting one, I suggest one that you can actually put up on a wall so that you can stand and employ some sort of kinesthetic movement as well. We're going to talk about kinesthetic learners and just a little bit group information into clusters when possible and then draw these clusters into a mind map.
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You could do a simple Google search or a YouTube whatever for how to do a mind map. Okay. So if you're brainstorming for a project at work or for an essay at school, instead of just writing an outline, a Google doc or a word doc, get a piece of paper, get your whiteboard and and draw connections and make bubbles.
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Okay, This is what people do. You might find that you try it once and you're like, my gosh, that's what I've been missing. In terms of time management, you want to make sure that you're making time visible. Everybody should have some sort of time management tool calendars, right? Agendas planners, this making time visible, but particularly if you're a visual learner.
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And then you also want to use a task management system for school and for work that allows you to see more than just one day at a time. That's a good strategy for anyone who is looking for a task management system, which of course we're going to cover on future episodes as well. But visual learners in particular want to make sure that you have a task management system that you can see a week at a time, right?
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So that you can look ahead and go, I didn't know Thursday was so busy. I guess I should get more of this stuff done on a Wednesday. Right? But if you're going day by day and you can't visually see what time you have and you're a visual learner, then you're going to end up stuck. Okay, So let's talk about work and study spaces that tend to work best for visual learners because you're highly influenced by what you see and your surroundings.
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You want to make sure that the things that you have in your workspace are only what you need or what inspire you, not just what you like. Okay, let's see. You like candles and figurines and your trophies and whatever. That's great. You can like things, but unless they motivate and inspire you to sit down and do the thing that you're supposed to be doing in that work or study space.
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Okay? Or unless you actually need the thing, your device, your paper, your notebooks, you know, sticky notes or whatever, then it shouldn't be in your work or study space. All right. I also suggest that visual learners have a larger than usual surface area for their work so that you can spread things out if you're using flashcards. If you're a student, you should be working with flashcards in a way that you can spread them out and regroup them.
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You're probably, if you're a visual learner, going to have lots of paper, right? Because you’re mind mapping, you might have a whiteboard, you might, you just need space not to collect clutter. That's not what you're looking for, but so that you're going to have your device and your notebook and your sticky notes and all the things that you need that that would support your visual strengths.
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You also want to be mindful of your environmental colors. You don't always have control all over that stuff, but if you do, then that's something to consider. And then absolutely at the end of each day around your workspace and study space, you want to bring it back to neutral. So put the pens away, tidy the notebooks, file away, the papers that you've collected, put your folders back in your bag.
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Right. Depending on your situation, you're going have different things sprawled out in front of you. At the end of the day, return it all to baseline neutral so that the next time you return to that sunny space or that workspace or your office, you're not overwhelmed by the residue of what you left there from your last work session.
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That makes sense. Okay, it's time to move on to auditory learners. So auditory learners better understand process and recall information when it is presented in a way that they can hear or speak it so that there's some sort of verbal action going on. Could you be an auditory learner? Maybe when to go through a list of common characteristics of auditory learners?
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And I want you to check in. Does it sound like you All right. Auditory learners tend to do better in lecture classes and meetings, in group discussions where there's a lot of back and forth, you should absolutely still be taking notes in your lectures and notes in your meetings because that's a good practice that helps you be able to have like a repository of that information for a leader, because now that stuff is going to stick around in your long term memory, but you might just be more successful in those environments because you can ordinarily process the information that you hear.
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You don't need as long to sort of a to understand it. You also benefit from oral explanations, oral directions. So you might have a list of directions in front of you, but if someone's delivering those to you verbally, you're like, boom, got it. Versus if you were reading it, it would it would take you longer.
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Definitely benefit from active class discussions, from powwows with your colleagues, from meetings where it's not just a boss or a leader speaking at you, but where there is sort of like a collective effort to to, you know, whatever the meeting is about.
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Right. But that conversation is so gold for auditory learners. But at the same time, you tend to easily be distracted by noise. So your environment really does matter. Headphones, headphones all day. Auditory learners sometimes find it beneficial to talk to themselves. They might be aware that they're doing that, or maybe they have no idea that they're doing that.
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But just sort of like, let's say if you're reading out loud and your lips are moving a little bit and it's just sort of under your breath, or as you're kind of going about your tasks in the day, you're like, okay, well, I did that and you check it off your to do list, just sort of some low key talking to yourself.
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Perfectly normal auditory learners also tend to be distracted by too many colors, graphics and visuals, and then a strength of auditory learners is that they're often able to see the big picture. Now, visual learners, a contrast, tend to really be detail oriented. Right now you might be an auditory learner who's detail oriented and can see the big picture, and that's an example of of being flexible in how you learn and work with information.
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Right. When you don't want to pigeonhole ourselves into a particular learning preference. And especially if I'm going over this list right now and you're like, I am definitely an auditory learner. Absolutely. Well, be flexible with that. Maybe because you might have auditory strengths, but then the ultimate goal is to be able to branch into the other kinds and say, okay, well, if I'm in an environment that's, you know, primarily visual, what can I do to take this visual information and make it auditory so that I succeed with it?
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Right. That's the ultimate purpose of even knowing what your learning preferences you know at all. All right. So if you're a student with auditory strengths, there's a variety of study methods and best practices that you can use that will lead you to be more successful. Number one is to study in small groups. So as I was saying, conversation is is so valuable for auditory learners.
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So you always want to study by yourself first before you study in a group so that you can really get an assessment of what you know and what you don't know. But then go find a study group so that you can benefit from the back and forth conversation and you can use your study partners to fill in the gaps.
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Also teaching someone else the material that engages your verbal tools, right? So if you're trying to explain it to somebody and they don't understand it because you're not explaining it well enough, that means that you don't know it well enough. And that's really important study strategy in general, but particularly for auditory learners. Talking out loud to yourself when you're studying can be super beneficial.
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Choosing lecture classes. If you know if you're in college or graduate school, you have more control over the types of classes that you take in high school. You kind of have to take what they give you or what's available. But even if you're in high school, juniors and seniors tend to have more options. And if you could pick a lecture class versus a different type of class, do that right if you can.
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Watching videos of material can be really helpful because yes, it's a visual component, but it's also the auditory component. And if you can record lectures and even if you put your camera down and you're just recording the audio part, you always have to ask permission if you're going to record anybody. But sometimes if you record the lecture, then later on you can go back and listen to it and you're getting that reinforcement, that repetition of what you heard.
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That's amazing. That will reduce the amount that you'll have to study later on for sure. And then people don't like to hear this. Is that studying with music, you got to be so careful. I know that studying with music is more fun. It makes the experience more fun. But we are not doing this for fun. We are doing this to be effective and to learn the thing and to move on.
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If you insist on studying with music, if you absolutely insist, then please make it study music that does not have lyrics. Because if you're an auditory learner, all of your cognitive resources involved in language should be put toward what you are learning and doing and thinking and writing. And if you have ver the verbs, if you have lyrics going on in the background, half your brain is going to like, wait a minute, what did that say?
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What's going on over here? And you will divide your attention in your cognitive resources and that is not cool. If you insist on music, make sure it has no words. It's a really cool lo fi study music out there that I've been getting into lately. I don't know if that's cool of me to say or not, but there you go.
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All right. So if you are a working professional, there's also some strategies that you can use now that you know, or once you find out that you have auditory strengths. So again, working in groups and teams where you can brainstorm out loud and bounce ideas off each other, okay, hopefully you're in a working forum in that collaborative because collaboration and auditory learners are like frickin peanut butter and jelly.
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They just they just work. You too, should be avoiding working with music on and not even just music, right, but don't have the TV on in the background. If you're working from home or if you're studying from home. Like that's not that's not what we do. This is not what we do. Absolutely not. Save it for a break.
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And then also working with earplugs in if you are in a louder environment, I just got myself a pair of loop elope. No, not sponsored, not affiliate, nothing. I just literally saw them. I think they came up on my Instagram and I was like, my gosh, those look awesome. They're cheap ceiling, but they're discreet and they work.
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And when I am working from home and my dog is licking his paws and I can't stand it anymore, and the neighbors landscapers are going, you bet Those loops are going in my ear and my focus just cranks to the max. Try it
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when auditory learners should design their study spaces to support auditory learning. That's obvious. So what does that mean?
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You should have a good set of speakers and you should have a good set of headphones. Next. Any time you can record something, something you're learning something you're listening to something that you're studying, something you're thinking about. You just walk out of a meeting and you don't have a pen and a paper to sort of process what it is that you just covered in the meeting, take out your phone, go into a closet and record your thoughts on the meeting so that you can process it.
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If you just took an online class, right, and the class is done and you log on to Zoom or whatever, and then you have thoughts on what you just learned, pick up your phone, record your thoughts on it, even if you never listen to it again, even if you never listen to what you record. Just the act of you recording and sort of working out your thoughts in the moment or right after the moment so valuable.
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And of course you're going to want to work where it's quiet. All right. That's not always possible. But if you're a student, then maybe not working in the kitchen counter at 630 when it's crazy loud or if you're in college, maybe not doing your homework in like the student center, maybe go to the library. If you're a working professional who works from home and home is loud, can you work from near home?
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Can you go to your local library for 2 hours just for some hyperfocus where it's it's dead quiet. Right? There are ways if we get creative.
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And lastly, consider having extra seating where you're working and studying. So even just one extra seat again, this is so that you can invite people to join you for your study session. You have your colleague join you for a collaborative brainstorm effort about some project that you're working on.
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Okay, You want your space to be able to if you if you can. I know there's limitations, everything, but if you can, you want to have your study space, our workspace, to have the ability to accommodate more people so that you can have conversation, so that you can process whatever it is that you're working on
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auditory. All right.
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Moving on to kinesthetic learners, kinesthetic learners, better understand process and recall information when they can somehow engage with it and do something with it, whether it's like some kind of physical a manipulation of the material and kinesthetic learners have several notable characteristics. I have a list, so I'm going to read them so I don't barter them. All right.
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Kinesthetic learners tend to prefer to move around well in their learning environments. So that could be like sort of like fidgeting. And if you're sitting in a chair, you kind of have your knee up or maybe you're like even squatting in your chair. Okay, Walking around, pacing around the office. A kinesthetic learners struggle in lecture classes where they're just sitting there for extended period of time, but they tend to do well in lab environment.
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So, you know, bio and things like that, or even jobs that are hands on jobs or in the field jobs or jobs that you're not just in a cubicle all day. Kinesthetic learners often prefer group work and partner work. They get bored easily. They remember what they did and not necessarily what they saw. They can be impulsive. So like blurting out answers and maybe get up too quickly.
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They enjoy trying new things, new routines, taking risks. They typically don't like reading instructions. I'd rather just jump right in and do the thing and figure it out. And then they require frequent breaks during activities. Okay, so if you were a student with kinesthetic strengths, you're going to want to use study methods that allow you to engage with the material to do something with it.
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So that could include using your hands while studying, making physical analog flash cards that you can lay out on the table and manipulate and not using something like digital flashcards like Quetelet, where you're just clicking a button to flip the card over. No, make them yourself, take them into a different room, flip them over, spread them out on a table.
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You can turn typical study methods into kinesthetic study methods. You can add a kinesthetic element to them if you want to. If you try and if you think to write study in groups, seek out new study locations so you can add a sense of novelty and then keep your study sessions short. And also summarizing your class notes can be an awesome study strategy or a learning strategy in general, not just studying, but learning.
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So you take your notes from class, right? Which may have been a struggle for you to take and then summarize them. You can do that by recording it orally, right? It doesn't have to be reading or writing, but that's a way for you to take your notes and do something with them, even if it's putting into a summary that's doing something with the material, finding additional examples and problem sets.
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Again, that's another way to practice whatever skill it is that you're learning in a way that you're doing something with it. And this works for all learner types, teaching someone else some material.
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Now if you are a working professional, consider doing walking meetings. Is that always practical? Absolutely not. But is it probably more practical than you think it is?
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Yes, it is. Even if you're walking around a building, right, you can make it happen. You want to use task management, not you want to. I shouldn't come across as demanding, but these are all suggestions and considerations and I'm just trying to educate about there's possibilities out there that sometimes we don't think about. Okay, so I never want to come across as you should.
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You must. That is not my angle. Not my angle. But you might want to consider a task management system that has moving parts. So maybe digital. Something like I personally use as part of my task management system something called Asana A, s A and a, and I have it set up where visually it's like a board and each task is like a card and you can kind of move it across the border into different like, I did it, I'm working on it, it's done.
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Okay, that's a visual kinesthetic combination, which is, which is awesome for my productivity. Maybe consider something like that. Okay. And then taking notes during meetings that's going to help you stay engage. A meeting is primarily auditory, and if you're kinesthetic, kinesthetic, an auditory learners don't tend to be there's not that much overlap there. And then of course, any strategies that I rattled off for kinesthetic students could help you.
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If you are a kinesthetic working professional who is, you know, engaged in professional development or adult education or something like that. All right. So let's talk about work and study spaces for kinesthetic learners. The main idea is to set up a study space that supports your physical engagement with the material. So firstly, that's going to involve space. Okay?
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If you're in a dorm or in your small office or you only have your bedroom, you're going to work with what you have. Okay? But if you have options, make sure that you're not confined to a teeny tiny space. You want to keep your materials portable. That's another strategy. So you're going to want to set up a work or study space.
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That's your go to space. Okay. But there's something magic about the ability to just get up and go and try a new space, right? So and that becomes easier if you have your office supplies or school supplies or the core essentials that you need that are portable and ready to go. Maybe it's a duffle bag or a canvas bag that's or a briefcase or a backpack or however you want to do it that just has like a backup charger, has a notebook, has your pens and pencils, has a drive in it, whatever you need, and you plop your device and go to a new study location or new work location for the day.
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That adds novelty, which is one of the ingredients of motivation. Use a standing desk as possible to prop up a computer. Yes, I know they're expensive, but I just got myself at standing desk for free off the what's it called? Like the buy nothing, you know, on Facebook, a beautiful standing desk for free. So there's ways and there's ways.
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Get a whiteboard, put it up on the wall, not a type that you hold in your lap so that you can stand and then use a chair that makes your body happy. Okay. We are moving on to the fourth and final learning preference. This is the read write learners. They like wri, read, write learners tend to better understand process and recall information when they are reading about it and or writing it.
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What are the characteristics of a read write learner? I have my list. They tend to take strong notes during class and meetings, benefit from annotating text, learn by reading textbooks and reference materials, enjoy writing essays and written responses and reports and things like that in the office. Emails and reports don't scare you. They prefer writing their answers versus speaking their answers.
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They typically maintain strong note organization and they are the list makers. Visual learners tend to be list makers as well. Okay, moving on. So whether you're a read write learner in school or a rewrite learner in the workforce, there are some key learning strategies that can support your efforts. Okay, students, if you're studying something from a textbook, okay, here's a strategy.
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Reread one small section at a time, look away, See if you can summarize what it is that you just read and then go back to that chunk of text that you just read and match what you verbalized. Or you could even write a summary as well to what it says in the textbook. This has to be a textbook.
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It can be notes or something like that
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that
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uses both reading and writing, writing out your answers to textbook questions. Even if you weren't assigned those textbook questions for homework, doing additional practice questions using the blurting method when you're studying, which involves just putting a concept at the top of a piece of paper and then blurting on paper everything you know about the topic.
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Make your own flashcards, rewrite your notes, read supplementary texts about what you're learning, and then sort information into groups, categories and lists. Okay, working professionals, what can you do? Take notes during meetings. Prepare for meetings by writing out your thoughts and ideas beforehand. So obviously there's a place for in-person conversation in the in the workplace. Yes, there is.
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But to prepare for conversations, maybe write out your thoughts before then. This one's my favorite. Consider writing yourself slips or standard operating procedures for tasks that you have to do, maybe infrequently, so you often forget the steps, right? So don't rely on your working memory. Write it out. Okay. Almost there. Let's talk about work and study spaces for read write learners.
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You don't need a fancy space. Work with what you have, but you do want it meet, you want it quiet, and you want a predictable place to work. Consider the following Stock your space with a variety of paper styles. So blank paper graph, paper lined paper, sticky notes, index cards. You want options, stock your space with various writing utensils, pens, highlighters, pencils, sharpies.
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Again, you want options. Protect your writing surface with one of those like plastic writing pads. Consider having a larger than usual monitor. If you're going to be doing a lot of online reading,
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make sure your work surface is big enough that it can accommodate your device as well as like an open notebook and perhaps another list beside you.
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And then use an adjustable chair so that you can make sure you're at the right height. If you're doing a lot of sitting and reading and writing, you need to make sure that, like all your angles are aligned, that matters. Okay, so today's episode was supposed to provide you with information that you can actually start implementing and using immediately.
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And remember, the point isn't, you know, whether we're calling them learning sales or learning preferences. The point is we absolutely we all have preferred ways of working with material that makes us feel like we have more control over it and can be more successful with it. That is the entire point of today's episode is to empower you with information about ways that you might best operate, and then to give you some ideas about what to do with that information.
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I really hope this is helpful. Remember in the show notes and in the description box, if you're watching this on YouTube, there is a link to a free learning style checklist that gives all this information. It'll be great for read write learners and visual learners for sure, but it puts all this information in a simple checklist so that you can read through it and it'll help you determine what type of learner you might be.
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All right. Thank you. Thank you for being here. And remember, remember, never stop learning.
