I have taken the VARK Questionnaire regarding learning styles, which has confirmed what I have long been told—that I am an aural or auditory learner. In other words, I learn and/or communicate best by listening and/or speaking. My personal preference is to obtain information from spoken sources or sources that I can hear. My ideal scenario involves the use of question and answer interactive sessions as a means of learning.
Armed with such knowledge about my auditory preferences, it is imperative that I approach learning with this in mind. I am one of those students who will need to attend class, as well as study and tutorial sessions, where I can listen to what is being taught and how this information is disseminated and processed by me and by others. I will also benefit from discussing issues and ideas with my peers and with my professors. As I have learned from earlier experiences, I also benefit greatly from explaining these new ideas to other people. It is a form of auditory reinforcement, through my own speech, that seals the lesson in my mind.
I am also well served by tools such as recording devices, or audiotaping, which enable me to go back and re-listen to a lesson for reinforcement of certain concepts. It is also helpful when I can make analogies or visualize certain things or descriptions, and paint such picture for a student or other person who might not have been present in my learning environment. Again, for me, it is hear one, learn one, teach one sequence that really helps to reinforcement my processing and retention of information.
Rote memorization does not come that easily for me, and as a result, I find that the art of re-listening, repeat discussions, and even repeating and/or teaching concepts learned to others, really helps to store the information in my personal memory bank. I also know that engaging in memory drill is important for me, testing both long and short term memory on a continual basis.
While I am prone to copious note taking, with lots of space and room left to fill in thoughts and ideas that might come to me upon re-listening or further discourse with teachers and peers, I could stand to improve somewhat in this area. I do tend to get very caught up in listening and perhaps less so at times, with processing, or putting such ideas down on paper. TO this end, I have started comparing my notes with others in my courses, which allows me to fill in information that I might have otherwise missed. I sometimes record my notes which again provides me with auditory reinforcement. Hearing and reading my summaries is helpful, as is the act of explaining the information to others, as needed.
At times completing reading assignments can present a bit of challenge, where my preference in to hear the information, as opposed to visually digesting such information. This is precisely where reading aloud, or even recording the written information and playing back, can have highly beneficial impact on the mastery of my subject material. This process also bodes well for me as I approach test taking time in each course. This is not ancient Greece or even law school, where we might be subject to oral or Socratic learning methods, and instead the vast majority of my tests are written on paper. I have learned to read questions silently to myself, even mouthing the words when needed. As a result, my test taking anxieties have eased considerably over time.
Not surprisingly, writing is work for me. While I enjoy seeing my finished product, getting there is not always easy for me, since communicating through speech is always going to be my preferred style. I have learned to make the writing process smoother and more effective for me by using outlines, and reading aloud the foundation for my written work. It is also helpful for me to compose my written work in discrete sections rather than all at once, and that is where the natural divisions of an outline are so helpful for me.
As an auditory or aural learner there is an absolute upside when it comes to what so many people absolutely dread doing—oral presentations. I would far rather speak about certain information, as opposed to writing about it. Again, as with my written work, I tend to use detailed outlines to create my presentation framework, and to keep me on task and headed in the most beneficial direction. I tend to write some of my final outlines using complete sentences, which I then read aloud, to myself, over and over again, reinforcing the information and making me increasingly comfortable with disseminating the subject matter to others. I find that these types of “rehearsals” per se, would also help less natural presenters, to quell any nerves or anxiety that might arise as a part of having to make an oral presentation.
As an aural learner, public speaking and presenting comes far more naturally to me than to some other people, and accordingly, I voluntarily seek such opportunities—far more than I would ever gravitate towards written work. The crossover between the two disciplines, written and oral, has been an important junction for me in my educational career thus far. As I seek and enjoy the opportunity to teach, tutor, or present, I also realize that every opportunity I have been given to do so, helps to reinforce my ability to process and retain information, and in turn, successfully communicate the same information in written form.
By forcing myself to outline, to rehearse, and to read my own writings, I have become far more confident in my approaches to writing, reading, and test taking. The most interesting thing I have found with this process, is what a positive impact identifying and working within one’s own learning style, can have on the learning experience as a whole.
