All students and teachers have a preference of how they would like information delivered and how they would like to deliver the information respectively. By using a learning style assessment tool such as VARK, students and teachers can recognize each other’s differences to create efficient and successful learning environments. “The acronym VARK stands for Visual, Aural, Read/write, and Kinesthetic sensory modalities that are used for learning information. Fleming and Mills (1992) suggested four modalities that seemed to reflect the experiences of the students and teachers” (VARK, 2017, para. 1). This paper will describe the learning style and strategies of the author, provide a comparison of actual learning strategies versus VARK suggested strategies, and articulate how the awareness of individual learning styles, preferences, and strategies can influence teaching and learning.
The most prevalent learning preference for the author is to learn via discussion. Whether the topic is at work, home, or school having a conversation about the information is the most successful way to retain it. It is also helpful to the author to have data depicted on graphs and diagrams while utilizing different colors and formats that are visually appealing. The most effective learning strategy is to create flashcards that are clear, concise, and use some pictures to convey information. Making flashcards that use different colors, shapes, symbols, and diagrams help the author to remember the information by using visual cues. It is also very helpful to practice the flashcards with another person or at least read them out loud to hear the information as well. When the author completed the VARK assessment tool the score was high in 3 categories Aural (9), Kinesthetic (8), Visual (7), Reading (2). This learning preference is described at multi-modal Visual, Aural, and Kinesthetic (VAK) since the score is distributed almost evenly across more than one preference. According to the VARK website there are